Obama spokesman announces interrogation unit

[Turborama]

Source: AP

By Steven R. Hurst and Devlin Barrett 7 mins ago

WASHINGTON – A presidential spokesman says Barack Obama has approved creation of a new, special terrorism-era interrogation unit which will be supervised by the White House.

Deputy White House press secretary Bill Burton told reporters covering the vacationing Obama on Martha's Vineyard, Mass., that the new unit does not mean the CIA is now out of the interrogation business.

Burton said Monday said that the new unit would include "all these different elements under one group," and it said that it will be situated at the FBI headquarters in Washington.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090824/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_cia_interrogations

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An interesting implication from further down:

"Obama campaigned vigorously against President George W. Bush's interrogation policies in his successful run for the presidency. He has said more recently he didn't particularly favor prosecuting Bush administration officials in connection with instances of prisoner abuse. But the issue now before Holder for consideration would have the new administration do precisely that: reopen several such cases with an eye toward possible criminal prosecution."

[Solly Mack]

1. K&R

[enlightenment]

2. 'Supervised by the White House'?

Is that a good idea?

[nyc 4 Biden]

3. I agree, that doesn't sound right.

Under which department will this unit be?

[EFerrari]

14. NSC, which iirc, has less oversight than the Pentagon or CIA.

:shrug:

[Turborama]

4. Self delete

Moved it to the OP.

[EFerrari]

13. I don't see how it can be. It seems like asking for trouble to me.

Maybe I just don't understand what the upside is.

[ohio2007]

16. SS ? nt

[No Elephants]

18. The CIA is in the Executive Branch. In theory, everything in

the Executive Branch is supervised by the WH. Or, as Truman put it, "The buck stops here."

[rocktivity]

5. I hope this means there will be no more Office Of Special Plans

or rouge assassination squads. Interrogation isn't the problem; ILLEGAL interrogations are. The President IS the commander-in-chief, after all.

:headbang:
rocktivity

[enlightenment]

7. Commander-in-Chief of the military - not the nation.

It's that whole 'We the people' thing. We elect a President to lead us - not to rule over us.

[JDPriestly]

6. I hope this means that we will set the right course in interrogation ant

treatment of prisoners. How can we be a beacon of hope for the world if we cannot treat our prisoners humanely? We need to be strongly opposing torture everywhere in the world. And to do that, we must first oppose torture in our own ranks.

[Tim01]

8. Shouldn't the word "secret" be in here someplace. Bush 2.0

The Whitehouse will have it's own secret interrogation unit. Will this special unit be part of that famous Obama transparency? Of course not. Transparency is for other presidents.

Rightwing crazies, not quite as crazy after all. Almost, but not quite.

[frog92969]

9. I can't get the word Gestapo out of my mind.

But I've been "shock and awed" into seeing Nazis behind every tree for years now.

[mustardman]

10. Watch Faux more

That will cure you of what is left of your sanity.

[frog92969]

15. I don't do Rupert

Just PBS, DemocractNow!, and sometimes MSNBC.:P

[Tim01]

11. I know exactly what you mean. nt

[Vidar]

12. Maybe they can hire Lyndie England & Sarah Palin in the name of bipartisanship.

[ohio2007]

17. your link was changed to a different story

Obama spokesman announces interrogation unit
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9A9BLTG0&show_article=1