Did Secretary Rice Know About Gonzales' Secret '05 Legal Opinion On Torture?

[Hissyspit]

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/10/04/rice-secret-memo

Did Secretary Rice Know About Gonzales’ Secret ‘05 Legal Opinion On Torture?

In 2004, the Washington Post revealed a secret 2002 Justice Department memo that claimed that the torture of detainees in the war on terror “may be justified.” The memo, written by John Yoo, was so secret, that even then-National Security Adviser Condoleeza Rice and then-Secretary of State Colin Powell were unaware of its existence until the Post’s report.

Upon learning of the memo, Rice was reportedly livid that she had been left out of the loop. According to a former White House official, she and Powell “confronted” then-White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales, telling him “there would be no more secret opinions“:

Rice “very angrily said there would be no more secret opinions on international and national security law,” the official said, adding that she threatened to take the matter to the president if Gonzales kept them out of the loop again. Powell remarked admiringly, as they emerged, that Rice dressed down the president’s lawyer “in full Nurse Ratched mode,” a reference to the head nurse of the mental hospital in the 1975 film “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.”

The New York Times reports today that in February 2005, the Justice Department, under Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, issued another secret opinion that was “an expansive endorsement of the harshest interrogation techniques ever used by the Central Intelligence Agency.” That wasn’t the only “secret opinion” on torture issued by the Justice Department that year:

Later that year, as Congress moved toward outlawing “cruel, inhuman and degrading” treatment, the Justice Department issued another secret opinion, one most lawmakers did not know existed, current and former officials said. The Justice Department document declared that none of the C.I.A. interrogation methods violated that standard.

Like the 2002 torture memo, the 2005 memos were authored by the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel and aggressively advocated by Vice President Cheney’s chief counsel, David Addington.

Did Rice know about the 2005 memos before the Times revealed them? If so, does she agree with the policy they lay out? If not, will she “take the matter to the president?”

[Danieljay]

1. You really need to ask that question? Of course she knew. n/t

[Mabus]

2. Is this why Downing (the head of WH Counter-Terrorism) resigned in 2002?

Is this why Downing resigned in early 2002?

White House counterterrorism chief resigns

June 27, 2002 Posted: 9:20 PM EDT (0120 GMT)

From John King and Kelly Wallace
CNN Washington

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The White House announced Thursday that retired Army Gen. Wayne Downing is resigning his post as deputy national security adviser for counterterrorism, to be replaced by retired Air Force Gen. John Gordon, an expert in nuclear security.

Downing took the newly created post last October as part of the White House response to the September 11 attacks. His main responsibility, according to a White House release, was to organize and staff the National Security Council's office focused on combating terrorism, and an office of intelligence detection within the Office of Homeland Security.

At that time, Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge called Downing "a leader who understands terrorism, how terrorists are organized and what it takes to defeat them."

http://archives.cnn.com/2002/ALLPOLITICS/06/27/wh.downing/

Is Downing someone that should be talked to about this? fwiw, Gen. Gordon, Downing's replacement, worked for Tenet in the CIA.

Gordon first served under George J. Tenet, Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (1994-1997), as Associate DCI for Military Support; then, beginning in November 1997, Gordon served as Deputy Director of Central Intelligence.<4>

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=John_A._Gordon

edited to remove extraneous CNN "print this" information

[Solly Mack]

3. kick