Greg Sargent catches Cheney parsing carefully about whether the two CIA documents he’s trying to get released will prove that torture works.
The key moment came when his interviewer said: “You want some documents declassified having to do with waterboarding.” Cheney replied:
“Yes, but the way I would describe them is they have to do with the detainee program, the interrogation program. It’s not just waterboarding. It’s the interrogation program that we used for high-value detainees. There were two reports done that summarize what we learned from that program, and I think they provide a balanced view.”
Greg speculates:
My bet is Cheney is planning to cite the valuable intel in the docs and say that the program — of which torture was only a part — was responsible for producing it. He’ll fudge the question of whether the torture itself was actually responsible for generating that information. Cheney is as experienced as any Washington hand at using precise language to obfsucate, and this is the game plan. You heard it here first.
Greg’s right–Cheney’s making a key retreat off his claims. That’s because we know the CIA got a ton of intelligence from some of the detainees, particularly KSM. But I’ve shown repeatedly, with my half-completed review of the KSM intelligence used in the 9/11 Report, that the bulk of this information came long after KSM was waterboarded in March 2003…
The way that people are finally catching on to the Rove/Cheney way of distorting is a thing of beauty. This two memo thing of Cheney’s has to be bullshit, no other option really. So why is he putting so many eggs in a basket full of holes. I guess he hasn’t caught onto the fact that there is an army onto his methods.He’s playing a chess game using a checker-board strategy …
Much as I hate seeing him dominate the news, I think our cause is served by letting cheney keep on ranting. It just encourages others to come out of the woodwork and tell all, so as to protect themselves or to set the record straight, or just because the truth needs to be told.
So I say, rant on, Mr. XVP. The backlash against you is gathering into a storm.
He thinks he can beat it. He always has in the past. And he can’t seem to feel that his luck is running out. Like lincoln said, “you can fool…”
I have a slightly different take on Cheney. If you look at Cheney on the last couple of days of tapings, he has a different tone and demeaner. To me Cheney is being to look scared, the way an animal looks when it’s cornered. I would love to have one of those experts who defense lawyers hires to analyze the perspective jurors. His voice his different and so are his eyes. Oh, this couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.
Joy, I’ve only been reading the transcripts and not seeing his visuals. But the textual tone seems to have shifted too — he’s clearly backtracking. Instead of insisting that those two classified reports will prove waterboarding works, he’s now saying the overall interrogation program, including waterboarding gained us the information.
He’s never had to face people who challenged him with actual opposing data before. He could say anything, and everyone, journalists included, would fall down and genuflect.
Even if he’s not motivated to re-examine his words to see if he told the truth, he may be motivated by the threat of exposure as a liar, or possibly even perjury.
What is his legal jeopardy if he’s now saying there never was evidence of a link between Saddaam and Al Qaeda — and he told Congress repeatedly that there was and that the evidence was overwhelming? Sounds like perjury to me.
I believe he always managed not to be sworn in when he was speaking, but my understanding is that, sworn or not, it’s a felony to lie to Congress.
Ralph,
Look at my post newer post [“I want to be very careful about how I say thisâ€â€¦ ] and read his words. He’s mastered the technique of saying things in a way that he can not be held accountable. But I agree with you both. He seems scared and vicious [Richard Clarke, Colin Powell]…