Nancy Knew, Durbin Postures

Nancy knew. WaPo:

In September 2002, four members of Congress met in secret for a first look at a unique CIA program designed to wring vital information from reticent terrorism suspects in U.S. custody. For more than an hour, the bipartisan group, which included current House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), was given a virtual tour of the CIA's overseas detention sites and the harsh techniques interrogators had devised to try to make their prisoners talk.

The CIA limited the technique to 3 of the worst terrorists (remember, these were the bloody beheaders and masterminds of terror):

U.S. officials knowledgeable about the CIA's use of the technique say it was used on three individuals -- Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks; Zayn Abidin Muhammed Hussein Abu Zubaida, a senior al-Qaeda member and Osama bin Laden associate captured in Pakistan in March 2002; and a third detainee who has not been publicly identified.

But that was then, this is now:

"In fairness, the environment was different then because we were closer to Sept. 11 and people were still in a panic," said one U.S. official present during the early briefings. "But there was no objecting, no hand-wringing. The attitude was, 'We don't care what you do to those guys as long as you get the information you need to protect the American people.' " Only after information about the practice began to leak in news accounts in 2005 -- by which time the CIA had already abandoned waterboarding -- did doubts about its legality among individual lawmakers evolve into more widespread dissent.

Well, she doesn't care about protecting the American people now, she just cares about scoring political points. Chris Muir's cartoon caps it off.

And Sen. Dick Durbin, (Big Dem Dog About Town -IL) postures about the destruction of CIA interrogation tapes (to protect the identities of clandestine agents from becoming al-Qaeda targets--who, by the way, risk their lives rather than being in love with the sound of their own voices). More on the agent who destroyed the tapes.

Funny how Democrats have no compunction about revealing the identity of undercover agents, retired or not, when it's to their advantage. Ah yes, there were leaks to the press. Hmm, isn't that why the CIA destroyed the tapes?

Hey Nancy and Dick, are you volunteering for the interrogation job?

UPDATE: Related stories here and here about prosecuting terrorists.