Back to liking the FBI -- sort of ...

OK. Again, just like sniper kitten in my fabulously insightful post about Biometrics, the very cool picture of Rose from Brutal Planet or Planet Brutal or Planet Freak-Out or whatever has nothing to do with this post about me returning to my to liking the FBI -- and, YES, this is balanced, of course, by my TOTAL FREAK-OUT over news regarding the agency's decision to building this biometric database -- including everyone in the solar system -- which I think could be used for TOTAL evil. Like how could you have had a Resistance if the Nazi's had constructed a Biometrics database and had cameras at every juncture? I just asked my colleague and, being an idealist, she -- she hails from Canada, is the most apolitical person on the planet and received a fabulous REI hoodie for Christmas that I am going to abscond with -- she said there would aways be a way, which could be tested, I will admit. Think Subcommander Marcos with dark sunglasses and gloves. Darting in and out of locations. Former CIA -- CIA training. The whole nine. But no one has any idea about that. (That he is former CIA and, like, THE BEST CIA DUDE EVER. TOTAL Robin Hood except he ties up the rich and makes them believe for, like, 48 hours or so, that they are going to be killed. (He is really nice about it. VERY Jeanie about it. Downright polite. Downright hospitable. He provides them with high-end chilled bottled water (OK, it is tap water cleverly disguised), frequent -- and private -- bathroom breaks (OK, really there is an armed guard in there) -- etc. He really does, however, makes them Earl Grey with the perfect amount of cream and Spenda. He just makes them believe that they are going to be killed.
(And that they are going to be waterboarded for a spell first.)
(And that he has already killed their offspring.)
(After waterboarding them.)
Anyway! See picture next to Rose. BTW HAD TO do that, put both images together, even if that bugs you to have them in a row like tahat. Pictures, if you have ever worked in publishing, can't be looking off the page. You know? That is just a MASSIVE design faux pas.

Back to the FBI and what the agency is doing right. See text below. Forgive me, International Herald Tribune, for the copyright violation. I think you are one of the greatest publications on the planet. So does my sister, which is a huge compliment. Forgive me, oh owner of photographs, for the copyright violations. I only meant to promote your fabulous images.

OK. Here we really get to the pro-FBI text:

FBI to lead investigation of destroyed CIA tapes
By David Johnston
Thursday, January 3, 2008

WASHINGTON: The Justice Department's criminal inquiry into the destruction of the Central Intelligence Agency interrogation tapes will be carried out largely by agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which has long been sharply at odds with the CIA over the agency's interrogation practices.

In some law enforcement circles the prospect of the FBI's interviewing high-level CIA officials and rummaging around the files of the agency's secret interrogation programs represents a payback moment in the rich history of rivalry between the two agencies.

Since the Sept. 11 attacks, the FBI has refused to allow its agents to take part in CIA interrogations in which harsh methods were used, fearing that agents might be compromised if they ever appeared as witnesses in a criminal case. Some former FBI officials have been among the most vocal critics of the CIA's use of what the agency calls "enhanced interrogation techniques."

Some of the sharpest disputes between the FBI and CIA have focused on the interrogation of Abu Zubaydah, one of two terror suspects whose interrogations are depicted on the destroyed tapes. The tapes showed harsh interrogation techniques and were destroyed, according to the CIA, to protect the identities of personnel involved.

Some government officials have insisted that some of the most successful parts of the Zubaydah interrogation came when FBI agents, using nonconfrontational interview techniques, extracted a wealth of information from Zubaydah before the CIA authorized a tougher approach. Intelligence officials have said it was the CIA's tactics that were responsible for extracting the most important information from Zubaydah.

The FBI itself has never allowed its agents to make audio or video recordings of interviews.

Law enforcement officials said on Thursday that past disagreements will not influence in any way the FBI investigation into the destroyed tapes. They insisted the inquiry would be handled in a professional manner under the direction of a Justice Department team led by John Durham, a career federal prosecutor from Connecticut.

President George W. Bush said Thursday that the White House would cooperate with the investigation.

"I strongly support it," Bush said in the interview with the Reuters news service. "And we will participate."

Bush, who was asked during the interview whether he was concerned that the investigation might raise questions about his counterterrorism policy, replied, "See what it says. See what the investigation leads to."

Feuding between the FBI and the CIA dates back to the founding of the intelligence agency in 1947. In recent years their intramural debates have been sharpened by disputes about whether the CIA or the FBI bore greater responsibility for missing signals that might have uncovered the 9/11 plot before the attacks.

Leaders of both agencies have asserted for years that cooperation and coordination between the FBI and the CIA have increased dramatically since the 2001 attacks, which both organizations maintain is true. Nevertheless, the investigation will be carried out against a backdrop of ill will that pervades the two agencies' perceptions of each other despite the frequent pronouncements by officials of each agency that their rivalry had ended.

LOVE AND TV BURNING IN ALLEYS FROM JEANIE