LOL with that one, Joan.

The CIA has waterboarded just three people -- Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-NashiriJoan. The most notorious of the three -- Khalid Shaikh Mohammed – was the mastermind of the 911 attack that took almost 3,000 innocent American lives. As a result of his waterboarding, he cracked -- and Operation Bojinka was foiled. This cold-blooded terrorist plot would have simultaneously blown 12 commercial airliners out of the sky while flying their routes between Asia and the United States. CIA Director Michael V. Hayden testified about all this on Capital Hill. And Khalid Shaikh Mohammed's confession on the Bojinka plot is now a matter of record.

So I ask you, Joan, how many thousands of lives did that waterboarding save? Was it worth it? If your daughter had been on one of those planes would it have been worth it then?

But alas, in your neat and clean, politically correct little bubble, it’s far more important to be able to say what you've said before -- "Torture is not moral, legal or effective." And yet, if we were to suffer another horrendous attack, I’m sure you’d be the first to demand to know why our government didn’t connect the dots. Pathetic.

BTW, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed also gave the order to cut Daniel Pearl’s head off. Not to mention the Bali bombing that killed or maimed over 400 people. The man should be executed. Torture is too good for him.

P.S. Thank you, President Bush, for keeping this country safe for the last seven years. I truly hope President Obama can make the hard choices it will take to do the same.

Obama only kicked the can down the road, Joan. His directive gives his administration up to one year to shut down Guantánamo. The reason for not closing it immediately? He has no plan for what to do with the prisoners. How’s that for foresight? Sounds more like a directive to spur the fawning applause of his base. Which it did.

The truth is, Obama has created a new interagency panel to review the status of all 240 prisoners and try to return as many as possible to third countries that will agree to take them. This was the same goal the Bush administration tried to accomplish with only limited success -- because, fact is, Middle Eastern nations simply don’t want these bad apples. Why Obama needs to learn this all over again is really rather disconcerting.

Obama’s order also directs that others be tried, either in criminal courts here in the United States or in U.S. military court under the Uniformed Code of Military Justice.

However, as Obama's new interagency panel undoubted already knows, trying detainees in criminal courts in the United States risks exposing secret intelligence procedures and operations, since these trials would, of course, be public.

And the Uniformed Code of Military Justice is really a Court Martial procedure designed for trying members of the U.S. military -- which really doesn’t make any sense.

That leaves us with U.S. military commissions, the procedure the Bush administration had been using to try Guantánamo detainees. And although this avenue has now been suspended, Obama IS leaving open the option of returning to such tribunals under revamped procedures in the future. So, not much may change from current Bush policy other than WHERE these terrorist suspects are detained and tried.

As far as Obama’s directive on torture is concerned, I suggest you read the fine print, Joan. Because his directive also creates a committee to study whether the Field Manual techniques are too limiting -- "when employed by departments or agencies outside the military." Robert Gates and Director of National Intelligence-designate Dennis Blair have been tasked with this study and are going to report back to Obama with "additional or different guidance for other departments or agencies."

As the WSJ reported today: In other words, Mr. Obama's Inaugural line that "we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals" was itself misrepresenting the choices his predecessor was forced to make. At least President Bush was candid about the practical realities of preventing mass casualties in the United States. The fact is, this "special task force" may well grant the CIA more legal freedom to squeeze information out of terrorists when it could keep the country safe.

Obama's final decision in these matters will, of course, remain a secret as a matter of National Security. I mean, even the far left has to realize that transparency can not apply to agencies of the intelligence community.

So enjoy your celebration, Joan. It only proves once again that you’ve failed to do your homework – you know, that thing that REAL journalists do.

According to the Washington Post, President Obama's choice for top U.S. spy declined on Thursday to call waterboarding "torture" just days after Obama’s attorney general nominee – Eric Holder -- condemned the interrogation practice as precisely that.

Michigan Democratic Senator Carl Levin pressed Obama designee Dennis Blair, insisting, "If the attorney general designee can answer it, you can too." But Blair refused to go any further than stating, “There will be no torture on my watch.”

Mr. Blair’s refusal also comes just days after Obama issued his new directive condemning torture.

Golly, Joan, didn’t Mr. Blair get President Obama’s memo?