http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVXM7nwRiWI

Today the President after consulting with Defense and Justice, has decided that releasing the photos would be counterproductive and endanger the troops. Promise expired, but good this time.

But that won’t sit well with the left … sooooo … there was this additional explanation for not releasing the photos … anyone want to translate for me … cause I just have no idea what the heck he is talking about.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nZBrifgtYo

This is the White House Press Secretary. I don’t know whether its the White House that is making this poor guy give these tortured explanations but … it’s just not conduct becoming a WHPS.

Here’s the President’s explanation a few hours later.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6Vp7YcdMsg

Interestingly once again Bush is brought up. The President reminds us from the get go this is Bush’s case. And when Gibbs was asked why the sudden reversal from the April decision to release the photos, Gibbs reminded reporters that they got the case from the last administration. Our people at Justice think we can win the case in court now(and block the release of photos), he said, where the last ones could not. Another variation on “Bush’s Fault.”. Should be a TV series at this point.

“What do you say to those, Mr. Vice President, who say that when we employ these kinds of tactics, which are after all the tactics that the other side uses, that when we adopt their methods, that we’re weakening security, not enhancing security, because it sort of makes a mockery of what we tell the rest of the world?” asked Schieffer.

“Well, then you’d have to say that, in effect, we’re prepared to sacrifice American lives rather than run an intelligent interrogation program that would provide us the information we need to protect
America.”

I refuse to accept Shieffer’s premise that we have adopted their methods.

Cheney did a pretty good job during the interview. What’s interesting is the left’s annoyance that CBS and other media outlets are providing the vice president an opportunity to speak. It just drives them nuts. Their media is inviting Cheney to come and speak!

On top of that, they are claiming that Cheney is somehow breaking protocol by not just slithering away into retirement. Did they forget that the Clinton family started the trend?

Others writing… Power Line, Hot Air, and Gateway Pundit, who all noted the zing on Colin Powell.

For those interested, here’s the video from Face the Nation.

Update (Jim): I have the specific portion of the interview here. The question is key, but Cheney’s answer is classic.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1A0mvwLuak

I’ve jumped in here only because so much has happened in the last 24 hours. First … the man the left loves to turn to (other then when he is running for President. He’s an old codger then) Senator John McCain on Face The Nation yesterday. Yes waterboarding is torture he mantians … but you cannot prosecute lawyers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRo6DRpGtj8

Next from Hot Air, an absolutely magnificent defense of interrogation techniques used by the CIA by Liz Cheney, daughter of the former Vice President. It’s not torture. Listen to how she repeatedly correct Norah O’Donnell on the record and stops the spin. Make sure you go there to get Allah’s take and see the entire debate. Worth it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6zlzBT_K64

Here is a video of a journalist being waterboarded. Does this look like torture to you?

Regardless of whether or not you think that this is torture, this whole thing is a non-issue. George Bush and Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld and Diane Fienstein and Chris Dodd and Hank Paulson,  will not be prosecuted for any crimes that they may have committed. Was the tax law applied equally to Geithner? My take, there are 2 sets of laws in this country, one for them and one for us.

LOOK BELOW THE VIDEO FOR MORE LINKS!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7u-Wk1aU-E

Another Journalist get waterboarded

Olberman offers $1000/sec. to Hanity for making good on his offer to be waterboarded

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxFBJf-SgFo

Fox News is reporting that  select Democrat Members of Congress were briefed on the enhanced interrogation techniques used by intelligence officers 30 times. Gateway has the story.

The first such briefing dealt with the interrogation of Abu Zubaydah, the Al Qaeda operations chief who ran the training camps in Afghanistan where the Sept. 11 hijackers were trained. Sources said California Rep. Nancy Pelosi, now the speaker of the House, attended the meeting with then-Rep. Porter Goss, R-Fla. (who later became CIA director), and she did not raise any objections.

A few hours ago Nancy Pelosi denied to knew anything … someone is lying. Period. This is the only video I have right now but I will switch it when better stuff comes in.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7Nss8Kc-LM

You really have to listen closely. The meeting she is talking about is with Porter Goss, who went on to run the CIA. Clearly by her admission here, she was told about enhanced interrogation techniques. But she now says she never thought they would use it. Laughable. The CIA tells you about an interrogation technique in the aftermath of 9/11, you don’t object but you don’t expect they will use the technique either. I was born in the morning but not yesterday morning.

Pelosi was the first to be briefed. They told her what they intended to do. She did not object. Case closed.

The jumping off point will be a Carl Levin report detailing the techniques used by intelligence officers. But as Senator John Ensign pointed last night on Hardball, while waterboarding may be off the table now, what CIA officers did at GITMO, can hardly be considered torture when put in context.

The smack down in this video clip comes early here, when Ensign takes the Levin report apart. Inflammatory!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hhynP7tNT0

On Thursday, Obama elected not to fight the release of the memos and stated he wanted to move beyond “a dark and painful chapter in our history.” It was done. CIA officials would not be prosecuted.

On Friday and Saturday, former CIA directors – including current director Leon Panetta – renew their objections to the release of the memos. The release of these memos would compromise future intelligence operations.

Administration spokespersons – but nobody from Obama’s intelligence staff – heads out to the Sunday morning talk shows to tell everyone that this is a good thing for America. Rahm Emanuel states, my emphasis added.

Asked if Obama believes that those who devised the policies should be prosecuted, Emanuel said “no“:

“Yes, but those who devised policy, he believes that they were — should not be prosecuted either, and that’s not the place that we go — as he said in that letter, and I would really recommend people look at the full statement — not the letter, the statement –in that second paragraph, “this is not a time for retribution.” It’s time for reflection. It’s not a time to use our energy and our time in looking back and any sense of anger and retribution.

Obama runs over to the CIA to shake some hands on Monday. Panetta lets them know that they can all still succeed at their job.

The White House sought to show that it is leaving the past behind by announcing that no CIA agents would be prosecuted for interrogations sanctioned under the Bush administration. Obama’s advisors also have suggested that the highest-level officials who authorized the practices will be immune.

On Monday night, former Vice President Dick Cheney calls for other memos to be released. They would show what intelligence was gathered and how well it worked to save American lives. Later that night, left wing groups are expressing their dissatisfaction that Cheney would not have a date with a firing squad.

By Tuesday, Obama had changed his mind.

“With respect to those who formulated those legal decisions, I would say that is going to be more a decision for the attorney general within the parameter of various laws, and I don’t want to prejudge that,” Obama said during a meeting with Jordan’s King Abdullah II at the White House.

Today – Wednesday – nobody knows what he’s gonna do next. Do readers understand how this is a clear example that Obama does not have the executive experience to run the Executive Branch of the greatest country in the world? They have no idea what they are doing.

Even if you simply describe these differences as some “mixed messages” instead of expired promises, that still shows how clueless this bunch is.

Hey - Jim’s got more posted just four hours ago with video.

So why, after sending out your chief of staff on Sunday and your press secretary on Monday, to make it clear that there would be no prosecution of those who formulated EIT policies, would Obama make a U turn and not only allow such prosecutions … but include President Bush in the mix as well. Why?

Here’s the clip I played on the show today from Charles Krauthammer. It’s politics, it’s a distraction, it’s … you guessed it … all about George Bush.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzWAu0KChT0

All Bush, all the time, and why? When you having nothing to offer yourself, or when what you offer is incredibly ineffective or naive (refer to Fidel Castro’s smack down of Obama just 48 hours after his famous Latin American apology) … best to fall back on your old fall back, “It’s W’s fault.”

Update: (Steve) Oh heck, I finished writing this recap and just saw Jim’s post above. Hey, two post for the price of none!

Ok … game on. The president today opened the door to prosecuting Bush administration officials who helped formulate and allow enhanced interrogation techniques at Gitmo (specifically waterboarding). And this afternoon Gibbs did not rule out including the President. Yikes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oullZCrwBgk

As to what changed? Gibbs did not do a very good job of answering the question, which is not unusual. Poor guy. Stuck between Barack and a hard place, that being Rahm Emanuel. This runs about 5 … but only for dramatic purposes … he says it all in the first minute.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5bvKmu9K-s

and here’s the bite from Rahm Emanuel, about 48 hours earlier. As the President made clear … he will not be prosecuting Bush Administration officials who formulated policy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_U6CZglHiw

What pushed Obama over the edge … maybe it was Dick Chaney himself who challenged Obama to release the results of the interrogation techniques.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzZFcWFxk8o

For more on this, Hot Air has a great summary of the change in policy. Or lack of change, depending on whether you decide to listen to anything anyone in the Obama Administration says.

We begin with video from Special Report on Fox News with comments from Bill Kristol. Bret Bair has a good one – the only thing we found new was the caterpillar in the box… nice.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7q_11_yw5-g

Next we have Blackfive – my favorite military blog – with some good media snippets plus this comment.

Faux Outrage. That IS the basic emote out of the WH these days. Why is it fake outrage? Because if it were real outrage, the WH would have changed something, ANYTHING, about how we conduct the war, intel operations, interrogations, a.n.y.t.h.i.n.g. And the left is going berserk over the President’s pledge to not seek charges against the CIA agents involved.

Caterpillars of black swallowtail butterflies can destroy crops in home gardens quickly. Watch out! If you click on this image, be forewarned.

Dale Carpenter over at Volokh Conspiracy has some interesting thoughts.

Torture, as prohibited by U.S. law, is treatment that inflicts “severe physical or mental pain or suffering.” But how do we know when a particular interrogation technique imposes “severe physical” or “severe mental” pain or suffering?

To answer that question, the 2002 Bybee memo released Thursday relies heavily on the lessons learned from a U.S. interrogation training program for military personnel called Survival, Evasion, Resistance, Escape (SERE). In SERE training, U.S. military personnel have been subjected to the very techniques proposed for suspected Al Qaeda agents — including the most extreme of the techniques, like extended sleep deprivation and waterboarding. The discussion is at pp. 4-6 in the Bybee memo. Basically, the memo says that the CIA has concluded based on consulting with SERE experts that these methods have caused no “severe physical or mental” harm to U.S. military personnel subjected to them.

Carpenter went on to mention the experience may well be different between SERE trainees and real detainees.

LGF noted the NY Times completely hyperventilated over the issue – not unexpected – and described them as frat house antics. Where have I heard that before? The Times piece used the word harsh in the headline.

Powerline and Gateway Pundit also chime in.

So – what has this accomplished – if anything?