Turning the power of the military and the CIA over to terrorists

Jonathan Schwartz quotes the following from Sunday's WaPo article on "erroneous renditions:"

The CIA inspector general is investigating a growing number of what it calls "erroneous renditions," according to several former and current intelligence officials.

One official said about three dozen names fall in that category; others believe it is fewer. The list includes several people whose identities were offered by al Qaeda figures during CIA interrogations, officials said. One turned out to be an innocent college professor who had given the al Qaeda member a bad grade, one official said.

Jonathan then goes on with a little skit of an imagined CIA interrogation, where Khalid Sheikh Mohammad fingers everybody who ever pissed him off, from his old girlfriend to jihadists in the Visa collections department.

It would be hilarious except that it is so true. The "war on terror," and its unrelated sidekick the war in Iraq, have put the immense power of the CIA and the US military at the beck and call of any suspected terrorist with a grudge. He can't do anything to secure his own release, but the terrorist can make sure he's got plenty of company in his secret prison. Rival clans in Afghanistan have been targeting each other with US airstrikes for four years now, and plenty of that goes on in Iraq as well.