The Politics of Interrogation

With the announcement of the formation of an interagency interrogation unit and the appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate, we are seeing more of the Obama administration's misguided policies regarding the War on Terror.
 
These announcements are very disturbing. The appointment of such a prosecutor to investigate past interrogators could go in unknown directions. Even though it's intended to solely look into these people and their activities, it could spiral out of control and go after Justice Department attorneys like John Yoo among others. The real White Whale for the Democrats though is former Vice President Dick Cheney. Since they never could impeach President Bush and Dick Cheney, they will stop at nothing to go after them after they've left power.
 
The new interrogation unit also is a problem in the making. Considering it can only abide by the Army Field Manual, it cannot use many of the techniques that were vital in breaking high-ranking al-Qaeda operatives. Besides waterboarding, temperature modifications are not allowed and stress positions. This will demoralize the CIA to no end and their interrogators in particular. Also we must keep in mind how will this affect our influence and relationships with allies, especially allies in the region who may not want their participation made public. This could result in the drying up of intelligence,  and in the long run affect how we are able to conduct operations in the Middle East and other places.