British journos rush to defence of CIA over torture memos

[Paul Rigby]

1) The Guardian editorial:

“Torture: holding America to account”

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/...nistration

“On balance Mr Obama may also be right to assure CIA personnel that they will not face prosecution if they carried out their work in good faith based on the old legal advice. But an essential part of the rule of law is that those who break it must be answerable for their actions.”

“Comment is free but Langley is sacred”

2) The Torygraph security specialist (with a deserved reputation as an MI6 urinal) chimes in with an old faithful:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/colum...urity.html

“Jimmy Carter's drive to cleanse the CIA after the scandals of the Nixon years left the organisation neutered to the extent that the White House found itself unsighted on two of the most cataclysmic events of the late 1970s – the Iranian revolution and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.”

3) Independent man offers Cockburnian defence of Agency:

“America doesn’t need a witch hunt”

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/com...70437.html

“A month after taking office in August 1974, President Gerald Ford issued a full pardon to his predecessor Richard Nixon for his crimes in the Watergate affair. The public fury that followed probably cost him the 1976 election. Today, however, few historians doubt that Ford was right to spare the country further instalments of what he called "an American tragedy.”

How well amnesties have served America…

4) British Intelligence’s main mouthpiece at The Times:

“Torture revelations could have serious impact on Britain”

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/wo...114942.ece

“The detailed revelations of torture techniques used by the CIA and sanctioned by US Administration lawyers during the presidency of George Bush could have serious repercussions for British intelligence agencies, according to senior Whitehall officials.”

MI5 & MI6 = Britain?

[Magda Hassan]

1) MI5 & MI6 = Britain?

The only one that counts.