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A new “elite interrogation unit”, that President Barack Obama has appointed to quiz terrorism detainees, will apparently be run by CBS News anchor Katie Couric, rather than the Central Intelligence Agency.
If the report from anonymous sources proves accurate, the former NBC “Today” hostess, would head up the High-Value Detainee Interrogation Group, or HIG, under the president’s National Security Council. Detainee-questioning sessions would be filmed before a live studio audience in Burbank, California.
“The president wants to ensure that these folks receive all the protections the U.S. Constitution affords other citizens,” said White House press secretary Robert Gibbs. “We can’t discriminate against them solely on the basis of their involvement in terror cells and their irrevocable commitment to extinguishing the lamp of liberty wherever it flickers.”
While Gibbs would not confirm the names of the HIG team members, he admitted that Obama has been impressed with Couric, “since the day she got vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin to confess that she doesn’t read any news at all and thus has no idea what’s going on outside of Anchorage, Alaska.”
Obama apparently believes Couric could also extract information from terror suspects that might prove useful in any felony or misdemeanor trials.
Couric’s interrogation team reportedly includes talk show host and media magnate Oprah Winfrey, her colleague Dr. Phil McGraw, Whoopi Goldberg, co-host of ABC’s ‘The View’, and ‘Jeopardy’s’ Alex Trebek, who agreed to the assignment on the condition that suspected terrorists state their answers in the form of a question.
The new HIG unit would represent a clean break from the Bush administration CIA, which Gibbs said, had been engaged in outsourcing negotiations, as late as November of 2008, with former CTU agent Jack Bauer.
Examiner Columnist Scott Ott is editor in chief of ScrappleFace.com, the world’s leading family-friendly news satire source.
