On my travels, I was with old friends from years ago – Republican friends, all physicians. We had a wonderful time travelling through the Black Hills of South Dakota. Politics just didn’t come up. I suspect that friendship transcends politics sometimes. In many ways, I would’ve liked to hear what they thought about the last […]
CIA Documents Provide Little Cover for Cheney Claims Documents Fail to Exonerate ‘Enhanced Interrogation’ Techniques Washington Independent By Spencer Ackerman 8/24/09 For months, former Vice President Dick Cheney has said that two documents prepared by the CIA, one from 2004 and the other from 2005, would refute critics of the Bush administration’s torture program. He […]
Some things are pretty remarkable for their irony. In 1992, it was discovered that some DoD manuals containing instructions about torture techniques that had been outlawed for a decade still existed. When they were found, they were ordered destroyed. That scribble on the "Approved" line is the initial of then Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney. […]
emptywheel references smintheus‘ unbossed.com for the legalities of John Yoo’s arguments in the recently released Legal Principles Applicable to CIA Detention and Interrogation of Captured Al Qa’ida Personnel: Another Bush administration legal fiction unbossed.com by smintheus August 24, 2009 The ACLU finally has managed to force the Obama administration to release a less severely redacted […]
click the above for a pdf with the full text of three versions These bullet points were apparently developed by John Yoo of the OLC and the CIA. They were later repudiated by the OLC when they received a copy from the CIA, seeing them for the first time. I gather Yoo worked these out […]
They really didn’t have to give us anything, the Kennedy brothers. They could’ve just lived the blueblood life on Daddy’s Money. All through his career, Teddy took it on the chin for having playboy ways – an alcoholic first wife, Chappaquidick, stuff like that. Yet the three brothers we knew – John, Robert, and Edward […]
We’re wandering in the West. This morning, we’re taking our time, getting over colds and travel fatigue. I was reading about Tom Ridge’s assertion that Ashcroft and Rumsfeld pushed him to raise the Threat Level right before the 2004 election to give Bush a boost. I believe that probably happened. It’s consistent with the whole […]
Bush signs stimulus bill rebate checks expected in May February 13, 2008 WASHINGTON (CNN) — President Bush on Wednesday signed the Economic Stimulus Act of 2008, calling it a "booster shot" for the American economy. "The bill I’m signing today is large enough to have an impact, amounting to more than $152 billion this year, […]
CIA Used Gun, Drill in Interrogation IG Report Describes Tactics Against Alleged Cole Mastermind By Joby Warrick and R. Jeffrey Smith Washington Post August 22, 2009 CIA interrogators used a handgun and an electric drill to try to frighten a captured al-Qaeda commander into giving up information, according to a long-concealed agency report due to […]
C.I.A. Sought Blackwater’s Help in Plan to Kill Jihadists New York Times By MARK MAZZETTI August 19, 2009 The Central Intelligence Agency in 2004 hired outside contractors from the private security contractor Blackwater USA as part of a secret program to locate and assassinate top operatives of Al Qaeda, according to current and former government […]