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TechnoratiTorturer in Chief: Media Pick Pelosi over Cheney
Beltway journalists seem finally to have a found a torture story they like. Mind you, not the one about the Bush/Cheney White House possibly okaying drowning to extract "information" to justify an Iraq attack -- not that story. The story the Beltway bulldogs have decided to get stuck into is a story about Democrats.
Let's recap. Prosecutions of members of the Bush/Cheney administration became a real possibility last month. As part of an ongoing court case, the Department of Justice released memos detailing techniques approved for use on terror suspects. CIA interrogators were given legal authorization to use water torture, to slam an alleged "high-value" detainee's head against a wall, to place insects inside a "confinement box" to induce fear, and force a detainee to remain awake for 11 consecutive days. All that, according to a memo signed by the former head of the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel (OLC), Jay Bybee now a federal judge.
Subsequent reports including commentary by an FBI interrogator who interrogated one of the same suspects by traditional -- non-torture -- means, suggests that even knowing (as most interrogators did) that torture produces untrustworthy evidence (because torture victims make things up to make the torture stop), officials at the highest level in the Bush/Cheney administration okayed torture tactics.
Did they order abuse specifically to extract an Al Qaeda/ Saddam Hussein link ? Maybe. But we'll never know, because instead of even asking the question, the headline story in the media has become: "Nancy Pelosi is a hypocrite."
"Pelosi a hypocrite" vs. "Cheney okayed torture for political reasons:" It seems easy to pick the hotter scoop. Yet David Gregory (of Meet the Press) was all over Pelosi as were the rest of the Sunday squawkers this weekend. On Fox News they talk about almost nothing else. Why didn't the House speaker push back harder? When did she actually know what? Was she right to hold a press conference blaming the CIA? They're not bad questions. They're important questions. But when it comes to torture, is Pelosi the thorn or the point?
"This is not where the White House wants the public discussion to be," Gregory said on Morning Joe. Too right. But it's bigger than that. On this question of torture-for-war or Pelosi political mis-step, it's not just the White House that wants a different conversation. It's America. We need accountability for torture -- and prosecutions -- if we don't want heinous practises to continue. And we need a press that grasps, not avoids, the serious questions. Scrutinize Pelosi all you like -- but right after Cheney's shut up and Bybee's off the bench.
45 Comments so far
Show AllThe CIA, Bush Senior, Dick Cheney , Bush Junior , Rummy, Rove, Tenet, Goss, and the cast of the lying rat pack are all birds of a feather.
Thats what these people are good at, character assassinations, real assignations,military coups, murder, war misdirection,
and total destruction of anything that gets in their way.
The Main stream media will spend hours over the next 2or 3 months resurrecting Micheal Vick as a reformed soul, and just minutes on the evils of the CIA and Bush/Cheneys illegal Patriots Acts and war of occupation.
There are still billions to be made, and the corporations are going to milk America until everyone in the middle east is dead.
You don't tug on Superman's cape
You don't spit into the wind
You don't pull the mask off the old Lone Ranger
And you don't mess around with the CIA, da do da do...
Let the misdirection and the spin misters continue their wars of deception and murder.
BornFreeMen
Victim of bulls??t Patriot Act warrant less surveillance community watch gang stalking torture program.
The really sad part about these fake Christians national security wanna be heroes is that they spent two years following me with the intent of letting me know they were there 24/7,
They tortured me psychologically, they know it, if they were trying to be covert to uncover a terrorist cell, which I am not a member of, they have failed. They used me as a training tool for buddy's nationwide, why? Because I live in Florida, near Tampa, theme parks, beaches and golf.
And I will always know when they are there, because now I am fully aware of what they do, they could never in a million years fool me, but then again, that was not the intent of their surveillance. Torture to drive me crazy was the intent.
You came out all right... Don't let the CIA scare you anymore.
They played their dirty tricks on me too, but it just made me more focused and determined to overcome.
Who is telling a lie, Pelosi or the CIA?
I think the CIA is telling a lie because that is what the CIA does so much of the time.
They're both telling lies. Whatever attention Pelosi is getting right now, she has brought it on herself. She is the one who took impeachment off the table, who lied when she said that the House could not stop the funding of the Iraq occupation, and who we all knew two years ago at least that she, Jane Harmon, and other Dims had been briefed on the torture.
But Cheer up, things will get worse.
We know they were briefed, but did they lie to congress and the people about the briefing? I think they had to because Bush was saying there is no torture! "National Security" that is always the trump card.
Also I think many repubs now wish Pelosi had put impeachment on the table because since they didn't have near enough votes to do it, Bush would have come out the winner and the dems would still be trying to get in the White House and McCain/Palin would be running your country. I wanted impeachment too but I didn't think it would happen... not enough votes.
Just like lots of folks want some 3rd party to win, but sorry not enough votes.
It takes monumental effort to change that and lots of progressives need to learn some social political skills before it can happen..
It's disheartening to see how many progressives have joined in on the Pelosi bashing. One is reminded that no one hates Democrats more than progressives do.
And in case you hadn't noticed, progressives have a severe misogyny problem. This is why we have another neocon in the White House.
Another neocon like Pelosi, you mean.
They're all neocons on that bus now.
I finally have something to admire Pelosi for. She's basically told the media and its right-wing backers 'oh, no you don't' blame her for the torture. The fact that she called their bluff by implicating the CIA really makes me think that woman has some cahones. That's not an organization whose name you bandy about lightly.
As far as the media is concerned, who cares. The net has left those dinosaurs in the dust, except with the part of America that gets their news from the networks, which is still prob the majority. Citizens are learning the hard way, the angry white male is dying out or seeing the light, and the hardcases can't even organize their piddling minority party, the republicans, who may never recover, except if the dems completely sell their backers down the river.
Of course, the economy and another attack by the fifth column can still throw us into a disaster, or perhaps not.
Panetta's got his hands full cowing the CIA, and Emmanuel the Pentagon.
While I'm not a real fan of Speaker Pelosi, I also remember the fear that gripped our nation during the time in question. Please remember also that two Democratic Senators were the only people that were targeted to receive anthrax in their mail. Doesn't it seem likely that many members of Congress actually feared for their life during this time when the Bush Administration was pushing fear as their weapon of choice in directing the message, directing the media, dictating to Congress what to do, especially the Republican majority that was bending over backwards to grant Bush (Cheney, actually) any power or law thought necessary? I am not suggesting that Pelosi could not have done something, I am suggesting that if she had, she may not be here at this time. And oh yeah, just because it is labeled a "conspiracy theory" doesn't mean that it is necessarily wrong.
I find it HILARIOUS that the best that the Republinazi Torturers can come it with is that it is all Pelosi's fault for not stopping them from torturing.....
What next? Slavery was the slaves fault for not opposing it strongly enough?
"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
Most of the MSM is Republicans. The talking heads, the station owners, the producers-they have their jobs BECAUSE of their conservative creds-
What is the mystery,? They hammer a democrat, so what? When bush lied the country into war they cheerled the effort, helped, and made it possible.
I mean MSM=GOP usually, think FOX but they are all the same, and Pelosi getting targeted makes a lot of sense-she is on the enemy team. You know, the ones that actually believe poor people have a right to live and breathe.
Of Course I'm wrong-that's why Pelosi is taking it between the eyes to a point and to a degree reaching absurdity. While Cheney is PAID to spew his bs to groveling audiences.
This is shooting the Private and letting the General go.
Yes, a distraction. Let's go back to the real torture and the real torturers....
There will be a protest in Spokane, Washington on Thursday, May 21, 2009 at 5 PM at the corner of Washington and Riverside in front of the American Legion Building where CIA psychologists Mitchell and Jessen have offices. Spokane is the home of psychologists Mitchell and Jessen who, using the U.S. military's SERE survival training program (one of which is located just outside Spokane at Fairchild Air Force Base), reverse engineered those survival techniques to more successfully torture and breakdown human beings in the service of the post-9/11 lie of the empire's global war on terror. Mitchell and Jessen along with several hundred employees and contractors associated with other companies make up a key part of ground zero in the U.S. policy of torture.
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2007/06/21/cia_sere/
http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2007/07/torture200707?curren...
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2009/04/levin-torture-int...
http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2005/07/11/050711fa_fact4?currentPage=a...
http://psychoanalystsopposewar.org/blog/2007/08/27/protest-at-spokane-ci...
http://spokanepoliceabuses.wordpress.com/torture-sere-fairchild-spokane/
Attacking Pelosi distacts us from the big issue. The CIA was pressured to torture to force the false claim that Iraq was responsible for 9-11. The war on Iraq needed a more plausible justification.
I beg to differ. There was enough evidence (Plamegate etc) to impeach Bush for lying this country into aggression against a sovereign state, but nothing happened. That the CIA used torture to force the case for invasion is just icing, but again, nothing will come of it.
Why won't anything come of it? Why won't there be any investigation/trial/prosecution? One word: Pelosi. For 2.5 years Pelosi has had the power to halt the corruption, tackle executive excess, and she doesn't need the President's approval to do so.
The big news is that the Speaker of the House has/is enabling executive excess. She is supposed to lead a representative democracy. Instead she supports a fledgling dictatorship.
The difference is that people know Cheney is a neo-con, but people think Pelosi is liberal. If Cheney had run against Cindy Sheehan in Sf, Sheehan would have won. So perhaps, if people understood that Pelosi was also a neo-con, then maybe Sheehan could have won.
Though Laura Flanders did not utter the word, I will type it: Sexism!
Dick Cheney and his creepy crew of warped acolytes are deserving of most of the media crap that is being lobbed Pelosi's way (though she in not wholly pure by any means). The Beltway press corps (the most venal employees of the corporate media) are by and large, still an old boy's club. And the one thing old boy's clubs hate more than anything is a woman with power.
Even a busted clock is right twice a day and Pelosi might just be technically right this time. Former Senator Bob Graham, who was also on the committee at the time, corroborates her story. He is known, and even mocked, for keeping meticulous diaries of all his activities.
I'm not defending Pelosi, because even if she wasn't briefed at the particular time in question, she certainly had to be aware of what was going on, but the media is successfully muddling the issue and distracting the easily confused public.
Jaded Prole, i AGREE WITH THAT 100%. As for the C.I.A. lying, anyone that is sick enough to torture will do anything. Anyone that did not agree with the Dictators was in trouble. A lot of them are still fearful that Bush and Cheney are still in control. Check out David Gregory.Obama and Eric Holder seems to have a little doubt also.
Right, the C I A will assassinate and overthrow democratically elected governments and install dictators; but they wouldn't lie to Congress ... Also, if they would do that in other countries, what make people think they wouldn't try to do that here.
Pelosi is guilty and should have been defeated in the last election but the majority of dimascraps voted for her anyway when there were better alternatives. That being said, what Pelosi is guilty of is aiding and abetting crimes against humanity by a criminal administration. Until those criminals are brought to justice, it is ludicrous to go after those who abetted them. If this is an attempt at diversion it seems weak because the underlying foundation of accusations against Pelosi are the obvious crimes she knew about BEING PERPETRATED BY CHENEY AND BUSH!
I know a few people who live and vote in Pelosi's district.
I consider all of them to be minions of Satan for allowing this woman to return to office.
q
Cheney is no longer in power (unless he's pulling Obama's strings); Pelosi is.
Oregoncharles
Bingo. Furthermore, Cheney wouldn't have been able to get away with so many crimes when he was in power if it weren't for scum like Pelosi and Reid. Or Obama and Hillary who voted each and every time to fund the genocide. I say put them all in the same jail cell and throw away the frigging key. Better still, build 4 walls around Washington and call it a prison.
Not a big fan of Madame Speaker, think she is far more part of the problems than she is their solution, BUT (like Sir Mix-A-Lot I like big buts) she wasn't an architect of these policies. It is just insane that the media would hammer her over "enhanced interrogation techniques" and give a pass to those that pushed these policies through.
Pelosi seems a bit addled. But she's got a tremendous opportunity to direct the MSM toward the real issues. Everyone (i.e., the MSM) is watching to see what she comes up with next. She could admit her own shortcomings and come out for legal action against those higher-ups who crossed the line on torture. Maybe she could even confess that she deserves to be included in the roll call of scoundrels. Sadly, I don't expect to see this, but wouldn't it be something if she actually seized her 15 minutes and made something of it?
Pelosi is one of my less favorite politicians to put it mildly, but she's being garroted as was Dan Rather to get the emphasis off the real story. It worked last time (Bush's National Guard AWOL record) and surely will this time because the corporations control the release of news to the public and the public isn't paying attention to what's being done. They just unquestioningly swallow their pablum.
When the people fear their government there is tyranny,
when the government fears the people there is liberty.
~ Thomas Jefferson
She's not being garroted. It's all a game, just like it was a game for McCain and Obama to go at each other before the election and then afterwards pursue the same basic agenda. Yes, she does have the power right now to turn the tables in the media by stating that the real scoundrels are Cheney and Bush, but she won't because she and the other Dims were complicit in the crimes. It's part of the game to play the role taking the heat in order to remain in her elite seat of power and money.
The ultimate true culprits in this crime spree are the American people who voted these criminals into power. As Rick Steves says, a dumbed-down populace is what makes a dumbed-down government. And boy, are Americans ever dumbed-down!
I don't think Pelosi is makin this up.
The CIA always talks out of both sides and they are usually lies.
This was at a time when they were tryin to sell the war and being straight about torture to the congress is not a selling point... it could have blown the whole plan if the story came out about torture to make up lies to justify the war.
She got into it with the CIA so good for her.
She is keeping the issue alive and it is the CIA now that says it can't verify it's own memos.
I'll be rooting for her, now that she is up against the right wing and the folks who think the CIA is the final word in truth.
In fact it now seems Pelosi is one of the few who is not trying to cover-up the torture.
IF Pelosi were motivated by justice and duty to the rule of law and the US Constitution, THEN her actions over these last few years would have been vastly different.
She could still make things "right", but I don't think she has the dignity or COURAGE.
She could learn something from Ehren Watada.
Well, Things change. Ehren Watada might agree too.
Who else in congress has had the courage to charge the CIA lied? Not many.
She may have her limits of how far she can be pushed to go along with the fog of War and fear being called unpatriotic or sympathetic to the "enemy" in time of war. Not many folks have that courage, in fact it is a common human behavior.
If you think nobody will change with the times, I don't agree. Timing is everything in politics.
Sure she could have been as brave as say Dennis K and a few others, but now I think she is pissed at all the revelations coming out.
She was pledged to secrecy in those CIA briefings, So whatever she was told, she couldn't repeat anyway according to the rules of top secret briefings and what proof would she have from a secret meeting of no recording or notes and who told her what is even top secret and she is not allowed to even tell other members of congress.
Unfortunately, I think the majority of Americans are not outraged by torture if they are told it is necessary for their own protection, even if it is making them less secure from the blow-back. This is what War does to people.... FEAR!
But now that it is plain that Cheney ordered torture to get false confessions to justify the illegal War, I think that is a different matter. This won't go away and I hope she doesn't back down.
Not many folks have the courage to buck the fog of war, but many did, both inside the Beltway and outside. Pelosi was a war-monger in 2001, and nothing can change that fact.
Yes, the CIA briefings were secret, but there are complete minutes, and list of attendees etc. This will be Pelosi's undoing when the redacted briefs are released.
The United States government classification system established under Executive Order 13292 (by Bush in 2003) states that information may not be classified merely because it would be embarrassing or to cover illegal activity; information may only be classified to protect national security objectives.
My interpretation is that Pelosi would not have been subject to prosecution had she approached Congress and called into question the legality (and morality) of enhanced interrogation techniques, in particular waterboarding.
Laws are not secret; in our society, they are for every person to see and interpret. If the DoJ determined that EITs were "legal", then it enters the public discourse, and Pelosi would be free to discuss them.
The whole country was a war monger in 2001.
The reason for the secrecy is always to "Protect National Security."
Bush would say "We don't torture" and nobody knows what Pelosi was told or can prove it.
The CIA's Leon Panetta, even said they cannot verify the memos.
She made lots of mistakes and went along like most of the congress and the public but coming out now is still a good thing.
The MSM doesn't like spaghetti benders, especially female ones, especially female ones with real political power. Cheney, on the other hand, is a real American who can trace his heritage back all the way to Plymouth Rock. He recently had dinner with the chief honchos of ALL the tv cable and broadcasting networks and showed them the forged documents to prove it. The word then went out to the news divisions: GET PELOSI! As Matt Damon told Joe Pesci in "The Good Shepherd": "We own the country. The rest of you are just visiting."
"We own the country. The rest of you are just visiting."
Well, kind of true; however, if we are just visiting then they wouldn't need a controlled MSM to sway our opinions. The people have the power for change, but are manipulated into segmented factions of self interest. Divide and conquer through a system where ones gain only comes at the expense of another.
As Terry Bradshaw would say, "Now that's funny."
I loved that movie. That was the best line in it. Interesting because I believe Cheney has a goat ranch in Wyoming.
Of course goat ropers need love too.
michael jordan
http://sites.google.com/site/apolloguide/
Mordechai Shiblikov
Thanks! I always knew that guy was born under a rock, I just didn't know where.
Pelosi gets nailed because she is the current Speaker of the House, and has directed the DNC not to push on prosecuting the Bush/Cheney cabal, as well as crushing any notions about single-payer health care. Cheney has no power at the moment, and the evidence of his crimes are not going anywhere, so he can be popped into court at any time. Pelosi, however, has and can wreak enormous damage to this country, and as such, is deserving of all criticism, all of which can be justified.
Pelosi is a self-serving politician, lying and obfuscating to protect her career and wealth. She needs to be removed from office by any means. Keeping her in office is not the CHANGE we the people want.
WTF
Congratulations on a short accurate bio of Speaker Pelosi!
Good post. Even though I think the CIA spooks set Nancy up in this case, she was and is an enabler of the criminal actions of the executive branches.
Excellent observations! Pelosi gushing at Junior's state of the union in 07 is a vision stamped on my brain like a bad nightmare. Anyone who thinks Junior's cabal of criminals doesn't cross party lines is in denial. This woman needs to be broomed out of office as it's clear she is a remnant of the previous regime.
Since Common Dreams chose to publish two versions of their "Picking on Pelosi" theme, I don't feel too presumptuous about re-posting here what I did on the one by Josh Harkinson. I seem to see the same attitude in the Laura Flanders piece in her condemnation of Republcan partisanship. For her article, as for that of Harkinson, I have a considerably different take on the "partisanship" behind the situation. GRITtv may not be that different from Mother Jones in its Obama-excusing proclivities, along with that of the mainstream press.
......................................................
It is astounding that the author of this article was so one-minded about the cause of the flurry over Pelosi and water-boarding. I don't doubt that Republicans are seizing a political opportunity not available to them when they were "in charge." But partisan poliics works that way and both parties are composed of hypocrites who will scream about flaws of the other party while covering their own. But how many of these partisan screams become the headlines of mainstream news media? Here the partisanship of the press itself comes into play, and what is the press of this country protecting? I would say it is protecting from public outrage the President whom most of them endorsed for the presidency and fawned over his every move as President. Even if they hadn't supported him, les majeste seems to be their operative rule, don't show how unclothed the Emperor himself is on the topic of torture. Don't emphasize his failure to release photos of torture victims of U.S. intelligence, on grounds that to do so would endanger our own troops. It's called "wag the dog," emphasize a news story that will blame "a Democrat" for complicity, rather than "the" Democrat who is providing the ongoing role model for political cover-up of the crimes of the American state. Or can the Obama-excusing editors at Mother Jones even think that way?
Whether it is the Super Bowl or Pelosi Bashing, it is all a "Diversion Technique".....
Crimes have been committed. Laws have been broken. Cover-ups and "Official Versions" became reality.....Almost 3,000 people were murdered on September 11,2001 and yet there was no independent investigation of the crime. The American People were given a Bi-Partisan Commission directed by a Neo-Conservative that created an "Official Version". From the murders of 3,000 people, came the illegal and immoral attacks on two sovereign nations that had nothing to do with the murders.
It does not matter if they were Republicans or Democrats, they all violated their oaths of office and "Obstructed Justice" and "They" continue to do so.
"May God have mercy on us all."
So what else do we expect from the corporate media whores? They're all Cheney's bitches.
One more nail in the coffin of the myth of the "liberal media."
q
Apparently no more than we expect from the right of center whores like Pelosi. As far as I am concerned Bush/Cheney/Rumsfield/Pelosi/Clinton/Reid and Obama ought to be sharing the same prison cell where they can spend what is left of their worthless lives serving the prison population on their knees. Pelosi, after all, took impeachment off the table, remember? Now Laura (offering her paid for apologetic) paints Pelosi as a victim. How obtuse.