Something New

My past three posts have been on the same statement by Leon Panetta - that he would with no hesitation seek "additional authority" from the President if he thought it was required in a "ticking time bomb" situation.

Later I want to address Jeff Stein's blog post up now, Former Head of CIA's Bin Laden Unit Contradicted Panetta Testimony. The contradictory testimony of Michael A. Scheuer is here. There are quite a few interesting pieces of testimony (some of it demonstrably false), for example when Scheuer says "I have said that I personally don’t think that torture is a very good idea in terms of getting information. I also said that I don’t care if it happens."

To which Representative Markey replies:

Mr. MARKEY. I appreciate that. You know, Wernher von Braun used to say, you
know, my job is to get the missiles in the air. Where they come down is not my
responsibility. And so I mean taking that approach of course has a certain
exculpatory—self-exculpatory—but it doesn’t in and of itself, though, deal with
the essential, you know, theological question here, which is whether or
not a moral wrong is being engaged in.

It's not a new struggle.