Obama gets euphoric CIA welcome
Published: April 20, 2009
Updated 7 months ago
LANGLEY, Virginia (AFP) – President Barack Obama Monday heaped praise on the CIA, telling employees not to be discouraged by his release of stunning details on the agency’s harsh terror interrogations.
The president got an enthusiastic reception as he gave a speech at the agency’s headquarters, just days after releasing secret memos on Bush-era questioning of terror suspects derided by critics as torture.
“Don’t be discouraged by what’s happened the last few weeks. Don’t be discouraged that we have to acknowledge potentially we have made some mistakes — that’s how we learn,” Obama said.
“But the fact that we are willing to acknowledge them and then move forward, that is precisely why I am proud to be president of the United States and that’s why you should be proud to be members of the CIA.”
Obama’s visit coincided with fresh revelations about the repeated use of waterboarding, or near drowning, on up to 266 occasions by CIA interrogators against two top Al-Qaeda terror suspects.
Last week, the president released a series of Justice Department memos detailing harsh techniques, including waterboarding, sleep deprivation and even the use of insects, endorsed by the previous administration of George W. Bush.
The move, in line with a court order, exposed Obama to fierce attacks from across the political spectrum.
Former Bush administration officials warned he had tied the hands of the agency for the future, damaged individual agents who carried out the questioning or offered a propaganda tool to US enemies.
Human rights groups were furious though that Obama simultaneously ruled out prosecutions of CIA operatives who carried out interrogations that they view as torture, by reasoning agents were acting on orders to defend their country.
The former head of the Central Intelligence Agency, Michael Hayden, warned on Sunday that the release of the documents could still leave agents vulnerable to civil lawsuits or congressional probes targeting CIA operatives who relied on the Bush-era memos to carry out harsh interrogations.
“There will be more revelations. There will be more commissions. There will be more investigations,” he told the TV program Fox News Sunday.
This is an agency, he added, “that is at war and is on the frontlines of defending America.”
The harsh interrogation techniques, Hayden insisted, had succeeded in combating al-Qaeda and saving American lives, something he characterized as “an inconvenient truth.”
Obama showered praise on the agency operatives who operate in the shadows and have played a new and more vital role since the September 11 attacks in 2001.
“I want you to know how much the American people appreciate your service,” Obama said.
“Sometimes it’s hard to acknowledge sacrifices made by the people whose work or even identity must remain secret, and that’s part of the enormous burden that you carry when you sign up.”
Obama’s visit coincided with revelations that CIA interrogators waterboarded al-Qaeda’s September 11 attack mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and another top suspect, Abu Zubaydah, on multiple occasions.
The use of the near-drowning technique on the two suspects was contained in the small print of a Bush-era Justice Department memo released by Obama last week and highlighted by the New York Times Monday.
The document, dated May 30, 2005, revealed that “waterboarding” was used 183 times on Mohammed during March 2003 and at least 83 times on Zubaydah in August 2002.
Those totals amount to far greater use of waterboarding than has originally been reported and may give further ammunition to those who see the technique as torture and an ineffective way of eliciting information.
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WHY IS OBAMA MAKING THE SAME ARGUMENT TO IGNORE OUR LAWS THAT BUSH AND CHENEY MADE TO VIOLATE THEM?
I am a staunch Obama supporter…….It’s not “looking to the past” to ENFORCE the LAW. Since WHEN is NOT enforcing the law an acceptable option in AMERICA? It is “ignoring the law” to choose to ALLOW LAWBREAKERS TO GO UNPROSECUTED FOR THEIR CRIMES. Since WHEN is the POLITICAL ramifications of prosecution an acceptable or relevant argument?
WHERE does President Obama draw the line when it comes to IGNORING illegal acts? Is it EVERYONE in AMERICA who broke the law during Bush’s/Cheney’s reign; or is it ONLY those who were active participants in AIDING and or ABETTING Bush and Cheney? Since WHEN is someone who aids and abets a crime not subject to CRIMINAL prosecution?
The precedents that President Obama would set in failing to hold Bush administration appointees and or employees legally accountable for their illegal actions if FAR MORE DANGEROUS TO AMERICA’S FUTURE than whatever POLITICAL COST we might pay.
How can a Constitutional Law Professor advocate IGNORING the reasons that America was founded as a NATION OF LAWS instead of a NATION OF MEN?!
President Obama is WRONG to PREVENT the prescribed enforcement of our laws. In making the argument that “we have more pressing matters to consider”, he is making the SAME ARGUMENT to IGNORE our laws that the Bush administration made to VIOLATE them. The ends DO NOT justify the means!
First comment was very well stated. I think it’s about time that we who made the apparent mistake of supporting and voting for Obama start considering that this is malice on his part, not simple avoidance. The “lover of the Constitution” has evidently tricked us all quite well.
where did my comment go ?
i think the obama hate is a bit strange. the guy stopped the torture, he is releasing memos… i want to give hiim a chance and see what else he has up his sleeve. a lot of the torturers were not CIA agents per se, they were contractors and such. i think it is too soon to be so harsh on Obama, before we see what he is up to behind the scenes with his strategy.
Obama works for the same masters as did Bush. He’s CFR. He’s Bilderburger. Get a clue. The illuminati agenda continues. Obama is a traitor just like Bush. It’s sickening.