Oh Say Can You CIA About Those Secret Detention Programs?

The Senate Intelligence Committee has announced that it will open an investigation into the CIA's controversial detention and interrogation programs under the Bush administration.

You know, just to double-check that nothing weird went on at those nonexistent secret prisons…

The inquiry is aimed at uncovering new information on the origins of the programs as well as scrutinizing how they were executed — including the conditions at clandestine CIA prison sites and the interrogation regimens used to break Al Qaeda suspects, according to Senate aides familiar with the investigation plans.

Sounds reasonable enough. And as they say, if you've got nothing to hide, you've got nothing to worry about, right?

News of the inquiry was greeted with concern among agency veterans.

"There is a good deal of investigation fatigue, and a feeling that the agency has become even more than before a piñata," said a former high-ranking CIA official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Coincidentally, very similar sentiments regarding fatigue and piñata-dom have been expressed by the CIA's detainees.