Michael Scheuer paints a scenario, where, in surprisingly good English, the captive quietly answers: "Yes, all thanks to God, I do know when the mujaheddin will, with God’s permission, detonate a nuclear weapon in the United States, and I also know how many and in which cities."  Startled, the CIA interrogators quickly demand more detail.  Smiling his trademark shy smile, the captive says nothing.  Reporting the interrogation’s results to the White House, the CIA director can only shrug when the president asks: "What can we do to make Osama bin Laden talk?"

Americans should keep this worst-case scenario in mind as they watch the tragicomic spectacle taking place in the wake of the publication of the Justice Department’s interrogation memos.  It will help them recognize this episode of political theater as another major step in the bipartisan dismantling of America’s defenses based on the requirements of presidential ideology.  George W. Bush’s democracy-spreading philosophy yielded the invasion of Iraq and set the United States at war with much of the Muslim world.  Bush’s worldview thereby produced an enemy that quickly outpaced the limited but proven threat-containing capacities of the major U.S. counterterrorism programs — rendition, interrogation and unmanned aerial vehicle attacks.

Now, in a single week, President Obama has eliminated two-thirds of that successful-but-not-sufficient national defense troika because his personal ideology — a fair gist of which is "If the world likes us more we are more secure" — cannot tolerate harsh interrogation techniques, torture or coercive interviews, call them what you will.  Surprisingly, Obama now stands alongside Bush as a genuine American Jacobin, both of them seeing the world as they want it to be, not as it is.  Whereas Bush saw a world of Muslims yearning to betray their God for Western secularism, Obama gazes upon a globe that he regards as largely carnivore-free and believes that remaining threats can be defused by semantic warfare; just stop saying "War on Terror" and give talks in Turkey and on al-Arabiyah television, for example.

Americans should be clear on what Obama has done.  In a breathtaking display of self-righteousness and intellectual arrogance, Obama told Americans that his personal beliefs are more important than protecting their country, their homes and their families.    (TOF)

The American people are conflicted over the issue of Torture.   Our security has not been weakned by the release of these memos.  The information was already availble in various reports.

The question of investigation or criminal prosectuion is not supported by a wide margin. 

There is a lot of complex issues and I would not want to be the attorney general.   This is a hell if you do or hell if you don’t.  Fire from the left and right.    

The conservative right supports Cheney/Bush .  Pointing the finger  at Pelosi doesn’t  matter.    Pelosi might have been briefed but she is not the issue.  Bush and Cheney were in charge and ordered the torture.  Pelosi would be an accomplice after the fact. Guilt by association ?