Barack Obama has struck a contradictory pose in regard to CIA interrogations. In his statement about the release of Bush-era interrogation memos, he tries to make the strange case that it was important to release the memos because their contents were already known.

 . . . I believe that exceptional circumstances surround these memos and require their release.

First, the interrogation techniques described in these memos have already been widely reported. Second, the previous Administration publicly acknowledged portions of the program – and some of the practices – associated with these memos. Third, I have already ended the techniques described in the memos through an Executive Order. Therefore, withholding these memos would only serve to deny facts that have been in the public domain for some time.

It’s crucial that the truth get out because the truth is already out???

In actuality, it is important that the memos were released, but for reasons that don’t particularly interest Obama. They completely vindicate CIA interrogators and expose the hysteria of anti-Bush fanatics. Try not to weep for your country’s lost ideals as you read this:

The memos show that Justice Department lawyers authorized the Central Intelligence Agency to use such techniques as sleep deprivation, facial slaps and placing one high-ranking al-Qaeda suspect in a cramped box with what he was told was a stinging insect.

That, ladies and gentlemen, is what supposedly made America the moral equivalent of al Qaeda. Do you suppose that if Barack Obama could get a guarantee that American captives of terrorists would from now on be subjected to no more than the above, he would waste a second in okaying it?

Slapping is a nasty business, but if you tell me it’s torture I’ll slap myself to make sure I’m awake. Though chances are I am, seeing as I’m regularly sleep-deprived. And confession by bee sting simply must be used in the next Austin Powers movie.

Nevertheless, Obama describes it all as “a dark and painful chapter in our history.” This is national security as farce. Here’s what gives the game away: in Obama’s statement we read, “In releasing these memos, it is our intention to assure those who carried out their duties relying in good faith upon legal advice from the Department of Justice that they will not be subject to prosecution.”

What’s the sentence for assault with an imaginary insect, anyway?