http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/04/10/cheney-others-okd-harsh-i_n_96158.html
WA****NGTON — Bush administration officials from Vice President Dick Cheney
on down signed off on
using harsh interrogation techniques against suspected terrorists after
asking the Justice
Department to endorse their legality, The Associated Press has learned.
The officials also took care to insulate President Bush from a series of
meetings where CIA
interrogation methods, including waterboarding, which simulates drowning,
were discussed and
ultimately approved.
A former senior U.S. intelligence official familiar with the meetings
described them Thursday to
the AP to confirm details first re****ted by ABC News on Wednesday. The
intelligence official
spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to publicly
discuss the issue.
Between 2002 and 2003, the Justice Department issued several memos from
its
Office of Legal
Counsel that justified using the interrogation tactics, including ones
that
critics call torture.
"If you looked at the timing of the meetings and the memos you'd see a
correlation," the former
intelligence official said. Those who attended the dozens of meetings
agreed
that "there'd need
to be a legal opinion on the legality of these tactics" before using them
on
al-Qaida detainees,
the former official said.
The meetings were held in the White House Situation Room in the years
immediately following the
Sept. 11 attacks. Attending the sessions were Cheney, then-Bush aides
Attorney General John
Ashcroft, Secretary of State Colin Powell, CIA Director George Tenet and
national security
adviser Condoleezza Rice.
The White House, Justice and State departments and the CIA refused comment
Thursday, as did a
spokesman for Tenet. A message for Ashcroft was not immediately returned.
Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., lambasted what he described as "yet
another
astoni****ng
disclosure about the Bush administration and its use of torture."
"Who would have thought that in the United States of America in the 21st
century, the top
officials of the executive branch would routinely gather in the White
House
to approve torture?"
Kennedy said in a statement. "Long after President Bush has left office,
our
country will
continue to pay the price for his administration's renegade repudiation of
the rule of law and
fundamental human rights."
The American Civil Liberties Union called on Congress to investigate.
"With each new revelation, it is beginning to look like the torture
operation was managed and
directed out of the White House," ACLU legislative director Caroline
Fredrickson said. "This is
what we suspected all along."
The former intelligence official described Cheney and the top national
security officials as
deeply immersed in developing the CIA's interrogation program during
months
of discussions over
which methods should be used and when.
At times, CIA officers would demonstrate some of the tactics, or at least
detail how they worked,
to make sure the small group of "principals" fully understood what the
al-Qaida detainees would
undergo. The principals eventually authorized physical abuse such as slaps
and pushes, sleep
deprivation, or waterboarding. This technique involves strapping a person
down and pouring water
over his cloth-covered face to create the sensation of drowning.
The small group then asked the Justice Department to examine whether using
the interrogation
methods would break domestic or international laws.
"No one at the agency wanted to operate under a notion of winks and nods
and
assumptions that
everyone understood what was being talked about," said a second former
senior intelligence
official. "People wanted to be assured that everything that was conducted
was understood and
approved by the folks in the chain of command."
The Office of Legal Counsel issued at least two opinions on interrogation
methods.
In one, dated Aug. 1, 2002, then-Assistant Attorney General Jay Bybee
defined torture as covering
"only extreme acts" causing pain similar in intensity to that caused by
death or organ failure. A
second, dated March 14, 2003, justified using harsh tactics on detainees
held overseas so long as
military interrogators did not specifically intend to torture their
captives.
Both legal opinions since have been withdrawn.
The second former senior intelligence official said rescinding the memos
caused the CIA to seek
even more detailed approvals for the interrogations.
The department issued another still-secret memo in October 2001 that, in
part, sought to outline
novel ways the military could be used domestically to defend the country
in
the face of an
impending attack. The Justice Department so far has refused to release it,
citing attorney-client
privilege, and Attorney General Michael Mukasey declined to describe it
Thursday at a Senate
panel where Democrats characterized it as a "torture memo."
Not all of the principals who attended were fully comfortable with the
White
House meetings.
The ABC News re****t ****trayed Ashcroft as troubled by the discussions,
despite agreeing that the
interrogations methods were legal.
"Why are we talking about this in the White House?" the network quoted
Ashcroft as saying during
one meeting. "History will not judge this kindly."
THE MORE YOU CAN GET CAUCASOIDS TO READ, THE SOONER THEY FIND OUT THAT
THEY
ARE JUST CONSPICUOUSLY EXPLOITED CAUCASOIDS WHICH ARE WHITE NIGGERS.
What Is a "White Nigger" ?
By Andrew D. Todd
http://hnn.us/articles/1220.html
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