Will they stop at nothing?

It appears that the GOP is attempting to beat the Obama administration into submission on the issue of releasing Bush administration torture memos. According to Scott Horton of "The Daily Beast", the Senate GOP assmonkeys are:

...(N)ow privately threatening to derail the confirmation of key Obama administration nominees for top legal positions by linking the votes to suppressing critical torture memos from the Bush era. - Scott Horton

...Namely the confirmation of Dawn Johnsen to the head of DOJ's Office of Legal Counsel.

If, the actions sanctioned in these memos was legal as they, and former members of the Bush administration have long held, and still do, they have nothing to worry about.

The release of the memos, already cleared by Attorney General Holder, has apparently caused a rift in the Obama administration, this according to Michael Isikoff of "Newsweek". The effort to block the release of these documents is being led by John Brennan, once considered by the Obama administration to head the CIA. Brennan has apparently persuaded DCIA Panetta that it is in the national interest to block the release of these memos. It would seem that avoiding embarrassment of "...foreign intelligence services who cooperated with the CIA, either by participating in overseas "extraordinary renditions" of high-level detainees or housing them in overseas "black site" prisons..." trumps the rule of law.

Unfortunately, for the GOP and the late, unlamented Bush administration, the actions outlined in these memos are illegal under US law and treaty obligation and international law. The attempts by Senate Republicans to suppress these documents would seem, at the very least, to constitute attempts to suppress evidence of criminal activities sanctioned by the Bush administration...If not outright collusion.

Mr. Brennan's, and now DCIA Pannetta's, efforts to suppress these documents in the name of national security is equally troubling. Did we not have enough of this under the Bush administration? Using the rubric of national security to suppress the evidence of criminal activity is collusion in said activity.

The only way to put this issue to rest is to release all documents pertaining to it and appoint a special prosecutor with the mandate, the staff and the funding to follow the evidence wherever, and to whoever, it may lead.