The GOP And The Torture Memos, Ctd.

Greenwald strikes the right tone:

It's unclear whether the claims of Horton's source are true.  It sounds more like a responsibility-shifting excuse than anything else -- a way of blaming Republicans rather than Obama officials for the failure to disclose these memos -- but it doesn't matter in the slightest if the claims are true.  There is absolutely no justification whatsoever to continue to conceal these memos, and the fact that the GOP will stomp its feet and obstruct nominees doesn't come close to constituting an excuse for ongoing concealment.

I don't personally have any real objection to the Obama administration's desire to have a few additional weeks to try to figure out how to manage these internal controversies and political storms over the memos' release.  Though frustrating, short delays of this type are tolerable, even reasonable.  But ultimately (and sooner rather than later), full disclosure of these documents  -- meaning with nothing other than the most minimal redactions to protect sources and identities of cooperating foreign agencies -- is absolutely necessary.   There is no excuse for any other course of action, and a failure of full disclosure here would almost certainly be the most egregious act taken thus far by the Obama administration (and there have already been several such acts) to help keep concealed compelling evidence of Bush crimes.