Misplaced priorities

It's no secret that I think that the Obama administration is showing signs of being the most incompetent, dishonest group of people ever to occupy the White House. But now I'm beginning to think that they are not only incompetent and dishonest, but also just plain stupid.

Does it make any sense whatsoever to alienate the CIA? Is there any possible good that can come of this?

In a letter from the Justice Department to a federal judge yesterday, the Obama administration announced that the Pentagon would turn over to the American Civil Liberties Union 44 photographs showing detainee abuse of prisoners in Afghanistan and Iraq during the Bush administration.

[snip]

[S]ome experts say the move could have a chilling effect on the CIA even beyond President Obama's decision last week to release the so-called "torture memos."

Calling the ACLU push to release the photographs "prurient" and "reprehensible," Dr. Mark M. Lowenthal, former Assistant Director of Central Intelligence for Analysis and Production, tells ABC News that the Obama administration should have taken the case all the way to the Supreme Court.

"They should have fought it all the way; if they lost, they lost," Lowenthal said. "There's nothing to be gained from it. There's no substantive reason why those photos have to be released."

Lowenthal said the president's moves in the last week have left many in the CIA dispirited, based on "the undercurrent I've been getting from colleagues still in the building, or colleagues who have left not that long ago."

"We ask these people to do extremely dangerous things, things they've been ordered to do by legal authorities, with the understanding that they will get top cover if something goes wrong," Lowenthal says. "They don't believe they have that cover anymore." Releasing the photographs "will make it much worse," he said.

Even though President Obama has announced that the Justice Department will not prosecute CIA officers who were operating within the four corners of what they'd been told was the law, Lowenthal says members of the CIA are worried. "They feel exposed already, and this is going to increase drumbeat for an investigation or a commission" to explore detainee treatment during the Bush years, he said. "It's going to make it much harder to resist, and they fear they're then going to be thrown over."

Maybe it's just me. Maybe I really am a right-wing radical nutjob. But it just seems to me that one of the top priorities of any administration, given the current level of extreme international threats, should be to keep its intelligence community happy and secure. How can this decision possibly further the cause of this country?

Coming on the heels of the decision to release (damning, country endangering portions of) the torture memos, and the discussions of prosecuting members of the previous administration, this strikes me as an almost suicidal move. The Messiah is removing all incentive for cooperation from group after group. The message is clear - we will order you to risk your life for your country, but we won't risk our political standing to cover you if there's any sign of trouble...you're on your own, sucka! There should be no surprise when those in service suddenly become much less productive.

"Covert" and "transparency" are two words that just don't mix. Any idiot should be able to figure that out.