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Torturer 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.
May 19, 2009
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.
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Laura Flanders
Laura Flanders interviews forward-thinking people about the key questions of our time on The Laura Flanders Show, a nationally syndicated radio and television program also available as a podcast. A contributing writer to The Nation, Flanders is also the author of six books, including "Bushwomen: How They Won the White House for Their Man" (2005). She is the recipient of a 2019 Izzy Award for excellence in independent journalism, the Pat Mitchell Lifetime Achievement Award for advancing women's and girls' visibility in media, and a 2020 Lannan Cultural Freedom Fellowship for her reporting and advocacy for public media. lauraflanders.org
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.
Laura Flanders
Laura Flanders interviews forward-thinking people about the key questions of our time on The Laura Flanders Show, a nationally syndicated radio and television program also available as a podcast. A contributing writer to The Nation, Flanders is also the author of six books, including "Bushwomen: How They Won the White House for Their Man" (2005). She is the recipient of a 2019 Izzy Award for excellence in independent journalism, the Pat Mitchell Lifetime Achievement Award for advancing women's and girls' visibility in media, and a 2020 Lannan Cultural Freedom Fellowship for her reporting and advocacy for public media. lauraflanders.org
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.
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