Does anyone in this Administration know what they're doing?

WSJ - APRIL 25, 2009
Memos Foiled Plan to Avoid Revisiting Past
Aiming to Move On, Administration Instead Faced Calls for Prosecutions and Probes of CIA Interrogations

By EVAN PEREZ and JONATHAN WEISMAN
WASHINGTON -- Until last week, President Barack Obama had made it clear he intended to "look forward," rather than insist on punishment of Bush-era officials who approved harsh interrogation practices.
But a series of missteps by the White House threatened to undermine that decision and stoked the political tempest aides say Mr. Obama had hoped to avoid. The president called the top two Democrats in Congress to the White House for a meeting this week to cool passions, as aides struggled to gain control of the message.
By Friday, Obama administration officials were hoping to contain the furor by limiting the investigation of the Bush administration to two probes already under way: a low-key investigation by a Senate panel and a Justice Department ethics inquiry that officials say isn't likely to recommend prosecuting anyone. Aides said that Mr. Obama's seemingly contradictory remarks were misinterpreted, and that the president's view had been conveyed poorly. Mr. Obama believed that if he banned "enhanced interrogation techniques" -- what many in his administration called torture -- he could move beyond the matter, according to aides.
It seemed to work -- until this month. The president faced a court-imposed April 16 deadline to decide whether to release four Justice Department memos from 2002 and 2005 that offered the legal grounds for waterboarding detainees and similar harsh treatment. The Obama administration had to release the memos or tell the court why not.
The president convened aides for a meeting that turned to heated debate the night before the deadline, participants say. CIA chief Leon Panetta was among those against a broad release of the memos. Attorney General Eric Holder was in favor. (continues...)