Another one bites the dust: Senate (D-isaster) Edition
Senator Udall just threw the Administration under the bus.
Senator Mark Udall (D-CO) may have lost his Senate seat to underdog candidate Cory Gardner in this November’s elections, but he hasn’t let that stop him from making some explosive statements on the Senate floor about the recently-released “torture report” detailing interrogation techniques used during the George W. Bush Administration.
Today, Udall called for the resignation of CIA director John Brennan, and lambasted the Administration for the apparent lack of accountability on the part of the CIA and other intelligence agencies who used the enhanced techniques the early Obama Administration promised to discontinue and investigate.
From The Hill:
“It’s bad enough to not prosecute these officials but to reward and promote them is incomprehensible,” Udall said on the Senate floor Wednesday. “The president needs to purge his administration.”
Udall reiterated his call for the resignation of CIA director John Brennan, saying he should no longer lead the agency because officials hacked into the Intelligence Committee’s computers during their investigation and deleted a file.
He also spilled some findings from the so-called Panetta review, which was not included in the Senate panel’s report but is expected to paint a damning picture of the CIA’s public statements about the interrogation program.
“Director Brennan and the CIA today are continuing to willfully provide inaccurate information and misrepresent the efficacy of torture,” Udall said.
“The CIA is lying. This is not an issue of the past, this is going on today.”
“To date there has been no accountability for the CIA’s actions or the actions of Director Brennan.”
Udall criticized Obama, saying he has failed to live up to his campaign promises about transparency and accountability for the CIA’s techniques.
“The White House has not led on transparency, as then-Sen. Obama promised in 2007,” he alleged.
Whether Udall is frustrated following the loss of his Senate seat, or legitimately frustrated with the actions of Administration, remains to be seen. But I think it’s significant that he’s using the last few weeks of his term to speak so forcefully on an issue that implicates not only President Obama, but high ranking officials in the Administration as well.
Udall’s words are galvanizing the positions of Republicans who support the release of the report, including Senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Rand Paul (R-KY), who are using their floor time to push for more transparency in the war on terror.
If Democrats’ goal is to solidify the battle lines going into the last two years of their control of the White House, Udall’s statements won’t help clarify their messaging on who the bad guys are.
And by “bad guys,” I of course mean, “Republicans.”
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Comments
Udall has been pounding the table about these issues for a while. Whether that is good or bad I leave to others to determine, but he’s not new to the subject and that’s just a fact.
Will this really matter? There are innumerable crimes this POTUS and his ‘henchpersons’ have committed and they will get away with 99.99% of it.
Welcome to the national example of the “Chicago Way” where everything is rigged.
Heads we win… Tails YOU lose!
Frankly, Udall never was influential, even before he became a lame duck.
He’s been a mind-numbed robot doing the bidding of Reid and Obama since taking office. If he ever had an original thought, he’s kept it to himself.
Good riddance.
Thing is, with the exception of Democrats and rabid libertarians, nobody really cares. This doesn’t even rise to the level of tempest in a teacup.
What’s he all worked up about? I thought the ‘War on Women’ ™ was Uterus Udall’s cause celebre.
I’m probably going to be chastised for this, but in my view if these interrogation techniques uncovered information that saved the lives of troops or innocent civilians, they were justified! We are in a fight for our basic moral values and a way of life that is anathema to the Islamic Supremacists who have declared war on us. They hate our freedoms and subscribe to a Code that goes against everything we hold to be right and true; a few water-boardings cannot be compared to bodies hung on a bridge and burned, or heads sawn off living aid workers.
It’s entirely possible that my views are not sufficiently civilized, but they do not fall to the level of pure evil and 7th century barbarism practiced by our enemies. If torture works, then torture away! “Empathizing” with these murderers will only end with our own dhimmitude.
Waterboarding doesn’t come close to real torture. Real torture is having to listen to Diane Feinstein for more than 10 seconds…
I’m all for torturing these bastards. Real torture, and making sure they know we’ll do it.
And no, it doesn’t make us just like them.
Maybe someone with a legal background could review the legal definition of torture then comment on the enhanced interrogation techniques.
I guess Obama wasn’t the only one who’d have more flexibility after the election. Shitload of lame duck Dems thanks to Obama. Now they shall thank him.