Fungi, you missed the point. I was not in disagreement with the legality of the methods used. My point of contention is with the publication of the memos. It undermines current and future LEGAL CIA work since there is no guarantee another "wise" president won't publish such memos in the future after declaring other techniques illegal.
What was Obama's objective with this but to increase his popularity and have people say "look how much better he is". A wise president would have handled this matter privately. The law was fixed. What's the point of jeopardizing future CIA work?
What Obama did was extremely wrong whether one morally and legally agrees to the techniques used or not. Think about it from the CIA agent's perspective. During his service when he performed those techniques they were legal. That is very important.
Obama outlawed waterboarding when he came into office. By publishing the memos now he's politicizing the national security for short term popularity gains at the expense of long term national security risks.
How abut a current CIA agent who might be reluctant to perform currently legal interrogation techniques (or anything else required of their jobs) for fears that a future president might out that? Has Obama thought of that?
And you guys said he was smart...
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