It is beginning to look like the torture operation was managed and directed out of the White House

[NNN0LHI]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080411/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/interrogation_tactics;_ylt=AkUBJM.X58KdBYfPdhU0Ecus0NUE

By LARA JAKES JORDAN and PAMELA HESS, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 56 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - 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 reported by ABC News on Wednesday. The intelligence official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to publicly discuss the issue. snip

"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."

[acmavm]

1. First bitch I have with this article is the claim that they were 'insulating'

bush** from anything. They just don't need him when it come to making policy decisions. They never have. He's just the clown that fronts for the real power brokers in this administration.

[The Backlash Cometh]

14. He's the commander in chief. If he didn't know, it's because he didn't

want to know and he should still be responsible for the outcome if his only involvement was to say, "I want results, I don't care how you get them."

[acmavm]

16. He's all show and no go. He counts for less than nothing. In fact,

I wouldn't be a damn bit surprised to find he was also doing Poopy's bidding as well as the neocons. Ever notice yow well Carlyle Corp. has done, especially during this second ursupation?

[Proud Liberal Dem]

17. Exactly

He has been "strutting" his "I'm the Commander-in-Chief" BS ever since 9/11 (but especially in the wake of the Iraq invasion) so HE, not only being the "Commander-in-Chief" of our armed forces but also POTUS, bears ultimate responsibility for everything "good," bad, or otherwise that has happened from the minute he took the oath of office and, in the case of these torture memos, it seems clear that he actively supported it. However, it would be just as bad for us to know that he knew about it and passively allowed it or has been acting as a "puppet" for Cheney and the Neocons the entire time. There are simply NO EXCUSES for his actions whatever they may or may not have been!

[The Backlash Cometh]

18. It's very easy to act tough when you're sure you're going to escape

the legal consequences for your actions. Geez, a hand puppet could have done what he has done in the last eight years if it knew it could rig the legal system.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

19. And he and his minions HAVE rigged the system

Unfortunately, there are very few members of Congress ready and willing to hold him accountable for his actions and those of his entire (mis-)administration all apparently in the name of some misbegotten notion of "bipartisanship" or "unity". The GOP set the bar VERY low for bringing impeachment charges against Clinton for lying under oath about private and consensual sexual activities with a White House intern (something that he should've never been made to answer questions about in the first place) so why Congress feels that it must somehow restrain itself (for political/electoral reasons?) from doing its constitutionally delegated oversight job now when so many REAL crimes have been committed against the rule of law (among other things and people) in our country by what should be considered more of a criminal enterprise at this point is and will probably remain (at least to me) perhaps one of the biggest unsolved mysteries in the history of our country.

[1776Forever]

15. Great point! Taking the War out of it what the H has he accomplished?????

His Administration has all been bad in my view! It was set in stone when he walked in the door of the White House to go through with this War! No wonder he bought that land in Paraguay next to Rev. Moon!

:hide:

[tekisui]

2. War Crimes Administration,

They will have to run or be locked up the rest of their lives.

I still believe they will be held to Justice, even if they are dragged away in their 70s and 80s.

[Stuart G]

3. So, who's idea is it to toruture animals? Let alone humans?? nt

[HereSince1628]

4. "...beginning to look like..." = careful lawyer speak. What do we call Yoo's

lawyerly speak besides the voice of evil?

[EFerrari]

5. I'm amazed. This got reported on a local channel and they said

"a torture operation", not the usual euphemisms.

[lonestarnot]

7. Preparing the public for the indictments in 9 months?

:wow:

[EFerrari]

8. I hope this story goes big today although, it's too bad it's Friday.

We should just call Junior the torture president and this Congress the torture congress because they knew damn well what was going on here.

[lonestarnot]

29. commondreams.org bumper stickers "My America Doesn't Torture."

[deminks]

6. Choreographed was the word someone used the other day.

If the torture sessions were "choreographed", then who was watching the "show"?

http://www.americablog.com/2008/04/cheney-rice-rumsfeld-powell-tenet-and.html

The high-level discussions about these "enhanced interrogation techniques" were so detailed, these sources said, some of the interrogation sessions were almost choreographed -- down to the number of times CIA agents could use a specific tactic.

[Marie26]

21. Cheney

He probably had cameras installed in the dungeons so that he could watch and approve of various "interrogation tactics" from his underground lair. He's a sick, sick, evil man.

[Lars39]

24. Lynne probably enjoyed it also.

[Lars39]

23. Reminds me of this for some reason:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0266425/plotsummary

[Bluenorthwest]

9. And what have our candidates had to say about this?

I assume zip, nada, zero. Why is that?

[NNN0LHI]

10. I think they are worried that most Americans support this stuff

They may be right.

Don

[KoKo]

12. I worry about that too....but maybe times are changing...

Bush's approval took another dive and folks are starting to see the chaos the Crime Family has caused in the country. Economy wrecked, jobs gone, airlines that don't function, helpless folks being tasered to death, crime wave, foreclosures, food shortages. It kind of helps folks understand what it's like to be "down" and have things going on beyond your control. Maybe...some empathy for our fellow human beings will start to emerge after the decades of "Greed is Good."

We have to hope...

[bdamomma]

11. Cheney is the root of all this evil, among others

this man is a criminal and he needs to get his a$$ thrown out and he needs to be arrested.

[crikkett]

13. I was rather hoping that villain #1 was Rumsfeld

but he's like #14

[Marie26]

20. That'll be helpful for the war crimes tribunal. nt

[BurtWorm]

22. It's been documented in all sorts of books and articles

For example: Ron Suskind's One Percent Solution and James Risen's State of War.

[kentuck]

25. And they can't be held responsible after leaving office...?

Too bad.

[Wizard777]

27. Oh yes they can be held responsible after leaving office.

[Wizard777]

26. This comming out of the White House is exactly why the Geneva Convention demands investigations

of abuse begin from the top down. The investigation doesn't begin with the private standing outside the cell. It begins with the President. But we have yet to actually abide by the Geneva Convention in any way. In this war the Geneva Convention is pretty much a dead letter. The American version of Auschwitz can't be very far away.

[WinkyDink]

28. Who doesn't know, really, that the Psycho-in-Chief would WANT in on this??

[librechik]

30. anybody with half a brain, i.e., anybody NOT a Republican, could see this from the beginning

now we are getting the documentary truth, the Republicans will rush to smother this old news like an elderly relative with a vast fortune.