Democrats sneak attack on the CIA fails

While the nation was focused on the health care summit yesterday, the Democrats in the House of Representatives tried to launch a secret attack on our nation's intelligence officers.  John Hinderaker at Power Line explains:

While our attention was elsewhere, the Democratic Party launched a disgraceful sneak attack against our intelligence professionals. The Democrats attempted to subject anyone who interrogates a terrorist in a less than gentle manner--for example, by "exploiting the phobias of the individual," which refers to the notorious caterpillar in the cell--to 15 years' imprisonment. As usual, Andy McCarthy blows the whistle on the Democrats' perfidy:

[T]his shows how politicized law-enforcement has become under the Obama Democrats. They could have criminalized waterboarding at any time since Jan. 20, 2009. But they waited until now. Why? Because if they had tried to do it before now, it would have been a tacit admission that waterboarding was not illegal when the Bush CIA was using it. That would have harmed the politicized witch-hunt against John Yoo and Jay Bybee, a key component of which was the assumption that waterboarding and the other tactics they authorizied were illegal. Only now, when that witch-hunt has collapsed, have the Democrats moved to criminalize these tactics. It is transparently partisan.

The good news is that the Democrats' effort failed, perhaps because McCarthy blew the whistle. Congressman Peter Hoekstra says:

That Democrats would try to bury this provision deep in the bill, late at night, when they thought everyone's attention would be focused on the health care summit is a testament to the shameful nature of what they were attempting.

Republicans brought this to the attention of the American people, who were rightly outraged that Democrats would try to target those we ask to serve in harm's way and with a unified push we were successful in getting them to pull the bill.

The bill was inserted by Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-NY).  If you watched the health care summit, you may remember that Slaughter was the one who told the story about a woman who had to wear her dead sister's teeth.  From Politico:

House Rules Chairwoman Louise Slaughter attached the provision to the bill Wednesday over the objections of other House leaders, sources said Thursday night. Democrats tried to use a unanimous consent agreement to remove the amendment, Democratic sources said, but Republicans refused to agree and leaders had to pull the bill moments before its scheduled vote. The bill would have failed if the amendment had been included, sources said.

From Fox News:

One intelligence source described the debate as bizarre.

"You've really got to wonder what's going on here. The CIA no longer has a detention and interrogation program. That ended in January 2009 by executive order. It's over, so the need for this proposal is your classic head-scratcher," the source said.

The Rules Committee voted late Thursday to remove the amendment, and the bill will be voted on sometime Friday.

Former CIA chief Hayden recommends Theissen's Courting Disaster

Former CIA director, General Michael Hayden has written an insightful and glowing review of Marc Theissen's new book, Courting Disaster at the Daily Caller.  Hayden finds that the book is useful in that it sets the record straight on previously classified terror interrogation techniques used during the Bush administration.  But he seems most impressed with Theissen's treatment of the CIA interrogators:

Thiessen’s instincts for the broader audience seem to be on the mark. Acceptance and even support of the interrogation regime is higher among the general populace that it is among some political elites and that support has seemed to grow as more details of the program have become public.

All of this is good. These issues need to be joined and we need the wisdom of an informed public to help us.

But there’s something even better about this book. In the overheated rhetoric of today’s Washington, we have lost sight of the fact that this program was carried out by real people, acting out of duty, not enthusiasm.

In preparing President Bush’s September 2006 speech on the interrogation program, Thiessen got a chance to meet real CIA interrogators. These decent people told him candidly what they had done, why, how they felt about it and how they felt about the fellow human beings they interrogated. Thiessen recounts how one of the interrogators that I sent down to talk to him was dubbed Emir Harry (not his real name) by KSM.

Thiessen’s book has put a human face on Emir Harry and his associates. That’s a good thing. These people deserve better than to be stalked by the ACLU’s John Adams project or to be subject to a re-investigation of their past activities. For doing what they were asked to do, these quiet professionals are bearing the nation’s burdens still today and Thiessen has given them their due. And that alone would make “Courting Disaster” worth a read.

Indeed.

Pakistan state television: Taliban chief dead

Pakistan Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud is dead according to Pakistan state television.  According to a Fox News correspondent in Pakistan, intelligence sources confirm that Mehsud was injured in a U.S. drone attack around January 14th and subsequently succumbed to his injuries.  The Wall Street Journal reports:

If the latest reports of his demise prove true, it would be the second time in six months that American missiles have slain the leader of the Pakistan Taliban; Mr. Mehsud's predecessor -- Baitullah Mehsud (no relation) -- was killed in August by a U.S. drone.

Sunday's report also was not the first time Hakimullah Mehsud, who is in his late 20s or early 30s, was said to have died. For almost two months after he was named the leader of the Pakistan Taliban, an offshoot of the Afghan movement, Pakistani and U.S. officials insisted he had been killed in a power struggle for control of the group. The rumors didn't stop circulating until he held a small press conference in the tribal areas in early October.

Mr. Mehsud has since gone on to order a series of terror attacks on Pakistan's major cities. But he has also faced an onslaught from Pakistan's army in his home base, the South Waziristan tribal area.

At the same time, he has moved up the U.S. hit list. The U.S. attempts to kill Mr. Mehsud with missile strikes increased after the release in January of a video showing him with the al Qaeda double agent who blew himself up at an American base in eastern Afghanistan in late December, killing seven agents and contractors for the Central Intelligence Agency.

The CIA has had the difficult mission of protecting our interests abroad while simultaneously being undermined and interrogated by our own justice department, and impugned and second-guessed by the speaker of the house. The seven CIA casualties sustained in last month's homicide bomber attack in Afghanistan was second only to the eight killed in the Beirut embassy bombing in 1983.  It's been a tough year for the CIA.  Hopefully the elimination of the second Pakistan Taliban chief in six months portends a better year ahead for these brave Americans.