Yesterday President-Elect Obama said “And part of my job is to make sure that for example at the CIA, you've got extraordinarily talented people who are working very hard to keep Americans safe. I don't want them to suddenly feel like they've got to spend all their time looking over their shoulders and lawyering (ph).”

As the present Deputy Director of the CIA, and earlier as the Associate Deputy, then Deputy Director, of the DoO, Kappes is one among a fairly small pool of officials whose job it seems to me SHOULD'VE been looking over their shoulders, and lawyering, and making sure that what they were doing was sound practice and legal. Esp. for the sake of their staff. Did Tenet look at the torture memo in 2002 and ask for a second opinion? Or did he blissfully say “let's do it!” and act in the same bad faith shared by many other Bush officials? Why do Bybee's memos read “You have asked”? How did all of that happen?

I really want the CIA held accountable for being one of the primary players in our torture regime. At the very least Tenet deserves to have his ass handed to him. One of the reasons I didn't want Brennan to be the CIA Director was his personal connection to Tenet. I figured he would shield Tenet the way he has in the past (defending his memoir, etc.).

Feinstein doesn't care. She thinks the CIA just carries out orders. No concept of command responsibility. I don't see how it could possibly be that simple.

Yesterday President-Elect Obama said “And part of my job is to make sure that for example at the CIA, you've got extraordinarily talented people who are working very hard to keep Americans safe. I don't want them to suddenly feel like they've got to spend all their time looking over their shoulders and lawyering (ph).”

As the present Deputy Director of the CIA, and earlier as the Associate Deputy, then Deputy Director, of the DoO, Kappes is one among a fairly small pool of officials whose job it seems to me SHOULD'VE been looking over their shoulders, and lawyering, and making sure that what they were doing was sound practice and legal. Esp. for the sake of their staff. Did Tenet look at the torture memo in 2002 and ask for a second opinion? Or did he blissfully say “let's do it!” and act in the same bad faith shared by many other Bush officials? Why do Bybee's memos read “You have asked”? How did all of that happen?

I really want the CIA held accountable for being one of the primary players in our torture regime. At the very least Tenet deserves to have his ass handed to him. One of the reasons I didn't want Brennan to be the CIA Director was his personal connection to Tenet. I figured he would shield Tenet the way he has in the past (defending his memoir, etc.).

Feinstein doesn't care. She thinks the CIA just carries out orders. No concept of command responsibility. I don't see how it could possibly be that simple.