Another Expert Not Consulted

Retired Marine Corps Lt. Colonel Oliver North is what you get when a military expert is finally freed to talk... to express his opinion without the constraints imposed by his position as an on-duty military officer.

We all saw his steadiness during the Iran-Contra show-hearings. We witnessed the way his knowledge and his honesty revealed the 911 Commission Hearings to be a farce.

This past week he turned another bright light on the foolishness of Washington politicians. North predicted, accurately, I imagine, that the recently released memos will look very different when they are read by young Islamist hotheads on the Arab street.

When world-class forgers finish with them, they will tell a story, not of water-boarding (an experience endured by many of our own military personnel) but of truly horrendous torture, inflicted for things like the mere suspicion of being a Muslim. The fact that they were released as official U. S. Government documents, will make it so easy for them to be believed. The Obama administration says the info was already "out there". In part that is true... but it was out there as accusations, not an official acknowledgement.

I can readily imagine the laughter in top Al Qaeda circles as they discuss this wonderful gift from America's new president.