More of the Same from Lowenthal

The New York Times expands a little bit on the This Week interview with Obama yesterday. Mark Lowenthal pops up again. Why do they continue using this one source who is vehemently anti-torture investigation?

NYT: Obama Signals His Reluctance to Look into Bush Policies

Moreover, any effort to conduct a wider re-examination would almost certainly
provoke a backlash at the country’s intelligence agencies.
Mark Lowenthal, who was the assistant director for analysis and production at the C.I.A. from 2002 to 2005, said if agents were criminally investigated for doing something that top Bush administration officials asked them to do and that they were assured was legal, intelligence officers would be less willing to take risks to protect the country.
“There are just huge costs to the day-to-day operation of intelligence,” Mr. Lowenthal, now the president of the Intelligence and Security Academy, said of a potential investigation. He added that he saw no benefit to such an effort because, he said, the public was not clamoring for it.

What a surprise that the "assistant director for analysis and production" at the CIA would not want us to look into the activities of senior management! Do you think he's got something to hide?

Again - we are not talking about officers on the ground. This is about senior management, that complied and perhaps even actively cooperated with George W. Bush and his cronies as they set up their detention system and "special programs." This is about Cofer Black and George Tenet. And it is laughable that Lowenthal - who clearly demonstrates a great capacity to threaten and oppose the will of a President (or at least a President-Elect) - wants us to believe that the CIA is a wholly obedient servant to the President. When the President says jump, the CIA jumps. Except of course when it doesn't want to.

A full investigation of the CIA is necessary. Don't let Lowenthal fool you.

Update: D'oh. I wrote "Conrad" instead of "Cofer."