Have Some Cheese With That Whine

Poor Michael Hayden. The current Director of the Central Intelligence Agency has had to face the fact that the CIA just isn't as powerful as it once was, thanks primarily to the decision to give the Pentagon more spying power and an enhanced budget to go with it. Complicating matters further is the fact that even the American public is beginning to question the CIA's methods. So, in an action typical of those serving the White House, Mr. Hayden has raised the specter of Al Qaeda (gasp!) and 9/11 (horrors!) if people just don't lay off. From an article in the Los Angeles Times:

CIA Director Michael V. Hayden said Friday that the agency's ability to pursue al-Qaida and other terrorist networks is being hampered by declining political and public support for aggressive methods that the CIA has used in interrogations and other counterterrorism operations. ...

Hayden's speech, timed to coincide with next week's anniversary of the Sept. 11 strikes, is part of a broader offensive by top U.S. intelligence officials to protect the expanded resources and authorities they were given nearly six years ago. ...

Speaking at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York City, Hayden provided new details designed to tamp down what he characterized as damaging misconceptions about the agency's interrogation and "rendition" operations.

In particular, he disclosed that the CIA has transferred fewer than 100 prisoners to other countries through the rendition program, which critics have contended has led to detainees being tortured in such nations as Egypt and Uzbekistan. ...

Hayden also vigorously defended the CIA's use of secret overseas prisons and "enhanced" interrogation methods, saying that it would undermine the CIA's capabilities if it were to be constrained to the stricter interrogation guidelines adopted last year by the U.S. Army. [Emphasis added]

Oh, well, that does make a difference. The CIA broke international and national laws on kidnapping and torture only about a hundred times, blackening our nation's reputation in the world to the point that we are considered in the top three of the most dangerous nations. People should just shut up, should just quit criticising the CIA.

Of course, the real villain in Mr. Hayden's eyes is a familiar one: that damned liberal media.

Hayden also devoted a significant portion of his speech to criticizing the media for disclosing secret U.S. intelligence operations. In recent years, news accounts have exposed details about surveillance operations and the CIA's constellation of secret overseas prisons.

Here, Mr. Hayden, is a quarter: go buy yourself a clue.