After spending weeks trying to convince the country that the U.S. only found Osama bin Laden because Khalid Sheik Mohammed was waterboarded, Senate Republicans finally had an opportunity to demand CIA Director and future Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta talk about how awesome torture is. Only they barely broached the subject, and even then only between effusive praise for his tenure at the CIA:
But yesterday there were no confrontations over the role torture played in getting bin Laden, and few questions regarding interrogation. Despite the fact that Texas GOP Sen. John Cornyn’s spokesperson had said the senator would “insist in the confirmation hearing that Leon Panetta answer questions about enhanced interrogation techniques and the ongoing investigation of CIA operatives by the Justice Department,” Cornyn didn’t even bring interrogation up. Most of the questions regarding interrogation came from Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.), who was fixated on whether or not the CIA was allowed to “take the lead” in interrogations involving the government’s Interagency High-Value Detainee Interrogation Group. Panetta simply said that which agency “takes the lead” depends on the context and repeated his assessment that the HIG process “works pretty well.”
While Republicans on the Senate Intelligence Committee will get their opportunity to question Gen. David Petraeus about interrogation during hearings on his nomination to be CIA Director, if anything, his prominence makes him an even tougher target than Panetta. This was a remarkably anti-climactic conclusion to a confrontation torture dead-enders insisted would prove them right. Just weeks ago, Republicans were putting up a furious fight trying to “prove” torture lead the U.S. to bin Laden — yesterday they didn’t even bother to make the argument. Granted, the facts weren’t on their side, but that’s never stopped them before.
They did ask him about it in his written questionnaire, but the issue of interrogation was dealt with very little and wasn't even mentioned in the context of catching bin Laden.
