So a lot of people deserve credit for killing bin Laden: President Obama, the Navy SEALS and our military in general, intelligence gatherers, the previous administration, and many other people.

But you also gotta give credit to Debra Burlingame, sister of one of the victims of 9/11, who used her chance to meet President Obama yesterday to gently prod him over the indictments of CIA interrogators.

Remember, CIA Director Leon Panetta admits that the initial info that led to finding bin Laden came, in part, from “enhanced interrogation techniques” used on detainees.

So why then, the prosecution? Well, Debra noted the irony, and asked the Prez to press Erik Holder to end them.

Obama said he wouldn’t.

Which is poop.

To me, prosecuting CIA agents after bin Laden’s death is like the Packers trading Aaron Rodgers to the Panthers after winning the Superbowl.

That’s not exactly like going to prison, but it is the Panthers.

(And yes, I made a sports metaphor. I do know my baseball)

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I’ll try to make this short…last week I wrote about my concerns over the naming of a special federal prosecutor to re-examine the use of Enhanced Interrogation Techniques by the CIA. I have appeared on several radio shows since the article posted here at Big Hollywood and I was pleased to see over weekend former Vice President Dick Cheney say in a more articulate fashion almost every point I raised in the article EXCEPT one. 

Today my point is the LAW. I touched on it briefly in the article but no one seems to be discussing the LAW. Many on the left and maybe even some on the right are applauding the decision by Attorney General Eric Holder to name a special prosecutor. I only have one question: What crimes were committed? Those supporting the decision to name a prosecutor say, “torture.” 

 The federal statute can be found in Title 18 chapter 113C of the Federal Criminal Code and Rules. Section 2340 defines torture. Section 2340A says: (more…)

So in the latest New Yorker, CIA Director Leon Panetta says Dick Cheney’s biting criticism of Obama’s enlightened approach to terrorism suggests, “he’s wishing that this country would be attacked again, in order to make his point.”

Now Mr. Panetta is absolutely right about one thing: Cheney has been highly critical of the Obama Administration’s new tact toward terror. But that’s mainly because our new President has been so critical of the previous administration’s strategy, while now pretty much copying most of its key elements.

But after that, Panetta makes a fundamental error in his reasoning. See, he mistakes Cheney for a leftwinger. Remember, it was during the Bush Administration that the left milked the hell out of tragedy and calamity to make sure they won in November. Liberal bloggers never met a car bomb they didn’t front page, and lefty pontificators would wet themselves whenever an opportunity to portray our soldiers as seething barbarians presented itself. Hell, you remember the mini-industry of films made about how awful the Iraq war was. They failed miserably at the box office, but helped achieve a loftier goal: they pulled crisis out of success, cementing a win in November. (more…)