Photo: Leon E. Panetta, joined by his wife, Sylvia, and Joseph R. Biden Jr., in Langley, Va.(Stephen Crowley/The New York Times)From New York Times:
LANGLEY, Va. — Visiting the Central Intelligence Agency to swear in Leon E. Panetta as the agency’s 19th director, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. said Thursday that the Bush administration’s detention and interrogation policies “gave Al Qaeda a powerful recruiting tool.”
Considering the setting — the C.I.A. lobby where several hundred agency employees greeted the vice president with cheers — Mr. Biden’s remarks implied a tough judgment on parts of the agency’s record under the previous administration. He stood in front of a marble memorial wall, where 89 stars represent C.I.A. officers who have died in the line of duty.
Mr. Biden spoke of executive orders that President Obama issued on his second full day in office to close the Guantánamo Bay detention camp in Cuba, require the C.I.A. to use the same noncoercive interrogation methods as the military and report all detainees to the International Committee of the Red Cross.
Considering the setting — the C.I.A. lobby where several hundred agency employees greeted the vice president with cheers — Mr. Biden’s remarks implied a tough judgment on parts of the agency’s record under the previous administration. He stood in front of a marble memorial wall, where 89 stars represent C.I.A. officers who have died in the line of duty.
Mr. Biden spoke of executive orders that President Obama issued on his second full day in office to close the Guantánamo Bay detention camp in Cuba, require the C.I.A. to use the same noncoercive interrogation methods as the military and report all detainees to the International Committee of the Red Cross.
Read more ....
My Comment: During President Bush's term in office, the CIA was a place of leaks and disinformation when it came to implementing White House policy and/or undermining policy. Let us see if the same will occur under an Obama administration.
Mr. Biden spoke of executive orders that President Obama issued on his second full day in office to close the Guantánamo Bay detention camp in Cuba, require the C.I.A. to use the same noncoercive interrogation methods as the military and report all detainees to the International Committee of the Red Cross.
Read more ....
My Comment: During President Bush's term in office, the CIA was a place of leaks and disinformation when it came to implementing White House policy and/or undermining policy. Let us see if the same will occur under an Obama administration.