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Last April Nancy Pelosi sparked a furor when she claimed that the CIA was always lying to Congress. She also claimed that she was briefed by Bush administration officials on the legal justification for using water boarding, but they never told her the technique was actually being used. It was Nancy Pelosi version of "I tried it but I never inhaled." "In that or any other briefing we were not, and I repeat, were not told that waterboarding or any of these other enhanced interrogation techniques were used. What they did tell us is that they had some legislative counsel...

AUGUST 28, 2009 The Fall Guy CIA Director Leon Panetta getting sacked by his own team. By KIMBERLEY A. STRASSEL In the game of political football that is today national security, spare a thought for CIA Director Leon Panetta. Quarterbacking is hard enough without getting sacked by your own team. President Barack Obama fought hard for the former California congressman during his uncertain February confirmation fight. That's about the last thing the president has done for his spy chief. Quite the opposite: If the latest flap over CIA interrogations shows anything, it's that Mr. Panetta has officially become the president's...

WASHINGTON — The US Central Intelligence Agency will pay the legal fees of any officers involved in a government probe of alleged abusive interrogation techniques, the Washington Post said Friday. CIA Director Leon "Panetta will do everything he can to ensure that anyone who needs legal representation has it, whether they have liability insurance or not," a senior intelligence official was quoted as saying. "It's a question of fairness. People who did tough jobs for the country won't be left by the side of the road." Some, but not all, CIA agents working on controversial assignments take out personal liability...

In the game of political football that is today national security, spare a thought for CIA Director Leon Panetta. Quarterbacking is hard enough without getting sacked by your own team. President Barack Obama fought hard for the former California congressman during his uncertain February confirmation fight. That's about the last thing the president has done for his spy chief. Quite the opposite: If the latest flap over CIA interrogations shows anything, it's that Mr. Panetta has officially become the president's designated fall guy. The title has been months in the making. Mr. Obama is contending with an angry left that's...

In an at-times-disjointed interview (no fault of his), Pat Caddell gets to the nub of the Justice Department conundrum: is Eric Holder running the administration, or is the president disingenuous when he denies responsibility for reactivating the investigation of CIA detainee-interrogation cases? Caddell goes after both Holder’s handling of the Black Panther case (dismissing a default judgment in an obvious case of physical intimidation of voters) and the naming of a special prosecutor to look at alleged detainee abuse—a move directly contrary to the president’s plea to look forward, not backward. Caddell favors the “rogue attorney general” theory. Andy McCarthy...

BILL O'REILLY, HOST: In the "Impact" segment tonight: controversy still raging over Attorney General Eric Holder's decision to appoint a special prosecutor to look into alleged CIA abuses in the interrogations of about a dozen terror suspects. ABC News is reporting that CIA chief Leon Panetta confronted some high-level White House people and even used obscenities in the heated discussion. Joining us now from ABC News headquarters in New York, the chief investigative reporter for that outfit, Brian Ross. So we're hearing it was Rahm Emanuel that Leon Panetta went toe to toe with. Is that what you're hearing? BRIAN...

I’m hearing a very credible rumor that Leon Panetta has dispatched a resignation letter to Barack Obama on vacation. Panetta is said to be extremely angry about the possible prosecution of CIA officers doing their job and has decided to resign in protest. The rumor is unconfirmed, but given the sourcing I think it is safe to treat it credibly.

Our friends at Restate are hearing credible rumors that Leon Panetta is quitting over the proposed procecution of CIA operatives. If this is true, kudos to Leon...

On Monday the Obama administration released a 2004 CIA inspector general's report on the agency's detention and interrogation program. Yesterday, the New York Times reported some gruesome abuses on its front page, above the fold: "Excessive physical force was routinely used, resulting in broken bones, shattered teeth, concussions, and dozens of other serious injuries over a period of less than two years, a federal investigation has found. . . . [D]espite rules allowing force only as a last resort. 'Staff at the facilities routinely used uncontrolled, unsafe applications of force, departing from generally accepted standards,' said the report." Actually, these...

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration will continue the Bush administration’s practice of sending terrorism suspects to third countries for detention and interrogation, but pledges to closely monitor their treatment to ensure that they are not tortured, administration officials said Monday. Human rights advocates condemned the decision, saying that continuing the practice, known as rendition, would still allow the transfer of prisoners to countries with a history of torture. They said that promises from other countries of humane treatment, called “diplomatic assurances,” were no protection against abuse. “It is extremely disappointing that the Obama administration is continuing the Bush administration practice...

I don’t often quote James Carville, but on the decision to name a special prosecutor to look at criminal charges against CIA operatives who utilized enhanced-interrogation techniques, he is certainly worth hearing. His main concern is the political blowback that may ensue from the decision to go after the CIA: Well, the first thing is this is terrible politics for the Obama administration and Democrats. The country—having said that, people go out and give speeches about we’re a nation of laws and somebody in the justice department actually believes that and they believe they’re warranted to open a preliminary investigation...

Well, it looks like President Obama has finally decided to take a side in the "Who's it gonna be boy, us or them?" contest of wills between Leon Panetta's Central Intelligence Agency and the rest of the executive (and parts of the Democratic-dominated legislative) branch. Yesterday's decision by Attorney General Eric Holder to appoint a special prosecutor to look into alleged abuses of captured Al Qaeda leaders by CIA interrogators seems to completely contradict President Obama's earlier reassurances of no action to be taken against those CIA employees. At the time, it was clear that polls showed the public had...

There is now just one group of people exempt from President Obama's worldwide ban on torture: the men and women of the CIA. By authorizing Attorney General Eric Holder to appoint a special prosecutor to determine whether a full criminal investigation of CIA employees and contractors is warranted for the manner in which they interrogated captured terrorists, the President has thrown his power and support behind those far-left ideologues --  in Congress and elsewhere -- who believe that the CIA is a bigger threat to our country than al Qaeda. I know the men and women of the CIA --...

A new "elite interrogation unit", that President Barack Obama has appointed to quiz terrorism detainees, will apparently be run by CBS News anchor Katie Couric, rather than the Central Intelligence Agency. If the report from anonymous sources proves accurate, the former NBC "Today" hostess, would head up the High-Value Detainee Interrogation Group, or HIG, under the president's National Security Council. Detainee-questioning sessions would be filmed before a live studio audience in Burbank, California. "The president wants to ensure that these folks receive all the protections the U.S. Constitution affords other citizens," said White House press secretary Robert Gibbs. "We can't...

A "furious" Rep. Peter King, the hawkish, maverick Long Island Republican, blasted a "disgraceful" Eric Holder for opening an investigation of CIA interrogators and chided his own party for what he described as a weak response to the move in an interview just now with POLITICO. "It’s bulls***. It’s disgraceful. You wonder which side they’re on," he said of the attorney general's move, which he described as a "declaration of war against the CIA, and against common sense." "It’s a total breach of faith, and either the president is intentionally caving to the left wing of his party or he’s...

President Obama has decreed that from now on terrorists, after their interrogation, are to be released and given a "cash for klunkers" trade in so they can drive home. Below is a picture of the U.S. Navy complying with Obama's new order. This would be a good idea.

In December 1917 Bolshevik Russian leaders, including one of the founders of Socialist thuggery Vladimir Lenin, established the Cheka—Russia’s first political secret police. With almost unlimited power, the Cheka implemented “campaigns of terror” against the wealthy, land owners and those who opposed Lenin and Bolshevism. !n 1922, once most of Russia’s opposition to their new absolute rulers had lessened, the Cheka was disbanded. However, under the singularly oppressive Josef Stalin, Cheka was reinstated and ultimately renamed “The People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs” (NKVD) and what would be known as Stalin’s “Great Terror of the 1930s began. The NKVD was used...

Former vice president, top Republican senators criticize decision to begin a new criminal probe of past interrogation tactics. Cheney said, "the people involved deserve our gratitude."WASHINGTON -- Top Republican senators said on Monday they were troubled by Attorney General Eric Holder's decision to begin a new criminal probe of past interrogation tactics used by the CIA during President George W. Bush's war on terror, and expressed concern it could hamper U.S. intelligence efforts. A newly declassified version of a CIA report revealed Monday that CIA interrogators once allegedly threatened to kill the Sept. 11 attack mastermind's children and suggested another...

If the left wing of the left wing of the left wing in American life doesn't control most of the Obama farmstead's best and richest acreage, it could be time for new spectacles -- since things surely look that way. Attorney General Eric Holder's decision to go after the CIA has all the earmarks of policy designed to make left-wing hearts palpitate. What other purpose could it possibly serve? Not that of national security or common sense. I have written deliberately "go after the CIA," notwithstanding the demurral of newly appointed special prosecutor John Durham, which concerns the supposedly "preliminary"...

You heard about AG Eric Holder appointing a special prosecutor to investigate CIA Interrogators, but did you miss this quiet little story yesterday? Team Obama released another terrorist from the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. They simply let him go. Even offered him a ride back to Afghanistan! They sent him back to his family near the place where he attacked U.S. Soldiers! Here are some details from Fox News: "the administration released Mohammed Jawad to his home in Afghanistan. Jawad had been accused of throwing a grenade in 2002 that injured two U.S. soldiers and their interpreter in Kabul....