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Vengeance is Mine

Rich Galen

Wednesday April 22, 2009

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From the King James Bible, Romans 2:19

Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, "Vengeance is mine; I will repay," saith the Lord.

President Barack Obama is proving to be small, vengeful, and partisan when it comes to what used to be called the War on Terror.

Here's a timeline on the CIA Memo business.

On March 31, former Vice President Dick Cheney was interviewed by CNN's John King about the Obama Administrations policies toward the ~~War on Terror~~ Overseas Contingency Operations.

CNN quoted Cheney as saying President Obama "is making some choices that, in my mind, will, in fact, raise the risk to the American people of another attack."

In obvious retribution for Cheney's remarks, last week Obama released four memos which the New York Times characterized as "describing brutal interrogation techniques used by the Central Intelligence Agency," in attempting to gain information from captured terrorist following 9/11.

According to reporters Emily Pierce and Keith Koffler writing in Roll Call newspaper:

Appearing Sunday on ABC's "This Week," White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel said Obama believes that "those who devised policy ... should not be prosecuted, either, and that's not the place that we go." He quoted Obama as writing, "This is not a time for retribution."

Again, according to Roll Call:

Emanuel's statement was not an isolated slip of the tongue. On Monday, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs reaffirmed it.
Gibbs was asked during Monday's daily briefing why "the Bush administration lawyers" are "not being held accountable."
He replied, "The president is focused on looking forward, that's why."

To calm the waters at CIA, Obama trekked out to Langley for a visit which Reuters said "represented a swift bid by Obama to shore up CIA morale after he released last week classified Bush-era legal memos detailing the interrogation program."

The foolishness reached a new level yesterday when Obama apparently reversed himself by suggesting that yes, indeed, there might be prosecutions over the "enhanced interrogation techniques" employed by the CIA.

According to Reuters, Obama said he

"would not necessarily oppose an effort to pursue a 'further accounting' or investigation into the Bush-era interrogation program �
"The stance marked a shift for the Obama administration, which has emphasized it does not want to dwell on the past."

Obama was unable to stand up to the pressures of the Left - inside Congress and without - who are not the least bit interested in letting bygones be gone.

The latest indication of how Obama's vengeful decision to release the memos in the first place are going to cause him more trouble than they will cause Bush Administration officials came yesterday.

According to another NY Times piece, Obama's top intelligence official, Adm. Dennis C. Blair, wrote a memo which appeared to support the interrogation techniques.

"High value information came from interrogations in which those methods were used" he wrote, "and provided a deeper understanding of the al Qa'ida organization that was attacking this country."

The White House would do well to heed the caution in Romans and leave the vengeance to a higher power.

On the Secret Decoder Ring today: Links to the NY Times, CNN, Roll Call and Reuters. Also a pretty good Mullfoto from Nationals Park last night and a perfectly yukky Catchy Caption of the Day.

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