The Public Record, By Jason Leopold Aug 23rd, 2009 (see sig)

Three of the country’s former top counterterrorism interrogators and intelligence experts, are speaking out publicly in support of a wide-ranging criminal investigation into the Bush administration’s use of torture against “war on terror” detainees, and have also urged Congress to launch a separate probe to review how the policies that lead to torture were created.

Jack Cloonan, a former FBI security and counterterrorism expert who was assigned to the agency’s elite Bin Laden Unit, Col. Steve Kleinman, a career military intelligence officer recognized as one of the Defense Department’s most prolific interrogators, and Matthew Alexander, a senior interrogator for a special operations task force in Iraq whose team captured down Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, said ignoring clear-cut evidence of interrogation-related crimes would only lead to further law breaking in the future. Alexander uses a pseudonym for security reasons.

In an interview, Cloonan and Kleinman, both of who conducted interrogations of terror suspects after 9/11, also sharply disputed recent claims by former CIA Director Michael Hayden and Republican lawmakers that a criminal investigation would have a grave impact on intelligence gathering and may lead to another 9/11-type attack on the homeland.

[…]

Cloonan and Kleinman said Hayden and the GOP senators were sounding “false alarms” in an effort to keep serious crimes from being exposed and prosecuted. Cloonan, who retired in 2002 after more than 25 years in the FBI, said neither he nor the intelligence community believes that an investigation into torture will result in a threat to national security.

“What this is really about is cover your ass,” Cloonan said about the senators’ letter. “To suggest [intelligence gathering] will come to a screeching halt if there were an investigation is not accurate.”

Kleinman, who most recently served as a senior adviser on a Director of National Intelligence-commissioned study on strategic interrogation, agreed.

“I respectfully disagree profoundly with the assessment that any effort to look back would make us more vulnerable, Kleinman said. “In fact, we have to look back to show our utmost vulnerabilities.

“I’ve had the honor of testifying before four committees of Congress and I am always astounded at the profound political partisan politics that surround this issue. I’m a professional interrogator I have 25 years of experience in this and I don’t have any concern whatsoever that an investigation into how we conducted ourselves since 9/11 would in any way undermine our ability to continue gathering intelligence.”

Furthermore, Kleinman and Cloonan believe their colleagues in the intelligence community share their views. But many are unable to speak out publicly.

[…]

Cloonan, Kleinman and Alexander sent a letter Friday to the chairs of the House and Senate Intelligence and Judiciary Committees calling for the creation of a bipartisan commission to “assess policy making that led to use of torture and cruelty in interrogations.”

They wrote that if Holder appoints a special counsel it will mark an “important step forward” by reaffirming “the enduring power of our system of checks and balances.”

“The prohibition on torture in this country is unequivocal,” Cloonan, Alexander and Kleinman wrote. “To ignore evidence of criminal wrongdoing would incentivize future breaches of law.”

However, they added that an investigation and the potential for prosecutions “of individuals who violated anti-torture statutes alone…will not prevent policy makers from making similar mistakes in the future.”

“At the heart of the policy decisions buttressing interrogators’ use of torture and cruelty lay closed processes that have yet to be scrutinized with cool heads and wise counsel. Instead of putting in place the best policies for protecting American lives, policy makers ignored the advice of experienced interrogators, counterterrorism experts and respected military leaders who warned that using torture and cruelty would be ineffective and counter-productive.”

[...]

http://pubrecord.org/torture/3850/former-interrogators-criminal-probe/

You need Rage-ex? (see sig)

http://www.markfiore.com/files/rageex.swf

Newsweek's Alter Accuses the “Angry” Left Of Forsaking The “Moral Core” Of Health Care Reform (see sig)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/20/inewsweekis-alter-accuses_n_264374.html

The left does a poor job of using PolicySpeak to educate Americans capable of learning new information and taking advantage of the M$M's role as they perceive it. The Right does a far better job. George Lakoff offered some outstanding advice on this in regard to health care reform in a lengthy article in HuffPo today. (see sig)

The PolicySpeak Disaster for Health Care

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/george-lakoff/the-policyspeak-disaster_b_264043.html

In a phone call with the president today, religious leaders are pledging to get in the fight on a basis where lies and distortions won't play well.

Ed Show tonight:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/32483605#32483605

Letter from Top News Outlets Protesting Off-The-Record Briefings Sent to 600 Press Secretaries (see sig)

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1004004734

On today's Ed Show Howard Dean said he believes that there will be a strong public option in the final bill. Jonathan Alter does not dismiss the idea that an effective Co-Op couldn't be created.

Obama needs to forego bipartisanship with Howard Dean and Jonathan Alter (see sig)

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/32483251#32483251