Out of the closet, spies!

Today Bill O'Reilly had his usual Friday column in the NY Post, which I would link to, but the Post website fucking blows, always has, and I'm becoming convinced, always will. Anyway, he covered this on his show, and here's a clip. Apparently there is an organization called The John Adams Project (not nearly as popular as Alan Parsons') which is going around trying to snap pictures of CIA officials who tortured. 

Now, I'm genuinely conflicted about this. Granted, anyone who tortured is an amoral monster. I'm sorry, but you are. I couldn't torture somebody no matter what (excluding Glenn Beck). And I do believe these people that did this torturing should be brought before a court of law. But, showing photos of potential torturers to potential terrorists just seems like a bad fucking plan. I'm sure it's more carefully thought out than Bill'O presents it, but still, seems a bit careless.

However, I also understand the frustration of people on the forefront of this war. The Government will not co-operate, it will never co-operate, they need the CIA too much; they know all the good secrets. But imagine you are a lawyer trying to find the truth of this torture debacle.  Unlike soulless douchebags like O'Reilly you believe passionately that Torture is wrong. How do you get information for your clients? Clients which presumably are innocent until proven guilty in accordance to our values and beliefs, correct?

But I'm getting sidetracked on an issue that can not be resolved (particularly on this blog, which I have on good authority is managed by a drunken asshole). The main thing here is that in his column, Bill O. complains that there is not the same amount of outrage with the John Adams Project as there was in the Valerie Plame case. Well, to be blunt, no fucking shit, Bill.

Valerie was outed because the Bush Administration was trying to discredit someone who disagreed with them. They were exuding EXTREME political pressure (i.e. ruining careers of government employess) to get a result they wanted, to get the WAR they wanted. A few zealous Americans running around trying to photo a few other Zealous (how else could you torture) Americans is hardly the Government. 

Further more, despite what I am sure is Bill'O and the Gang's fervent desire to link Obama to this mess, apparently the Government IS looking into this, according to Media Matters, which I'm sure Bill'O does not consider a legitimate source. 

The point is, once again, Bill completely misses the point. The outrage was over the Government exercising Extreme Pressure to get a bogus result they wanted. Many on the left, I'm sure, are not big fans of the CIA, but Many of us recognize their importance and do not want them killed. However, my compassion for the difficulties of their job does not necessarily extend to sociopaths willing to torture. Many serious people were saying then, and are still saying now, that torture does not work. The FBI, I believe, wanted no part of the torture, which partly led to the CIA handling this shit to begin with. 

Basically for a few years this country was led by a bunch of idiots who took '24' a Little Too Seriously, and I fear Bill'O is one of them. Should we be showing pictures of agents to terrorist suspects, probably not. Should we be outing CIA agents because they disagree with the Government rational for a war that might potentially... No, wait, DID kill thousands of people; NO. 

Anyway...