Archives

Archive for August, 2009

exhausting…

"public health care would lead to people being forced to their deathbeds…" Vets’ group assails Fox, GOP over ‘suicide’ manual claim Raw Story by Daniel Tencer August 31, 2009 Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele’s claim that a Veterans’ Administration handbook urges veterans to "commit suicide" is an "asinine assertion with no basis in fact," […]

Who cares if investigating crime will cramp the CIA’s style?

Former Top Interrogators Back Wide-Ranging Criminal Probe Into Torture By Jason Leopold The Public Record Aug 23rd, 2009 … Jack Cloonan, a former FBI security and counterterrorism expert who was assigned to the agency’s elite Bin Laden Unit, Col. Steve Kleinman, a career military intelligence officer recognized as one of the Defense Department’s most effective […]

a has-been…

Cheney’s Sophistry on Torture Investigations By: emptywheel August 30, 2009 It will not surprise you to learn that PapaDick parsed wildly about what Obama has said about torture in Cheney’s defense of torture today. Five times today, Cheney claimed that Obama is "going back on his word," "his promise," that "his administration would not go […]

Senator Ted Kennedy [February 22, 1932 – August 25, 2009]

harumph…

How a Detainee Became An AssetSept. 11 Plotter Cooperated After WaterboardingBy Peter Finn, Joby Warrick and Julie TateWashington PostAugust 29, 2009 After enduring the CIA’s harshest interrogation methods and spending more than a year in the agency’s secret prisons, Khalid Sheik Mohammed stood before U.S. intelligence officers in a makeshift lecture hall, leading what they […]

Rookies…

Well, I finally read the recently released version of the CIA OIG Report front to back [COUNTERTERRORISM DETENTION AND INTERROGATION ACTIVITIES (SEPTEMBER 2001- OCTOBER 2003)]. I was impressed with its thoroughness, and with the conduct of most of the CIA Officers who were involved in the Program. While I hated what they did, considering that […]

“we do not torture”…

Background Paper on CIA’s Combined Use of Interrogation Techniques This document is part of the document release last Monday. It’s a description of the process used for prisoners taken to CIA Black Sites overseas [rendition] prepared by the CIA for Dan Levin in the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel [12/30/2004]. I won’t quote it […]

like Horton says…

Seven Points on the CIA Report Harpers By Scott Horton August 25, 2009 1. The worst is yet to come. Yesterday the CIA released a fresh copy of the report with roughly half of the “case study” discussion now unmasked. But context and placement suggest that the material that remains concealed contains some of the […]

the case…

Okay, all of Scott Horton‘s points stand out. This one [6.] particularly answered my confusion about something… Seven Points on the CIA Report Harpers By Scott Horton August 25, 2009 1. The worst is yet to come… 2. Opposition from within… 3. George Tenet and Michael Hayden misled the public… 4. All trails lead to […]

little doubt…

Seven Points on the CIA Report Harpers By Scott Horton August 25, 2009 1. The worst is yet to come… 2. Opposition from within… 3. George Tenet and Michael Hayden misled the public… 4. All trails lead to the Vice President’s office. At several points, redactions begin just when the discussion is headed toward the […]