Tugboat Turner hits Cheney

Former DCI Stansfield Turner lashed out at Vice Presidnet Dick Cheney for advocating torture as a means for the CIA to elicit information.

While not a supporter of torture, I think that Turner, who to a large extent is responsible for the sorry state of HumInt at Langley, should not be regarded as a sage observer of CIA policies in general and this one in specific.

Turner was one of the largest inkblots on Jimmy Carter's copybook, a technocrat who never had a significant sea command---hence the appelation "Tugboat"---and who favored gadgets over human intelligence to the extent that he fired 800 of the most senior analysts and operatives, erasing at one fell swoop a large amount of the Agency's institutional memory. The CIA is still scrambling to get back a HumInt capability largely destroyed by Turner.

Although Cheney himself has serious cred problems, Turner trumps the VP in the credibility chasm department. Like his quixotic former boss Jimmy, Turner's advice is often wrong, but he is never in doubt.

There are serious problems with the use of torture, but let's get credible Democrats [an oxymoron?] to make the case, not a discredited former DCI like Turner.