Don't Hastert Counting Your Eggs
AP via Yahoo is reporting that Frist and Hastert want hearings into the leaking of classified information regarding US torture prisions in Eastern Europe as reported by the Washington Post (reg req'd, or if you want to Lexis it, the article is "CIA Holds Terror Suspects in Secret Prisons" by Dana Priest, Nov. 2, 2005.)
I'm not too eager to offer the GOP advice on how to run their party, but if they do hold hearings, it'll be quite a blunder. In DC talk, the hearings are meant to scare the daylights out of anyone who is thinking about leaking classified info harmful to the administration. However, given the topic of THIS particlar leak, the hearings will do nothing more than keep in the public eye our covert policies that are about as American as actually voting on election day (read: they're not very American). Furthermore, this will work wonders in getting other ocuntires to give us a helping hand in Iraq.
Bottom line: While the potential of hearings may scare off an agent or two from leaking information, the more consequential result will be to keep discussion going of a topic that the administration would much rather forget. Remember, "We don't torture." Case closed. The end. Move on.
I'm not too eager to offer the GOP advice on how to run their party, but if they do hold hearings, it'll be quite a blunder. In DC talk, the hearings are meant to scare the daylights out of anyone who is thinking about leaking classified info harmful to the administration. However, given the topic of THIS particlar leak, the hearings will do nothing more than keep in the public eye our covert policies that are about as American as actually voting on election day (read: they're not very American). Furthermore, this will work wonders in getting other ocuntires to give us a helping hand in Iraq.
Bottom line: While the potential of hearings may scare off an agent or two from leaking information, the more consequential result will be to keep discussion going of a topic that the administration would much rather forget. Remember, "We don't torture." Case closed. The end. Move on.
posted by Armen Adzhemyan at 11:28 AM
3 Comments:
Speaking of public hearings, Edley is having a "town hall meeting" tomorrow. Any chance it will be live-blogged here for those of us who can't make it?
"Remember, "We don't torture." "
They can say these things with a straight face because they believe in the legal theory laid out by your good buddy John Yoo, according to which they can pull out a person's fingernails and it isn't legally torture.
BTW, read the post on Balkin about Yoo and how remarkably similar his theories are to those of Nazi apologists:
http://balkin.blogspot.com/2005/11/return-of-carl-schmitt.html
Actually, Buxbaum once pointed this out to me long before anybody posted a blog entry on it.
My bet is that they think someone on the left did it - such as a Senate Democratic staffer or an out-of-favor leftie in the State Dept. I'd be very surprised if they started pulling on a thread without having an idea as to where it would lead.
Note also that today Bush announced the new "hit back" strategy against the Dems on Plamegate (i think Scootergate sounds better).
Bet you an overpriced mocha at Zeb that this second investigation will turn out to be an attempt to create a mirror-image Plamegate with a Democrat playing Scooter - all in the hopes of blunting the impact before midterm elections next year.
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