Torture

Jose Rodriguez, a former National Clandestine Service chief at the CIA, recently made the case that the search for Osama bin Laden was long, hard, and full of twists and turns.

"As we mark the anniversary of Osama bin Laden’s death, President Obama deserves credit for making the right choice on taking out Public Enemy No. 1," Rodriguez wrote in the Washington Post. But also, the former spy argued, credit should be given to the CIA and former President George W. Bush and his administration.

"[G]etting bin Laden was the top counterterrorism objective for U.S. intelligence since well before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks," Rodriguez wrote. "This administration built on work pain­stakingly pursued for many years before Obama was elected — and without this work, Obama administration officials never would have been in a position to authorize the strike on Abbottabad, Pakistan, that resulted in bin Laden’s overdue death."

Rodriguez later adds: "With some trying to turn bin Laden’s death into a campaign talking point for Obama’s reelection, it is useful to remember that the trail to bin Laden started in a CIA black site — all of which Obama ordered closed, forever, on the second full day of his administration — and stemmed from information obtained from hardened terrorists who agreed to tell us some (but not all) of what they knew after undergoing harsh but legal interrogation methods. Obama banned those methods on Jan. 22, 2009."

The Washington Free Beacon made this video from clips of a 60 Minutes interview of Rodriguez, called "Big Boy Pants: Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice."  

Should the press publish the names of American officials who have interrogated captured al Qaeda operatives?