GETTING THEIR POUND OF FLESH

The Obama administration has just announced that Attorney General Eric Holder has appointed a prosecutor to investigate the abuse (torture) of prisoners by the CIA. This comes after the president had previously said that he did not want to drag up the past.

So much for another one of Obama’s phony pronouncements. Does anyone in their right mind believe that Holder would initiate an investigation of CIA anti-terrorism tactics without the president’s approval? Does anyone doubt that, in this case, the real goal of the Obama administration is to see what former top ranking Bush administration officials they can pillory before the public?

Obama and Holder must have no shame! The 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center and on the Pentagon were unprecedented. Never before in our history had 3,000 civilians been killed by a foreign terrorist attack. The terrorists were celebrated throughout the Muslim world and they promised further attacks on the United States.

The prospects of further attacks called for extreme measures. There is no doubt the CIA broke the law by torturing suspected terrorists. But CIA interrogators did not do so with criminal intent. They did it because they believed that by subjecting terrorist prisoners to waterboarding and other harsh methods they would be able to obtain information needed to prevent any further attacks on our country.

Former Vice-President Dick Cheney, no doubt, is one of the primary targets of the Obama administration’s investigation. In attempting to justify his support for the CIA tactics, he claims they succeeded in stopping several terrorist attacks on our soil. True or not, that has nothing to do with the controversy raised by the investigation.

Cheney had this to say about the CIA interrogations: The people involved deserve our gratitude. They do not deserve to be the targets of political investigations or prosecutions. President Obama’s decision to allow the Justice Department to investigate and possibly prosecute CIA personnel, and his decision to remove authority for interrogation from the CIA to the White House, serves as a reminder, if any were needed, of why so many Americans have doubts about this Administration’s ability to be responsible for our nation’s security.

Ok, so they broke the law, but they did it with the best of intentions. Those that want to get their pound of flesh out of the Bush administration will tell us that the end doesn’t justify the means and that lawbreakers must be brought to justice. Ordinarily I would agree, but these were far from ordinary times. Our country was under the threat of further terrorist attacks.

It would have been enough for the Obama administration to ensure that we would never again resort to the torture of prisoners, no matter the circumstances. But they had to go after their pound of flesh. There is little to be gained by dragging up the past other than to satisfy the left-wing’s lust for the blood of top officials in the former Bush administration.

The investigation of the CIA and those who authorized the abuse of prisoners, and any prosecutions that may ensue, will end up endangering our troops overseas, bolster Islam's war against the West, and cause more harm to our country’s standing in the international community. Thanks a lot Mr. President and General Holder.