Ex-CIA Agent In Hot Water For Going Public With U.S. Torture Practices

Logan Murphy, Crooks and Liars: CNN:

The CIA asked the Justice Department to investigate whether former operative John Kiriakou illegally disclosed classified information when he talked about the waterboarding of a terrorism suspect, government officials say.

That revelation has prompted new calls for investigations on Capitol Hill.

The Bush administration appeared in U.S. District Court on Friday to answer a
judge’s questions about the tapes’ destruction.

Speaking to CNN last week, Kiriakou said that U.S. interrogators drew valuable information from al Qaeda captive Abu Zubayda by “waterboarding” him. But Kiriakou said the procedure amounts to torture and should be stopped. Read on…

Certainly took them long enough to come after Kiriakou. Whenever others have come out with information that is damaging to the administration, the smears start almost immediately. Larry Johnson points out that Kiriakou never actually witnessed waterboarding, but just a sweet face to make the idea that we’ve waterboarded palatable. So as that useful tool for the Bush administration, I don’t know that anything will come of this investigation.