Posted by
Always To The Right on Friday, January 16, 2009 6:19:55 PM
The news here is that this isn’t news. Less than a week after the election, rumors were already swirling
that he was going to retain the option “in certain cases” to use
procedures not authorized by the Army Field Manual. Then the left got
him to back down on appointing John Brennan, who’d defended some of
Bush’s interrogation policies, as director of the CIA. I thought that
signaled the end of heart-ache for Andrew Sullivan, but no: Not only
might Brennan end up being placed in a supervisory role, evidently The One’s still flirting with a little presidential prerogative when it comes to especially “difficult” subjects.
Indeed. How is Obama upholding his vow to end harsh interrogations if
he’s not ending harsh interrogations? All he’s doing is scaling it down
from the level of official policy to an ad hoc contingency, which makes
it even more arbitrary and potentially abused. Exit question: The left
won’t cut him a break on this the way they will on, say, TARP;
absolutist opposition to harsh interrogation in whatever form, from
barking dogs on up, is now as central to “progressive” identity as
support for abortion is. How can he make them happy while still
preserving the option he needs for emergencies? He’s not going to risk
his reelection on being caught short-handed in a ticking-bomb scenario.