Did Brutal Questioning Pay Off? The Battle Heats Up

(NEWSER) - On foreign policy, it’s “so far, so good” for President Obama’s first 100 days, writes Peggy Noonan of the Wall Street Journal. (Domestically, “there are only so many ways to say ‘Oy.’”) But the torture debate appeared to catch the White House off-guard: "It was flat-footed, confusing." And releasing the memos probably forced the exhumation of an issue Obama reportedly—and wisely—wanted to keep buried. It should stay that way, Noonan argues. More»

(NEWSER) - President Obama today said he’d be open to the idea of creating a panel to investigate the Bush administration’s interrogation methods in the war on terror. Obama and his aides have been dismissing the idea for weeks, but today in a press conference with King Abdullah of Jordan, Obama sounded amenable, provided it was “done in a bipartisan fashion, outside the typical hearing process that can sometimes break entirely along party lines.” More»

Emails indicate Porter Goss agreed with the decision

(NEWSER) - Former CIA head Porter Goss agreed with the decision to destroy tapes of terror suspect Abu Zubaydah being waterboarded, email records obtained by the ACLU show. In one, the agency's top officer wrote that he "felt it was extremely important to destroy the tapes"—then added "PG, however, agreed with the decision." The emails also suggest Bush's top legal counsel, Harriet Miers, didn't know about the tapes and was "livid" when she heard, days later, that they'd been destroyed. More»

Former VP's defense of torture full of half-truths, falsehoods: Froomkin

(NEWSER) - Since leaving government, Dick Cheney has realized that TV and newspapers will report anything he says, writes Dan Froomkin for the Huffington Post, even though "he is a monstrous liar”—remember Saddam's WMDs? "After years of speaking in whispers, operating by proxy, and leaving as few fingerprints as possible," Cheney can't seem to shut up—and no matter what he's selling, the media "will fail to put it in any context whatsoever." More»

(NEWSER) - Dick Cheney lambasted Barack Obama today for his decision to name a special prosecutor to look into Bush-era terror interrogations. The move raises “doubts about this administration’s ability to be responsible for our nation’s security,” he said in a statement. “The people involved deserve our gratitude. They do not deserve to be the targets of political investigations or prosecutions.” More»