Post story bolsters Cheney

Politico

The Washington Post leads today with an extraordinary story cutting against the conclusions of a series of recent government and media reports to cast as straight news -- with a few hedges and qualifications -- that waterboarding and sleep deprivation worked like a charm to turn Kalid Sheik Mohammed from an enemy into an "asset."

The story -- which seems sure to provoke an intense reaction from the many critics of President Bush's interrogation policies, and comes just before Dick Cheney's appearance, taped Friday, on Fox News Sunday -- bears all the marks of some complicated internal discussions over at the Post, which has been on the defensive since its reporting in the run up to the Iraq war. A sign of the internal focus on the piece: The story -- appearing as the paper's top story on an off day, a Saturday -- has three major bylines and just a tagline from national security reporter Walter Pincus.

The story begins:

After enduring the CIA's harshest interrogation methods and spending more than a year in the agency's secret prisons, Khalid Sheik Mohammed stood before U.S. intelligence officers in a makeshift lecture hall, leading what they called "terrorist tutorials."

In 2005 and 2006, the bearded, pudgy man who calls himself the mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks discussed a wide variety of subjects, including Greek philosophy and al-Qaeda dogma. In one instance, he scolded a listener for poor note-taking and his inability to recall details of an earlier lecture.

EXCERPT: Read more at politico.com

NOTE: When the Washington Post gets it, Attorney General Holder and Obama are in trouble. Would say all but the far left support the CIA and what they have been doing to keep us safe. Why would this Administration want to give aid and comfort to our enemies? Can you imagine an agent of the CIA being subjected to prosecution by his own President's Administration over tactics that have kept America safe? That's what we are talking about with the Obama Administration as we agree with others that Holder would be fired if Obama really disagreed with the action. Another campaign promise to look forward not back has been tossed under the bus by Obama. It is getting very crowded under the bus.