Trust; Lack of

On Friday, the director of the CIA, General Michael Hayden also defended the program, in an e-mail message to agency employees.

"The story has sparked considerable comment," Hayden wrote, referring to the account in The Times, "including claims that the opinion opened the door to more harsh interrogation tactics and that information about the interrogation methods we actually have used has been withheld from our oversight committees in Congress. Neither assertion is true."

The problem is, General, that the Bush Administration has spent the trust that the American people once had in it. Nobody, other than the rapidly diminishing ranks of the Kool-Aid Drinkers and those paid by Fixed Noise, believes anything you guys say. George Bush and his spokesthugs could say "the Sun will rise in the east tomorrow" and people would want proof.

And as for your second assertion, that Congress has been informed, well, that is just not true, since Sen. Jay Rockefeller, who is the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, had this to say:

"The administration can't have it both ways. I'm tired of these games. They can't say that Congress has been fully briefed while refusing to turn over key documents used to justify the legality of the program."

General Hayden, stop pissing in our faces and telling us it's raining.