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Senate Report: Rice, Cheney OK'd CIA Use of Waterboarding
WASHINGTON - Top Bush administration officials gave the CIA approval to use waterboarding, a controversial interrogation technique, as early as 2002, a Senate intelligence report shows.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice testifies before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC on Thursday 8 February 2007. (Photograph: Stefan Zaklin/EPA) On July 17, 2002, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice, who later became secretary of state, said the CIA could proceed with "alternative interrogation methods," including waterboarding, when questioning suspected al Qaeda leader Abu Zubaydah.
The decision was contingent on the Justice Department's determining the method's legality. A week later, Attorney General John Ashcroft had determined the "proposed interrogation techniques were lawful," the report said.
The same techniques also were used in the interrogations of Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, the first person charged in the United States in the 2000 attack on the USS Cole in Yemen that killed 17 U.S. sailors, and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the suspected mastermind behind the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States.
The release of the report, prepared by the attorney general's office at the request of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, details and declassifies the advice given to the CIA regarding its interrogation techniques.
The techniques again gained the endorsement of the Bush administration in spring 2003 when the CIA asked for a "reaffirmation of the policies and practices in the interrogation program."
In a meeting that included Vice President Dick Cheney, CIA Director George Tenet, Ashcroft, Rice and their legal counsels, "the principals reaffirmed that the CIA program was lawful and reflected administration policy," the report said.
President Obama has called waterboarding -- which simulates drowning -- torture and last week released a series of Bush-era memos on interrogation tactics.
One memo showed that CIA interrogators used waterboarding at least 266 times on Zubaydah and Mohammed.
In a 2008 interview with ABC, Cheney defended the practice of waterboarding, now banned by the Obama administration, particularly in the case of Mohammed.
"Did it produce the desired results? I think it did," Cheney said.
"Khalid Sheikh Mohammed ... provided us with a wealth of information. There was a period of time there, three or fours years ago, when about half of everything we knew about al Qaeda came from that one source.
"So it's been a remarkably successful effort," he said. "I think the results speak for themselves."
More recently, Cheney said some people are more interested in reading terrorists their rights than protecting the United States, a dig at the new administration.
Cheney this week called Obama's release of the Bush memos "disturbing" and said the administration is sitting on other CIA memos that show that the interrogations helped stop terror attacks.
"They didn't put out the memos that show the success of the effort, and there are reports that show specifically what we gained as a result of this activity," Cheney told Fox News on Monday. "They have not been declassified."
81 Comments so far
Show AllGuilty.
Not that she doesn't deserve it --being the Bush family house servant and all--but watch them try to pin it all on Condoleeza. They always make the woman the whipping boy--recall Martha Stewart who actually did time for something that is like on grain of sand compared to these boys on Wall Street who sit at the Right hand.
Condoleeza always cowered and dissembled for her masters--now she still will carry their water.
Let them pin everything on Condi as they did with Karpinsky.
Karpinsky is pissed and is providing greta evidence on the administration and Abu Gahraib.
Nothing like the abused woman in the old boy's club thrown under the bus...
Anyone see the Karpinsky interview last night. It was very telling, she is fuming mad, emotional and telling the hard truths. She called out everyone from Cheney to Rummy, all of them. She says they are guilty for sure, they knew every detail of what was happening and stood by like cowards as the guards went to prison. This woman is a true American hero, standing up for our values, speaking out while surely facing enormous pressures not to.
“The line is clear. It went from Washington, D.C. From the very top of the administration with the legal opinions through Bagram to Guantanamo Bay and then to Iraq via the commander from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. And the contractors who were hired to do those things.” She said she and the other officers were essentially “scapegoated”
As charged.
Let's not forget that Republican presidential candidate John McCain reminded people during the presidential debates that some Japanese were tried and hanged for torturing American prisoners during World War II with techniques that included waterboarding.
What's right for the goose is right for the gander.
for original story go to:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/11/29/politics/main3554687.shtml
But when the chips are down John McCain sides with his captors and quacks like a duck and ends up enabling Bush when he could have voted against him. He is a victim of the Stockholm Syndrome too.
The debates were pure political theater for all candidates except Gravel and Kucinich.
There is a civil war on the way here in the US. Can you feel it yet?
michael jordan
http://sites.google.com/site/apolloguide/
Screw John McCain.
While bombing civilians over Hanoi he is shot down.
1. As a POW he makes videos difiling the US.
2. Returns a hero & leaves his wife & child-she was in a terrible wreck and he deserted her.
3. Marries the Budweiser Queen.
4. Becomes one of the Keating-5
5. Tries to continue the bush/cheney reign.
6. Last year Rick Davis his campaign manager is part of the eff up w/ Saashkavili, Georgia & Russia
7. Now is hooked up with William Kristol & is advocating more and more war. Then more and more war.
I voted for BO, who will do a lot wrong and some good too. This War-Pig would start world war 3, start it with Iran, do zero good-and irradiate millions of Arabs. That is a lesser evil worth striving for.
SCREW NEOCON-JOHN. I MEAN, LET'S FINALLY LET THIS OLD PIG DIE.
He'll die soon enough.
Saying John McSame is the victim of Stockholm Syndrome is not entirely true. If it were so would imply that John McSame was once a nice guy. He was always an asshole. Why else would he have been dropping bombs on civilians?
I don't know, David Letterman loved him and shares some of that misplaced macho with John. He was a Jessica Lynch poster boy for both sides. They milked the little cow dry on both sides of the Pacific. Crazy making for sure. Republican men are raised on the assumption that it is better to kill than to question. They are given guns early in life and taught to disrespect all life, not just Humans. They start out killing wild birds with BB guns and soon they graduate to pellets and 22's by the time they are 16 they have semi-automatics in their hands. They are very dangerous because they are simply not cerebral.
In addition McCain has always had trouble treating women with respect and like so many other Republicans he suffers from emotional loneliness. It was just easy to get rid of his blues by jumping in his plane drunk and dropping bombs on women and their children. He is the last one to think he has a social problem. Joe Biden was pretty clear that John goes after women when he is drinking martinis, citing his own wife as an example. They have no scruples at all.
michael jordan
http://sites.google.com/site/apolloguide/
Jesus Hussein Christ
Thanks for the link. And the reminder.
She looks like a mean, spiteful woman.
Maybe if these leaders were water boarded, too, they would decide that it is indeed torture.
Actually, unflattering photos are used deliberately as an unconscious visual prompt to help mold consensus.
A picture is worth a thousand words.
The targets are who is portrayed in the most unflattering manner.
Good point. And a good reminder not to kneejerk because it sounds good too.
True enough--ya gotta watch out for that subliminal messaging. Although, in the case of Condi, I personally think the photo does her justice.
Actually, I thought it was flattering for the worst Sec. of State in modern times.
Ouch!
Touche!!
Vern,
Thanks for sharing that. :-)
BTW, Mr. Obama has a 64 percent job approval rating. I guess most people are comfortably numb.
Consolidated Rice-A-Ron is just another garden variety totally corrupt, power/money junkie. They've been a plague upon the human race from the dawn of civilization.
Ms. Rice is breaking new ground as the first African American war criminal.
So, let's start with Ashcroft. who determined the "proposed interrogation techniques were lawful."
He has some scores to settle after the improper hospital visit and with a little plea bargaining could do a lot of damage.
And was Gonzales, as the President's lawyer, at the meeting. of course, he was too stupid to understand what was going on, but his misinformation might provide a lot of leverage for prosecution.
Nice Picture of Dr. Mengela...err...Rice
"The only means of strengthening one's intellect is to make up one's mind about nothing, to let the mind be a thoroughfare for all thoughts." - John Keats
Everyone, please contact your Senators and your Representative and tell them how you feel. Contact them by email by going to VoteSmart.Org and put in your zip in the upper left.
Fear is all they have to sell. Lie to go to war. Torture to get false confessions. Free bonus, more "enemies". Bush told us they hate us for our freedoms. Who is the "they" of which he spoke since HE took us back to the time before the Magna Carta? They raised the drumbeat and charge against any who questioned them as traitors while they knew they mislead us. Why, they asked many, do you hate America? Seems to me that any who wished this great country ill could have had no better effects than those given to us by this crowd.
The price of these fear based untruths is too high in lives, treasure and rights. Contact Holder: BY E-MAIL: E-mails to the Department of Justice, including the Attorney General, may be sent to AskDOJ@usdoj.gov. Department of Justice Main Switchboard - 202-514-2000 Office of the Attorney General -202-353-1555 http://www.usdoj.gov/contact-us.html
People who will torture others will also torture Americans. Condemn! Prosecute! Jail!
Looks like Condi lies alot will be the sacrificial lamb for the evil empire. Bush, Cheney and the rest of the criminally, insane tell us waterboarding is useful and not torture. Bush and Cheney were COWARDS who used all kinds of shenanigans to avoid serving their country during the Vietnam war and they will let every one else take the fall for torture and Condi appears to be first on the list.
So true, and yet right-wingers still refuse to see the hypocrisy of a team of draft-dodgers declaring an unjust war, while still pissing and moaning about Bill Clinton's "immorality".
Better icons of hypocrisy and immorality than Dick Cheney and W, the world has never known.
"Bush and Cheney were COWARDS who used all kinds of shenanigans to avoid serving their country during the Vietnam war"
You have that dead right. And cowards always run at the first sign of trouble. So.......................
Condo and Cheney can afford a lifetime of lawyers. In America, justice is a commodity.
What does it take to know that an administration knows the methods it uses. Do we all have to be transported back in time to the actual events?
Of course that gang of thugs authorized torture.
After reading the article, I recall the old spaghetti western with Clint Eastwood, "Hang 'em High". Just do it!
Stone has it exactly right: torture is all about creating fear and acquiescence in all who know about it. Americans, by condoning it for others are also condoning it for themselves. Once you agree to it, there are no boundaries. That's the most important reason why it is wrong.
""They didn't put out the memos that show the success of the effort, and there are reports that show specifically what we gained as a result of this activity," Cheney told Fox News on Monday. "They have not been declassified.""
Right. There were memos that would have shown "the success of the effort", but because they were classified they were never leaked....I mean released.
I wonder what Valerie Plame would say about that.
I applaud you for bringing the name of Valerie Plame into the discussion of "Torturegate".
I would love to interview Cheney on the issue of whether the release of the torture memorandums by President Obama has damaged the security of our country. While he is holding forth I would continuously say : "Valerie Plame, Valerie Plame, Valerie Plame....."
Deepa
What is being revealed now about the TORTURE carried out by the CIA with the active support of the White House and the top government officials is only what has already been known to the world.
The documents released in June of 2008 by the Senate Armed Service Committee (SASC) confirm that the top officials in Washington have approved the methods used in SERE resistance training to be used on prisoners under US custody. The SASC released a new set of documents that throw additional light on the origins of US torture policies.
Mark Mazzetti reports:
"The documents provide new details about the still-murky early months of the C.I.A.’s detention program, when the agency began using a set of harsh interrogation techniques weeks before the Justice Department issued a written legal opinion in August 2002 authorizing their use. Congressional investigators have long tried to determine exactly who authorized these techniques before legal opinion was completed."
It is now evident that the top officials of the Bush administration not only discussed in the White House about torturing “enemy combatants”, but also gave a formal legal authority to use torture methods on them.
Read:
“The Origins of Aggressive Interrogation Techniques: Part I of the Committee’s Inquiry into the Treatment of Detainees in U.S. Custody.”
http://levin.senate.gov/newsroom/supporting/2008/Documents.SASC.061708.pdf.
http://levin.senate.gov/newsroom/supporting/2008/Documents.SASC.092508.pdf.
Mark Mazzetti, “Bush Aides Linked to Talks on Interrogations,” in The New York Times (September 25, 2008).
Joby Warrick, “Top Officials Knew in 2002 of Harsh Interrogations,” in The Washington Post (September 25, 2008);
Jan Crawford Greenburg, Howard L. Rosenburg and Ariane de Vogue, “Sources: Top Bush Advisors Approved ‘Enhanced Interrogation’,” ABC News (April 9, 2008).
Some of the causes for the continuous inhuman behavior of the Americans, atleast I perceive, are: 1. American arrogance; 2. Ignorance perpetuated by the American arrogant culture: 3. This arrogant culture is based on the American belief in the US exceptionalism, innate goodness, and moral superiority.
As the Americans cintinue to believe these American myths, they continue to support the inhuman activities of their successive governments.
Weird things were going on in the Bush administration. Yet I find it hard to believe that Condi and Cheney did not make sure that their asses were covered by their beloved President when they gave the green light for torture.
"Cherchez la Femme" will not do for this admirer of Hercule Poirot. I have a pretty good idea who gave the very first green light either directly to the CIA and Armed Forces or did so via underlings. Does that make Condi and Cheney less culpable? No.
Now here is an irony. While Scooter Libby protected his boss Cheney, Condi and Cheney may be called upon to shield their boss. Will they perjure themselves?
I know that it is dangerous to speculate but I do have a hunch that McCain, had he been elected, would not have released the torture memorandums. He would have "circled the wagons" and kept the lid on.
We owe it to our bumbling President Obama that the truth may eventually surface although I am not too sanguine about that. Bumbling? Yes because his handling of the aftermath of the release has developed into a gigantic debacle which may cost him the election in 2012. I think that Obama's intelligence is vastly overrated.
"Actually, unflattering photos are used deliberately as an unconscious visual prompt to help mold consensus.
A picture is worth a thousand words.
The targets are who is portrayed in the most unflattering manner."
Ever since Condi became the darling of BushCo, and even before she mentioned him accidentally as her husband, every photograph I saw of her looked as friendly as a photograph of Cheney. I told my wife, "That woman looks like the meanest spirited person I've ever seen." Hundreds of photos at meetings, dinners, interviews, giving speeches; every photo showed a mean, petulant woman glaring at the crowd, the photographer, etc. Frankly, she scared the hell out of me. Still does. So does Cheney.
The camera does not necessarily lie.
True--her brow can be really menacing--but the chosen shot isn't a smiling one. I've seen them both.
Now that we know their ethics - who OK'd the Anthrax Mailings to push the USAPATRIOT Act through congress?
Deepa
The corporate media and Americans focused their attention completely on the "accused" of the Anthrax attacks. They completely ignored the US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick, Maryland, where Ivins worked, except for a single sentence in The Washington Post: "At home to the Army Biological Warfare Laboratories, the facility ran a top-secret program producing offensive biological weapons from 1943 until 1969." When an American terrorist had access to this weapon of mass destruction and used it on his/her own people, then he/she would not desist from using it on peoples of other nations.
G.W. Bush in his State of the Union address on January 28, 2003 characterized Saddam Hussein as a threat to the US and the world, because this “cruel dictator” had used “the world’s most dangerous weapons” on his own people. So the inference is that he would not desist from using these weapons of mass destruction on others. The other accusation that the US President made was: “Saddam Hussein has gone to elaborate lengths, spent enormous sums, taken great risks to build and keep weapons of mass destruction. But why?” However, if the same question were posed to Bush and the Americans about the weapons of mass destruction produced by the US, what would their answer be? It would have to be Bush's inference about Saddam Hussein: “The only possible explanation, the only possible use…for those weapons, is to dominate, intimidate, or attack.”
Now that's a great " foul - up " question !
And striking while the iron is hot ( > 2000 º F ),
… why not wonder who ( with the correct LACK of morality ) might have "accidently" demolished the WTC highly suspicious towers, and lied about everything so thoroughly in 2001 -- as we now absolutely do know that 2 planes alone didn't have what it takes ( by hundreds of Mega Joules of energy ) to " pull down " that job ( 3+ buildings ).
And then there's all of those trained professionals who testified to BOTH feeling and hearing massive explosions ( under their feet ), before seeing the buildings started to collapse. No matter what the " paid experts " would like you to believe, hundreds of ear-witnesses are infinitesimally likely to ALL have been wrong, especially as it's on the tapes as well.
Perhaps the "missing" hundreds of tons of nano-thermite high explosives, can be deduced from still active remnants recently found and independently scientifically verified and validated in WTC dusts ?
Namaste
Remember when Rumsfeld was so surprised there was any wrong doings at Abu Graib. Then there were several military investigations (ASS covering missions), then after years of investigations it was determined all the torture was conducted by a few bad apples from the West Virginia national guard. And America believed it!
Torture must be punished. This is a no brainer for any civilized nation. But wait isn’t war profiteering a war crime and isn’t destroying a country and killing millions and ruining many more millions lives some type of crime also? Isn’t it a crime to run secret prisons and contract the torturing out to others? But then isn’t a crime to use illegal wiretaps to imprison innocent citizens? Then we don’t want to get into the illegal and illegitimate backroom politics that created the financial fiasco we are in, but those are crimes as well.
Yes, we need to prosecute those that tortured and those that ordered the torture to take place. But when “We The People” supposedly twice elected the most incompetent, corrupt, foul, vile, leader ever to be elected in any democracy we own it to our posterity and to the world to prosecute the bush cabal for all their crimes. We also need to make sure the republicans can no longer rig the elections.
Water boarding has always been torture, it was torture in the 1st century it was torture in the 6th century it was torture in the 13 century it was torture in the 20 century. Only since these crazy American hating, liberty hating, freedom hating, wingnuts stole our country in the last 5 elections has it not been considered torture.
These gutless, inhumane, spineless, worthless, subhuman’s, who’s only concern is to steal all the money the hard working citizens pay to the government. The bush cabal should all be tried and hung like the worthless filth they are. Any gutless inhumane bureaucrat that tortured another human should be executed beside their leaders.
However, this is somewhat sticky since we routinely torture and in many cases murder our own citizens.
What I remember is that at least one congressman said after viewing the Abu Graib photos and, yes videos, in a secure vault, that the public has not seen the worst of them yet. They have not yet been seen by Americans.
Taxi to the Dark Side showed video footage of a line of Iraqi detainees being forced to masturbate in front of guards, probably some of whom were female. I'm not sure I want to see anything worse than that.
But nothing will happen to them. Perhaps if she had given him a .... Oh never mind - it's too repulsive to contemplate.
Joe
From the lowest level ass-covering bureaucratic to the top officials that ordered and knew of torture policies all need to be punished for inhumane war crimes. This needs to be done for any number of reasons; one, that it is what any nations that claims to have any morality or credibility in the world needs to do.
But secondly because in the future when the republicans rig other elections they will be in power again and we know that each republican regime becomes more brutal less humane than the prior republican administration; therefore, it is a no-brainer that the next republican administration will torture, murder, rape and kill any opposition provided they can get away with it. Therefore, if we do not punish the low-level participants it will simply happen again and again and again and again.
It doesn't matter if information was successfully gathered using torture or not, it is not the kind of technique to be used by a society trying to maintain the moral highground. I think it speaks well to the quality of pastor Ashcroft is, if he initially agreed to use torture. As with many of the "religious" personalities in government, schitzophrenia runs deep: Right to life - pro-capital punishment, torture and use any means to obtain information - love thy neighbor(love thy enemy, also), wage war while claiming to be peaceful, love the jew - hate the arab, grab for all the money - it is easier for the camel to go through the eye of the needle than for a rich man to get into heaven, etc.
Everyone who had anything to do with the planning and execution of these inhumane treatments need to be investigated, and charges filed, followed by vigorous prosecution. That goes for the actual torturers all the way to the Commander in Chief. Anyone left out will be free to do it again!
What's making me sick about all of this is the Right's claiming that this was necessary and made us safe, that they thwarted potential attacks on the US as a result. Even if this were the case, since when do we condone torture?-- especially since Bush told us "The United States doesn't torture"-- and the US was involved in prosecuting Japanese for the "water cure" used on soldiers in WWII.
Good point. Mainstream USA has become a sick society. I've had NeoCon neighbors who applaud the suffering of others and applaud the use of torture. Republican evil is so palpable I just resolved not to live by them anymore.
We have lost our way..... We are lost.... If 20% of the population feels this way, then none of us deserve to sleep under the blanket of Liberty .....
This whole last ten years is a Godddam Greek Tragedy.
What's needed badly is another Sons Of Liberty group to tar and feather conservative Tories who advocate such evil behavior by government. We should pull down their houses like we did in 1775.
TJ
"All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent." - Thomas Jefferson