Politics

Drawing a Bead on the CIA

By Fox News
Published | Updated

John Trever, the longtime editorial cartoonist for the Albequerque Journal, drew on old war rooms and battlefield maps in his cartoon objecting to the investigation, which imagines blue-suited lawyers mucking it up on the battlefield. "To me it looks more like it's a political thing -- appeasing the more vocal wing of the Democratic party that's been calling for prosecutions and bringing people to account," he told FOXNews.com. Trever said the idea of declaring war on the War on Terror "is maybe a can of worms that we shouldn't open." <a target="_blank" href="http://www.abqjournal.com/opinion/">Click here for more cartoons from John Trever.</a> (John Trever/Albuquerque Journal)

Jimmy Margulies, editorial cartoonist for The Record of North Jersey, said the CIA was unhappy about DOJ pressure, so he wanted to show the irony of their complaints about the Obama administration beginning an investigation of some of their more “outrageous” practices. Margulies said he "went to town" with the cartoon, which depicts a CIA interrogator dressed in a sadomasochist’s outfit, illustrating his support for the investigation. "I think that some of the things that were done during the Bush administration definitely need to be looked into and they really hurt the United States' image without necessarily producing any results that made us any safer." <a href="http://www.northjersey.com/news/opinions/margulies_cartoons/" target="_blank">Click here for more cartoons from Jimmy Margulies.</a>

Ed Gamble, editorial cartoonist for the Florida Times-Union, said he opposed the Justice Department investigation, and noted a line from the White House arguing that we that the U.S. should be looking forward, not backward. "I'm trying to make that point they're looking backward," he told FOXNews.com. He said he included a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union in the drawing because of their work to bring to light government documentation on the work of CIA interrogators. "They may have a point but I don't think it needs to be made public," he said. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.jacksonville.com/opinion/cartoons">Click here for more cartoons from Ed Gamble.</a> (Ed Gamble/Florida Times Union)

Chan Lowe, editorial cartoonist for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, said "an investigation of alleged illegal acts is probably a good thing for the republic." Lowe drew the iconic image of Uncle Sam wielding a power drill, which a CIA interrogator used to intimidate a blindfolded terror suspect, according to a report that was prepared by the CIA Inspector General in 2003 and released to the public this week. Lowe faulted Obama for allowing Attorney General Eric Holder to take the heat for ordering the investigation into alleged CIA abuses, but said he didn't expect anyone to actually be prosecuted. "In any case, if we don't at least examine the excesses of our behavior and do a little public self-reflection, then our already-battered worldwide reputation as a nation of laws will suffer even further," he wrote on his blog. <a target="_blank" href="http://blogs.trb.com/news/opinion/chanlowe/blog/">Click here for more cartoons from Chan Lowe.</a> (Chan Lowe/South Florida Sun-Sentinel)

<a target="_self" href="http://www.creators.com/editorialcartoons/michael-ramirez.html">Click here for more from two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Michael Ramirez.</a> (Michael Ramirez/Creators Syndicate)

Bob Englehart, editorial cartoonist for the Hartford Courant, said the CIA investigation would prove to be a distraction from dealing with health care. Englehart said President Obama has already changed the interrogation protocol so that the alleged abuses will not happen again, but the Justice Department investigation ordered by Attorney General Eric Holder is "going to be around for a long time."<a target="_blank" href="http://blogs.courant.com/bob_englehart/"></a> <a target="_blank" href="http://blogs.courant.com/bob_englehart/">Click here for more cartoons from Bob Englehart.</a> (Bob Englehart/Hartford Courant)

R.J. Matson, editorial cartoonist for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, said he imagined a chain of command where everyone covered their tracks regarding alleged abuses, making it "almost impossible" to investigate the CIA interrogations. "It's not really fair to punish the CIA operatives if you aren't going to where the trail led -- all the way to the top," he told FOXNews.com. Matson, who supports the investigation, said "there's ultimately no accountability because there's always somebody else claiming that ... I was just doing what I was told was legal." <a target="_blank" href="http://stltoday.mycapture.com/mycapture/folder.asp?event=157573&amp;CategoryID=25906">Click here for more cartoons from R.J. Matson.</a> (R.J. Matson)

<a target="_blank" href="http://www.cartoonistgroup.com/properties/wpwg.php?id=92">Click here for more cartoons from Lisa Benson.</a> (Lisa Benson/Washington Post Writers Group)