The Senate Is Done Investigating Torture. Will Drone Killings Be Next?

National Journal ^ | 12/15/2014 | Lauren Fox

[SeekAndFind]

In the aftermath of the release of the Senate Intelligence Committee's torture report focused on Bush-era techniques, the Obama administration's own counterterrorism practices are coming under increased scrutiny.

Gruesome details of forced rectal feedings without medical necessity, waterboarding, and sleep deprivation were chronicled in the report's executive summary, dredging up harsh practices employed during the George W. Bush administration. But on Capitol Hill, Republicans charge that the Central Intelligence Agency's approach to counterterrorism has not grown more humane—it's merely shifted.

"Obviously, we don't interrogate prisoners anymore," says Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., who chaired the Intelligence Committee during the Bush administration. "Now all we do is kill them."

President Obama's targeted killing program has been one of the more confounding strategical decisions of his presidency. For liberal supporters who voted to elect a constitutional-law professor in 2008 and a candidate who had campaigned against harsh interrogation practices like waterboarding, it would have been hard to imagine that just years later they'd see a president who keeps a "kill list" of suspected terrorists.

As Republicans prepare to take leadership over the Senate Intelligence Committee, the panel's oversight work will shift from spending considerable resources to ensure the release of the backwards-looking torture report to a committee that incoming Chairman Richard Burr, R-N.C., said will deliver oversight in "real time."

"We are not going to be looking back at a decade trying to dredge up things," Burr said about his future on the committee, just before Feinstein released her report.

Members of Congress are divided over whether the president's highly secretive drone-strikes program needs more congressional scrutiny. Some criticize the program's legal rationale, while others have concerns about killing combatants who may have valuable information.

[shove_it]

RATS, RINOS & MSM will determine it’s Bush’s fault.

[Starboard]

One thing we can be certain about: Republicans won’t leverage any short-lived advantage that they have in the senate to hold Obama responsible for anything.

Another thing we can be sure of: They will squander the next two years and pave the way for a Democrat comeback.

[jimpick]

I wonder if this whole thing is about a threat to the incoming GOP. You investigate us we will do the same to you. Way to many things could be investigated by the GOP. Real criminal acts not this BS crap.

[OftheOhio]

I kept wondering what possible motive would Feinstein have releasing this information with less than a month to go before she leaves her position. There had to be a reason, apparently the president has given her marching orders so to focus the lawyers on Guantanamo Bay. What a sneaky evil traitor this man is. What’s it going to take for this country to wake up. Impeach now.

[Ray76]

The Senate Intelligence Committee was aware at the time and now condemns. This is Diane Feinstein’s revenge for the CIA “spying” on the Senate Intelligence Committee.