Why All the Sudden Interest In Interrogations and Torture?

First, President Barack Obama (D-USA) stated that there would be no prosecutions of CIA officials for using “enhanced interrogation” techniques. Of course, the then changed his mind. Then the administration released the Office of Legal Counsel’s (from the Bush administration) memos on the interrogations. Except they released versions turned out to be edited, and missing the information saying that valuable information was received during these interrogations. Finally, the administration will now release more pictures of apparent prisoner abuse.

So, a couple of missteps here. First, the flip-flop, then the disingenuous release of the memos.

Of course, if there are investigations, one reasonable question is how far will they spread? We know Congressional Democrats were briefed on the methods and the results. So, Obama can’t use this as an indictment against the previous administration without tarring his own party, can he?

Yes, he can. And that’s exactly what he intends (or more likely, the DNC intends to do).

The Democrats have been running against George W. Bush (R-USA) since 1999. Around the beginning of 2005, they finally figured out how to do it correctly, and won elections in 2006 and 2008. They’re going to keep running against him until they start losing elections again. The point of this whole mess is to keep bringing up real or imagined failures or mistakes by the Bush administration. This will not be the last event like this we see. In fact, I expect to see many many more.

But won’t the splatter hit people like Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)? Yes, but it won’t be a big deal. First, the Democrats will make sure that there are no actual criminal proceedings, just endless investigations. A criminal proceeding would hurt Pelosi, but not an investigation. She’s the representative of a carefully gerrymandered Democratic district in California. Unless it’s proven that she attached electrodes to the testicles of prisoners herself, she’s safe as long as it stays out of criminal prosecutions. She might lose a few votes for an election cycle or two, but she’s not going to lose her seat. But the news will be national and will further impugn the reputation of George W. Bush, and by association, the Republican party. So, it won’t hurt Pelosi, but might hurt a Republican in a more purple or even blue district. That’s the plan by the DNC, and the Obama administration is just doing all it can to help.

Expect more of the same from President Hope and Change over the next 2 years at least, probably the next 4.