The upside: Even if the rabid left want Bush to be incited or investigated ... wise old owls will ensure it never happens, because - what Bush did, if anything, Bill did, only Congress never gave him the authority to do much of it.
Did Leon Panetta know about 'extraordinary renditions' under Clinton?
Alex Spillius at Jan 6, 2009
Liberals might be in for a nasty shock with Leon Panetta, the man Barack Obama wants to lead the CIA.
The selection of the former White House chief of staff to Bill Clinton has been welcomed by many Democrats for his denunciations of torture and all round management abilities.
But according to one former agent, Michael Scheuer, the extraordinary rendition programme that has so tainted the agency during the Bush administration actually began in the Clinton administration, when Panetta would, or should, have been fully aware of it.
Scheuer is a curious beast. An opponent of the Iraq War, he was the head of the CIA's get-bin-Laden unit from 1996 to 1999, and he should know what he is talking about. But he is very pro-rendition and was critical of the choice of Panetta on US networks today, mostly because he is an outsider. His claim that Clinton/Panetta started/knew about the outsourcing of torture was repeated by William Kristol and others.
Criticism of Panetta's selection has centred on his lack of spook experience, though that didn't help George Tenet deliver accurate intelligence on Saddam Hussein.
At what promises to be a lively confirmation hearing, senators might be well served to ask Panetta what he knew about agreements to send terror suspects to the likes of Egypt and Syria, where they were likely to be tortured.
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