Presidential spokesman Robert Gibbs said Cheney “clearly had his facts on a number of things wrong" but he did not provide specifics.

He said interrogation efforts would have participants from several law enforcement agencies and would not be directed by the White House. 

Hey, Robert. Hello. 

One of the key problems leading up to “911,” remember, was that the FBI, the CIA, the ATF, DEA and the other alphabet-soup groups didn’t talk to each other. They didn’t trust the other agencies and they wanted to take all the credit for their own bosses.

And more than 3,000 people died as a result.

Is that what we want from this administration?

And is “punishing” CIA agents for doing their jobs the way to attract talent in the future?

Or keep us safe?

Now, we are involved in a great debate over what kinds of “torture” are appropriate and whether they are keeping us safe, a debate that never should have risen to that level.

Intelligence is dirty work and, at least until the Francis Gary Powers incident, we just didn’t talk about these things.

President Obama said earlier he would not “look backward” but would concentrate on the future but his attorney general, Eric Holder, announced an investigation of the CIA and a new plan to put interrogations under a confusing arrangement between the FBI, CIA and the White House.

And what is absolutely indefensible is that it is clearly for political reasons. Holder wants to “punish” the previous administration and he doesn’t care who gets hurt in the process.

“They’re going to have to have meetings and decide who gets to ask what question and who’s going to Mirandize the witness,” former Vice President Dick Cheney told FOX News last week. “It doesn’t appear to be a serious move in terms of being able to deal with the nation’s security."

Cheney said the inspector general already investigated all the cases in question five years ago and decided to prosecute only one contractor who received a jail sentence.

“The matter’s been dealt with the way you would expect it to be dealt with, by professionals,” Cheney said. “Now we’ve got a political appointee coming back and, supposedly without the approval of the President, going to do a complete review, or another complete investigation, possible prosecution of CIA personnel.

“A review is never going to be final anymore now,” he said. “We can have somebody, some fu-ture administration, come along ten years from now, 15 years from now, and go back and rehash all of these decisions by an earlier administration.”

The OSS was developed during World War II to try to determine what Hitler and Tojo were up to.

For those not as old as I, Hitler, of course, was the “Fuehrer” of Germany, the fascist ruler who wanted to take over the world. Hideki Tojo was the Japanese prime minister who had similar visions. “Il Duce,” Benito Mussolini of Italy, was the third but his efforts fizzled early. During the war, these names were known to just about everybody.

The OSS became the CIA and one of the early chinks in the armor came after Francis Gary Powers was shot down over Soviet airspace on May 1, 1960, while performing aerial reconnaissance for the CIA in a high-altitude Lockheed U-2.

Before the Powers incident, no president would ever admit his country was spying, though everyone knew it was.

Spying on your enemies was never pleasant and it often meant bending the rules, doing things you wouldn’t think of doing in a “civilized” world. But they had to be done if you were to be prepared for what the bad guys might use to harm you.

For that reason, they were always “black” programs. No one knew what they were doing except for a few key

By JIM STREET

Ed & Pub

Why are we trying to destroy our intelligence system? It’s been under attack for a long time and our security is seriously at stake.

I remember back when thing were as they should have been – but then I’m getting pretty old.

We had the Central Intelligence Agency and the Office of Strategic Services before that to do the dirty work that had to be done to gather intelligence and to

SANDERSON – A funeral mass was at St. James Catholic Church here Thursday, Aug. 27, for Santiago Rodriguez, 94, of Sanderson, who died Monday, Aug. 24, at Reeves County Hospital. Burial was at Santa Rita Cemetery.

Rodriguez was born July 25, 1915, in Mexico, and was a retired Terrell County Road and Bridge employee and a Catholic.

Rodriguez was preceded in death by his wife, Rosa Rodriguez, and one son, Rogelio Rodriguez.

Surviving are a daughter, Candelaria Leyva of Pecos; a son, Julian Rodriguez of San Antonio, five grandchildren and two great grandchildren.

Peaceful Garden Funeral Home of Pecos was in charge of arrangements.

To the Editor,

If the Terrell County tax rate were being decreased, one might understand pay raises being discussed (TC tax rate proposed at 37.38 cents, News Leader, Aug. 28, Page 1 and Public Notice, Page 3.)

Who has increased duties or is working more than last year?

What about benefits?

What do county taxpayers pay for health insurance on county employees?

Who makes use of county vehicles as a benefit of employment?

Please consider:

Do we need to line up and train more volunteer firefighters?

Do we need another “tanker” to move water to far parts of the county?

Do we need to spend more on fuel for all our new deputies to cover the entire county?

How about expanding our library hours and services?

As you see, our citizens can think of endless ways to spend our money.

Except for those employees who are stuck at a desk to serve the public eight hours daily (including the county clerk, her deputies and voter registrar who face the 2010 election year and added work) and those hourly wage people at the bottom – pay raises as stated in the News Leader take advantage of taxpayers and are not justified.

B. Evans

Sanderson