There's also something like the anthropic principle at play here. Any type of borderline policies that involved mild torture would likely be carried out by the

There's also something like the anthropic principle at play here. Any type of borderline policies that involved mild torture would likely be carried out by the CIA. And they serve at the direction of the President. The CIA didn't initiated these policies, they just fulfilled them. Also it's not like every CIA employee supports torture. It's hard to say but this scandal represents a fraction of what the CIA does everyday, that truly serves the best interests of the American people. They are easy to demonize by default.