When it Comes to Waterboarding, Obama has a Tortured Memory

There is no doubt in my mind, Obama came out and reversed himself on prosecuting the Bush administration on the use of torture for two reasons.

One, when Cheney came out and stated the Obama administration was being political when it released only parts of memos related to water-boarding, Obama became indignant.

The other reasons is; the issue of the U.N. statement that Obama's decision not to prosecute torture would violate International Law.

Since Obama is a "Basketball Jones" one should ask how high Obama would jump.

Looks like Obama is trying to jump pretty high, but he is doing it while passing the ball to Holder.

What is strange about the whole thing is; this issue about who knew what and when in Congress. There is talk that Pelosi knew about the water-boarding back in 2002.

I have to ask why the big deal?

The WaPo wrote an article about Pelosi and other Congress-peoples meeting with the CIA on the matter.

In September 2002, four members of Congress met in secret for a first look at a unique CIA program designed to wring vital information from reticent terrorism suspects in U.S. custody. For more than an hour, the bipartisan group, which included current House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), was given a virtual tour of the CIA's overseas detention sites and the harsh techniques interrogators had devised to try to make their prisoners talk.

Among the techniques described, said two officials present, was water boarding, a practice that years later would be condemned as torture by Democrats and some Republicans on Capitol Hill. But on that day, no objections were raised. Instead, at least two lawmakers in the room asked the CIA to push harder, two U.S. officials said.

"The briefer was specifically asked if the methods were tough enough," said a U.S. official who witnessed the exchange.

Did Obama forget that? How about this?

The lawmakers who held oversight roles during the period included Pelosi and Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.) and Sens. Bob Graham (D-Fla.) and John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.), as well as Rep. Porter J. Goss (R-Fla.) and Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan).

Individual lawmakers' recollections of the early briefings varied dramatically, but officials present during the meetings described the reaction as mostly quiet acquiescence, if not outright support. "Among those being briefed, there was a pretty full understanding of what the CIA was doing," said Goss, who chaired the House intelligence committee from 1997 to 2004 and then served as CIA director from 2004 to 2006. "And the reaction in the room was not just approval, but encouragement."

What is funny is you have the political hacks at the Democratic Underground who were up in arms about Nancy Pelosi.

A little irony that you could have Democrats being brought into the same investigation that Obama hinted at with the Bush administration.

Maybe Katie Couric should do an interview with Obama and ask Obama what newspapers he reads.

If I am not mistaken, didn't congress vote on the issue of water boarding in 2008?