DNI Confirmation Hearing: A Ton of Rapid-Fire Right-Wingery
Sen. Kit Bond (R-Mo.) makes Dennis Blair run a right-wing gamut of questions on torture. Should the intelligence community be on the offense in the war on
Sen. Kit Bond (R-Mo.) makes Dennis Blair run a right-wing gamut of questions on torture.
Should the intelligence community be on the offense in the war on terror? “Absolutely.”
Is the detention/interrogation program effective? “I’ll have to look into it more closely.”
Does the executive order on interrogation make the Army field manual a guide to getting around interrogation? “I very much share the concern that we not turn our manual into a training manual” but “we want to make the Army field manual … uniform across the agencies.”
But but but if it’s public, won’t you be giving too much information today? “Senator, we face this dilemma all the time in the military … We’ll figure this one out … Specific techniques we will handle much more carefully.”
Immunity for telecoms that took part in warrantless surveillance? Blair doesn’t answer.
Patriot Act expirations? “Those provisions came into force fairly recently … We’ll be gathering data as we go … I’d like a chance to digest all that.”
What’s the appropriate role of the DNI? “Concepts of leading and managing are the core concepts there, and this has to be … more than just signing a piece of paper and putting out a glossy brochure. Has to be working on the incentives down to the organizations so that people who do their jobs are promoted and people who don’t are moved out.”
How important is prosecuting leakers of classified information? “If I could ever catch one of those [leakers], it’d be very good to prosecute them. We need to make sure that people who leak are held accountable.”
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