Favorite The Bush administration was so adamant in its public statements against torture that CIA officials repeatedly sought reassurances that the White House officials who had given them permission to torture in the first place hadn’t changed their minds. In a July 29, 2003, White House meeting that included Vice President Dick Cheney and National…
All posts tagged Torture Report
John Brennan Exonerates Himself with Sham Investigation
Favorite The outrageous whitewash issued yesterday by the CIA panel John Brennan hand-picked to lead the investigation into his agency’s spying on Senate staffers is being taken seriously by the elite Washington media, which is solemnly reporting that officials have been “cleared” of any “wrongdoing“. But what the report really does is provide yet more…
Q&A: On the Untouchable ‘Lords of Secrecy’
Favorite Powerful, unaccountable, and operating far in the shadows, the Lords of Secrecy, as author Scott Horton calls them, are real, and they are in charge of our national security state. Horton, a lawyer, journalist and human rights advocate, makes the case in his book, Lords of Secrecy: The National Security Elite and America’s Stealth…
Torture, ‘Meet the Press’ and Cheney’s Quest for Revenge
Favorite Dick Cheney gave no ground in his “Meet the Press” interview on Sunday, but he did something arguably even better: He bared his twisted soul. Parrying questions from Chuck Todd with what he must have figured were winning talking points about the 9/11 terror attacks, Cheney unwittingly demonstrated how profoundly he has renounced fundamental…
Dick Cheney Will Eat Chuck Todd For Breakfast Unless Todd Does Exactly What I Say
Favorite Dick Cheney has always loved going on “Meet the Press.” It gives him the appearance of subjecting himself to scrutiny, while actually giving him a great platform to say whatever he wants. Cheney’s love for “Meet the Press” is not a matter of conjecture. The 2007 trial of Cheney’s chief of staff, Scooter Libby,…
Brennan: Return of Torture Tactics Up to ‘Future Policymakers’
Favorite CIA Director John Brennan gave no ground to his critics during a press conference on Thursday, singing his agency’s praises and saying it “did a lot of things right” in its interrogation program. It was his first public appearance since a Senate report released on Tuesday exhaustively documented the CIA’s gruesome record of torture…
For CIA, Truth about Torture Was an Existential Threat
Favorite For the CIA officials involved in torture, one thing was clear from the very beginning: The only way they would be forgiven for what they did was if they could show it had saved lives. It was the heart of their rationale. It was vital to public acceptance. It was how they would avoid prosecution.…
White House Getting Cold Feet Over Exposing CIA’s Torture Secrets
Favorite After seven months of promising to release a report exposing CIA torture of terror suspects, the Obama administration Friday reportedly sent Secretary of State John Kerry to ask Senate Intelligence Committee chair Dianne Feinstein to consider holding off “because a lot is going on in the world.” The White House has been negotiating with…
12 Things to Keep in Mind When You Read the Torture Report
Favorite The Senate Intelligence Committee’s torture report will be released “in a matter of days,” a committee staffer tells The Intercept. The report, a review of brutal CIA interrogation methods during the presidency of George W. Bush, has been the subject of a contentious back-and-forth, with U.S. intelligence agencies and the White House on one…
Senator Who Put Pentagon Papers Into Public Record Urges Udall To Do Same With Torture Report
Favorite Article 1, Section 6 of the Constitution establishes an absolute free-speech right for members of Congress on the floor or in committee, even if they are disclosing classified material. It states that “for any Speech or Debate in either House, they shall not be questioned in any other Place.” Within hours of Colorado Senator…