The folly of “enhanced interrogation”

…and most Neocon contributions to foreign policy and counterterrorism,  for that matter.

There's a very enlightening if all too brief interview with a long-time FBI counter-terrorism agent in The New York Times. It's a reminder of how common sense and tried and true law enforcement techniques really went out the window under Bush Jr. and the Neocon body snatchers that seized control of most of the Beltway after 9/11.

In particular, it discusses how one of the most embarrassing episodes in American diplomatic history was simply due to bogus intelligence provided by a torture victim recipient of Enhanced Interrogation.  We got suckered by the oldest and most obvious trick in the book, saying whatever it takes to make the pain stop.

Sadly, the Keystone Cops and crusading zealots who brought us these un-American and self-defeating "innovations" are often still manning the gates. (Washington is, after all, a place where abject failure doesn't necessarily hurt your career prospects if you're a ideological hardliner. Just ask Obama's economic team, which is made up of the the Wall Street financiers and bankers whose cronyism, intense hostility to the most minimal government oversight, short-term thinking and whose rank deification of the The Market are what wrecked our economy in the first place.) Makes you feel safe, doesn't it?