It's amazing that when George Bush was in the White House the media did nothing but criticize the president over the torture issue and now there is praise for president Obama over these very tactics. The fact is, these techniques work and they work well.

President Obama Announces Death of Osama Bin Laden
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While the Obama administration deservedly revels in the success of the U.S. operation to kill Osama bin Laden this week, one question remains: Why is the Justice Department threatening criminal prosecution of the men who made the mission possible?

CIA Director Leon Panetta has acknowledged that the initial information that led to the discovery of bin Laden's hideout in Abbottabad came, in part, from information obtained by "enhanced interrogation techniques against some of those detainees." Yet, Attorney General Holder persists in what appears to be a vendetta against these very CIA interrogators.

In August 2009, Holder ordered a continued investigation into "enhanced interrogation" techniques used by the CIA, even though an earlier investigation by career prosecutors concluded that no crimes were committed. The irony in all of this is made worse by President Obama's acknowledgment of intelligence agencies' role when he announced that bin Laden had been killed.

"Tonight, we give thanks to the countless intelligence and counterterrorism professionals who've worked tirelessly to achieve this outcome," Obama said. "The American people do not see their work, nor know their names. But tonight, they feel the satisfaction of their work and the result of their pursuit of justice."

Some thanks. Instead of admitting that CIA waterboarding provided vital information -- including the nom de guerre of the courier who led us to bin Laden -- the administration appears to want CIA operatives behind bars.

What seems clear is that Obama came into office with one set of assumptions about what it takes to protect national security and has changed his mind after two years of intelligence briefings and firsthand experience. It was easy for candidate Obama to criticize President Bush for authorizing what Obama called "torture" and quite another to be confronted with what it takes to protect Americans from another devastating attack.

Read more at the Washington Examiner

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