Sunday, April 29, 2007
surrender, but don't give yourself away:
So that's what we get from George Tenet: a personalized and generic mea culpa. Scott Pelley asked Tenet if CIA interrogators or surrogates tortured Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Abu Zubaydah or other high-value al-Qaeda detainees, something which is fairly well substantiated at this point. Tenet, unable to moderate the tone of his voice, repeated again and again that "we don't torture people" ... only to make a lengthy exculpation -- you have to remember the pressure I was under; word of the next attack was accumulating me; we had already lost 3,000 Americans; walk a mile in my shoes -- for any torture that may have occurred. If Tenet's book is anything like his 60 Minutes interview, expect it to lead to the water's edge of confession but rarely dip a toe into true disclosure.
--Spencer Ackerman