Obama And Pandora's Box

From Director Blue:

The definition of Top Secret, when it is applied to military or intelligence information, is straightforward.

It is information classified at the highest level of sensitivity, "based on an assessment that it would cause exceptionally grave damage to national security if disclosed."

President Obama's recent decision to release Top Secret documents related to Enhanced Interrogation Techniques (EITs) was unique in the annals of American history.

The documents describe precisely how ten EITs could be used on several high-value Al Qaeda terrorists involved directly with the murder of 3,000 American civilians.

The EITs are similar to classified techniques that are utilized at SERE School, where Naval Aviators and other personnel are taught "Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape."

While most details are classified, some aspects of SERE school are publicly known. For example, SERE school includes the use of a very realistic POW camp.

Captured students are taken to the camp to begin the most stressful part of the training. 

The EITs used in the camp include sleep and food deprivation, waterboarding and other techniques identical to the ones used on Al Qaeda leadership.

The stress at SERE school is so difficult that a student drops, on average, 15 pounds of bodyweight.

Most of the school's training program is classified.

But Chief Warrant Officer Mike Durant is on record as crediting SERE with helping him survive ten days in captivity in Mogadishu, Somalia during the incident described in Black Hawk Down.

Former CIA Director General Michael Hayden made the talk show circuit today to express his strong opposition to the disclosure of these documents. In fact, the current DCI and four prior directors all staunchly object to the release of these memos.

"You will have agency officers stepping back from the kinds of things that the nation expects them to do," Hayden told Fox News.

Hayden stated that fully half of the information the U.S. government has regarding Al Qaeda came from these interrogations. 

Not one man or woman in the military or intelligence communities came forward to explain or rationalize the Obama administration's decision. Not one.

Only a couple of political operatives have attempted to defend the disclosure: Rahm Emanuel and David Axelrod.

Go read the whole thing.