Bush and C.I.A. Ex-Officials Rebut Torture Report (sort of)

[deminks]

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/08/us/politics/bush-and-cia-ex-officials-rebut-torture-report.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&smid=tw-nytimes&_r=0

WASHINGTON — A long-awaited Senate report condemning torture by the Central Intelligence Agency has not even been made public yet, but former President George W. Bush’s team has decided to link arms with former intelligence officials and challenge its conclusions.

The report is said to assert that the C.I.A. misled Mr. Bush and his White House about the nature, extent and results of brutal techniques like waterboarding, and some of his former administration officials privately suggested seizing on that to distance themselves from the controversial program, according to people involved in the discussion. But Mr. Bush and his closest advisers decided that “we’re going to want to stand behind these guys,” as one former official put it.

Mr. Bush made that clear in an interview broadcast on Sunday. “We’re fortunate to have men and women who work hard at the C.I.A. serving on our behalf,” he told CNN’s Candy Crowley. “These are patriots and whatever the report says, if it diminishes their contributions to our country, it is way off base.”

These are “really good people and we’re lucky as a nation to have them,” he said.

Former intelligence officials, seeking allies against the potentially damaging report, have privately reassured the Bush team in recent days that they did not deceive them and have lobbied the former president’s advisers to speak out publicly on their behalf. The defense of the program has been organized by former C.I.A. leaders like George J. Tenet and Gen. Michael V. Hayden, two former directors, and John E. McLaughlin, a former deputy C.I.A. director who also served as acting director.

(end snip)

I have speculated all along that someone in that misadministration had a jones for torture. We shall see, I hope.

[bemildred]

1. People who like to abuse generally have lots of prior experience on the receiving end.

And people also tend to favor the sort of abuse they thenselves were subjected to. Some people like to hit, some like to yell.

I don't think it was so much a jones for torture as such, as hate and a desire for revenge. Let's face it, 9/11 really showed just how feckless our National Security State really is, how incapable of defending us. They are good at killing, they are not good at protecting. And they are a vindictive bunch, you can see it in their discourse. It is full of violence and insults.

I like Cheney for the head torturer, that man has a lot of hate in him.