The CIA Report:This Was Not the Time

It's fair to say that reasonable people can disagree over the release of a CIA interrogation techniques report by Senate Intelligence Committee chaired by Dianne Feinstein (S-CA). Already there is disagreement over whether the Bush administration was fully advised by the CIA as to what they were doing. Bush is standing by the CIA and refusing to scapegoat them while Dick Cheney says the White House under Bush was fully briefed. There is disagreement over how successful the enhanced interrogation techniques were.

 At any rate, this is what the current president and the Democrat-controlled Senate wanted. So now it is out there.

If there was indeed wrongdoing and the enhanced interrogation techniques are judged to be wrong in the wake of 9-11, that is one thing we can argue about. The problem I have with the release-at least at this point in time-is this:

Already, experts are predicting that this is going to lead to the deaths of Americans serving overseas. Our embassies and consulates are now on a high stage of alert as are our military forces overseas. That in itself shows that the government knew of the potential for violence once this report was released. They did it anyway. Thus, if one American embassy or consulate is attacked in the coming days or weeks and one American is killed, send your letters to the White House and Dianne Feinstein.

There are times that countries must look back at their actions and debate whether they were justified. Doing so when you are still in the midst of a war against terrorism is not the time to do it. Doing so when you expect that it will result in attacks against our diplomatic posts is not the time.