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I believe under the ACLU lawsuit ruling they would have had to release the documents or fight a battle to keep them secret.
Regardless it's almost certain that they would have leaked anyway, and this allows Obama to get the issue behind him rather than have leaked documents keep a story running that's a distraction.
Yes, some will argue that this will cause the CIA to pull back, but if we just keep our behavior in line with the law, I'd wager our intelligence professionals can be very productive. From what I've read, it sounds like most of the detainees who were tortured gave up the good info using legal techniques. Had torture resulted in good intel that's saved lives? I haven't heard any stories that indicate this, although we may never really know. Regardless it's a slippery slope that as a law abiding nation we probably shouldn't have gone down.
Yet another mess Obama inherited from Bush.
-spence
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