We were reminded again

that there is a pride in what this nation stands for and what we can achieve that runs far deeper than party, far deeper than politics.--President Obama

In a secret CIA prison in Eastern Europe years ago, al-Qaida's No. 3 leader, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, gave authorities the nicknames of several of bin Laden's couriers, four former U.S. intelligence officials said. Those names were among thousands of leads the CIA was pursuing. One man became a particular interest for the agency when another detainee, Abu Faraj al-Libi, told interrogators that when he was promoted to succeed Mohammed as al-Qaida's operational leader he received the word through a courier. Only bin Laden would have given al-Libi that promotion, CIA officials believed. If they could find that courier, they'd find bin Laden. The revelation that intelligence gleaned from the CIA's so-called black sites helped kill bin Laden was seen as vindication for many intelligence officials who have been repeatedly investigated and criticized for their involvement in a program that involved the harshest interrogation methods in U.S. history.--ADAM GOLDMAN and MATT APUZZO

President Barack Obama on Thursday moved quickly to undo a contentious Bush administration national security program, ordering the CIA to close down secret overseas prisons and the Pentagon to close down the Guantanamo prison within a year. The president also banned the harshest interrogation methods. The CIA has used secret "black site" prisons around the world to question terror suspects, usually plucking them from one country and moving them to another where U.S. agents operated a prison. A senior White House source said the CIA will be allowed to continue these "renditions" but not to countries that torture and not to its own prisons.--msnbc.com, in January 2009

Thank you, President Bush and your administration, for vigorously pursuing the intelligence required to locate Bin Laden. Your secret CIA sites and interrogation methods worked, and we would not have apprehended him without your leadership. I apologize for criticizing you on the campaign trail; in fact, you deserve more credit than I do for this victory.--President Obama. NOT! (Cav)

That last one would really reflect an appreciative, honest, analytical and secure person, wouldn't it?