Nothing gets Bill Frist more fired up than a challenge to his image. Now he's calling for a Republican-led Congressional investigation into the off-shore torture camps -- er -- the leak of the information about the off-shore torture camps.

Dear Chairman Hoekstra and Chairman Roberts:

We request that you immediately initiate a joint investigation into the possible release of classified information to the media alleging that the United States government may be detaining and interrogating terrorists at undisclosed locations abroad. As you know, if accurate, such an egregious disclosure could have long-term and far-reaching damaging and dangerous consequences, and will imperil our efforts to protect the American people and our homeland from terrorist attacks.

The purpose of your investigation will be to determine the following: was the information provided to the media classified and accurate?; who leaked this information and under what authority?; and, what is the actual and potential damage done to the national security of the United States and our partners in the Global War on Terror? We will consider other changes to this mandate based on your recommendations.

Yes, who leaked the fact that we're torturing prisoners! And to hell with McCain and his quaint anti-torture quibbles that we all got pressured into backing.

We're talking about image. How are we supposed to conduct our war on terror if the world knows that we're behaving like terrorists, torturing prisoners?

And don't let anyone bring up the fact that experience has shown that torture doesn't work. We don't want people to realize that we're torturing prisoners to accommodate our own feelings of impotence. What's important is that people may think badly of us if they know we're torturing people. As the Washington Post reports:

While the Defense Department has produced volumes of public reports and testimony about its detention practices and rules after the abuse scandals at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison and at Guantanamo Bay, the CIA has not even acknowledged the existence of its black sites. To do so, say officials familiar with the program, could open the U.S. government to legal challenges, particularly in foreign courts, and increase the risk of political condemnation at home and abroad.

That would challenge the spin the Republicans have been putting on torture.

And we certainly don't want people to realize that we're playing politics with cheap rhetoric against the torture opponents. We want to distract people from the fact that we're pandering to the basest instincts of human nature and abandoning the moral principles that earned America such high regard in the 20th century:

We expect that you will move expeditiously to complete this inquiry and that you will provide us with periodic updates. We are hopeful that you will be able to accomplish this task in a bipartisan manner given general agreement that intelligence matters should not be politicized. Either way, however, your inquiry shall proceed.

The leaking of classified information by employees of the United States government appears to have increased in recent years, establishing a dangerous trend that, if not addressed swiftly and firmly, likely will worsen. The unauthorized release of classified information is serious and threatens our nation's security. It also puts the lives of many Americans and the security of our nation at risk.

Unless, of course, it involves leaking confidential information about the wife of an enemy of the state who dares to question the faked intelligence that was used to justify war.

That, or course, would just be "criminalizing politics."

About author

media girl also blogs at other places.