In the Washington Times, Eli Lake has an eye-opening article documenting how the much criticized Bush-era policy of “extraordinary rendition” was carried out dozens of times during the Clinton administration, transporting suspects who were captured abroad to places like Egypt, where they were tortured. The reason why this is relevant now is that one of the major factors leading to the appointment of Leon Panetta to be CIA chief was that he was seen as a strong opponent of torture and rendition, but these cases all took place when was serving as chief of staff to President Clinton. Panetta’s defenders argue that he wouldn’t have known about these decisions, but then that undercuts the argument that he’s qualified to be CIA director because he was involved in intellegence and national security decisions as chief of staff. The whole piece is well worth a read.