Its one of those news days. First, the Senates report on torture was released. I clicked on a link that took me to a Fox News discussion where one woman (I have no idea who any of the people were since I dont watch television) said that such a report should be prepared but never made public. Hmmm. I know we dont live in a real democracy (not in a real republic either, any longer), but Im not comforted when a News Person says the government should hide its immoral actions from its citizens. Move along now. Nothing to see here. The second thing that happened is that Rick Santorum is running for president again. I dont suppose well see him say anything negative about the CIA. Maybe, like the other panelists at Fox, hell say the report on torture should be ignored because The Other Party issued it. Of course, his own party never would issue such a report because its bigwigs, like Santorum, dont like where the buck might stop. I dont really care which party was behind the report. I dont care about scoring partisan points. I just want to know what happened. As Sgt. Friday used to say, Just the facts, maam. If what the report says is accurate--if hideous tortures were inflicted (about a fifth of them on people who apparently were guilty of nothing) and not one whit of useful data came from those tortures--then somebody (President? Congress? Secretary of Health and Human Services?) needs to go over to Langley, drag out absolutely everyone who in any way was complicit in this stuff, and cart them off for arraignment, after having removed them from the payroll and all security clearances. If this is what the CIA does (probably still does, even though the events in the report happened some years ago), the place needs a cleansing and an exorcism. Imperial Rome had a Praetorian Guard. It turned out not to be a good thing to have. One of the emperors should have gotten rid of it early on due to its lawlessness. Maybe something similar needs to be done with the CIA, before it becomes a law unto itself. I can imagine, if nothing is done, that sometime in the future a president with sense (we havent had one for several decades) may have to right things by having Army tanks roll into Langley and take the place by force. Yes, we need to gather foreign intelligence, but at what price? Is nothing beyond the pale? What does it profit a country if it gains security but loses its own soul?
Posted on: Wed, 10 Dec 2014 05:42:45 +0000
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