White House Censoring What US Public Can Know About Torture Program (Jeremy Scahill)

[Octafish]

Journalist says Obama's "done a lot of running of defense for the CIA."

by Andrea Germanos, staff writer
Common Dreams, Wednesday, July 30, 2014

Following news that the very same Central Intelligence Agency officials involved with the CIA torture program are being allowed access to the still classified U.S. Senate torture report, journalist Jeremy Scahill said Tuesday that "the White House, at the highest levels, is basically going through and editing what the American people can and can't read" about the damning findings that show systematic cruelty imposed on detainees.

Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), head of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said the 6,000-page report, the summary of which is expected to be declassified in the coming days, "exposes brutality that stands in stark contrast to our nation." The report is said to show that the CIA impeded oversight of the torture program and misled Congress about its use.

Speaking on MSNBC's NOW With Alex Wagner, Scahill said, "Let's remember this is a report from one body of government, from the United States Senate, that is going to be examining this whole program."

"And what's essentially happening is that the White House, at the highest levels, is basically going through and editing what the American people can and can't read in this report about one of the definitive, moral questions and legal questions of our time, the extent to which we were involved in systematic torture, with lying to lawmakers, with misleading not only Congress but the American people on a wide range of issues that resulted in our country going to war and being involved in systematic acts of torture," he said.

Asked by host Wagner why the White House would give this special treatment to "CIA officials who may have been—who are—implicated in (torture)?" Scahill said, "It became very clear early on in the Obama presidency that he made a political decision—and it probably was a survival decision in terms of his respect at the CIA—that he was not going to prosecute individuals that were involved with the torture program. And what's happened since then is he's done a lot of running of defense for the CIA."

CONTINUED...

http://www.commondreams.org/news/2014/07/30/jeremy-scahill-white-house-censoring-what-us-public-can-know-about-torture-program

Doesn't anyone in authority think torture is a war crime?

And why should the President be afraid of the CIA? They answer to him, supposedly.

[blkmusclmachine]

1. So much for "Transparency!"

Bullsh!t.
You.
Can.
Believe.
In.

[Octafish]

4. No Transparency. No Accountability.

And No Telling "Who Benefits," meaning "Cashes In."

[Octafish]

5. Know your BFEE: Siegelman Judge is a big-time War Profiteer

U.S. Judge Mark E. Fuller, the guy who helped railroad Gov. Don Siegelman.



Fuller just happens to be the owner of a company that's made a huge fortune off the Pentagon and War Inc via no-bid crony War on Terror largesse.

The Pork Barrel World of Judge Mark Fuller

By Scott Horton
Harper's August 6, 2007, 5:14 pm

For the last week, we’ve been examining the role played by Judge Mark Everett Fuller in the trial, conviction, and sentencing of former Alabama Governor Don E. Siegelman. Today, we examine a post-trial motion, filed in April 2007, asking Fuller to recuse himself based on his extensive private business interests, which turn very heavily on contracts with the United States Government, including the Department of Justice.

The recusal motion rested upon details about Fuller’s personal business interests. On February 22, 2007, defense attorneys obtained information that Judge Fuller held a controlling 43.75% interest in government contractor Doss Aviation, Inc. After investigating these claims for over a month, the attorneys filed a motion for Fuller’s recusal on April 18, 2007. The motion stated that Fuller’s total stake in Doss Aviation was worth between $1-5 million, and that Fuller’s income from his stock for 2004 was between $100,001 and $1 million dollars.

In other words, Judge Fuller likely made more from his business income, derived from U.S. Government contracts, than as a judge. Fuller is shown on one filing as President of the principal business, Doss Aviation, and his address is shown as One Church Street, Montgomery, Alabama, the address of the Frank M. Johnson Federal Courthouse, in which his chambers are located.

SNIP...

Doss Aviation and its subsidiaries also held contracts with the FBI. This is problematic when one considers that FBI agents were present at Siegelman’s trial, and that Fuller took the extraordinary step of inviting them to sit at counsel’s table throughout trial. Moreover, while the case was pending, Doss Aviation received a $178 million contract from the federal government.

CONTINUED...

http://www.harpers.org/archive/2007/08/hbc-90000762

There's a special place for Judge Fuller, and it's not on the bench, it's where warmongers and war profiteers should be working making little rocks out of big rocks.

[grasswire]

3. shine the light everywhere!

Turn over all the rocks.

Let truth be shown, whatever it is and wherever the evidence leads.

[HooptieWagon]

6. This is a surprise?

He's covered for Wall St criminals.
He's covered for NSA criminals.
Why wouldn't he cover for CIA criminals, too?
What other crimes is he helping cover up?

[conservaphobe]

7. So sue him.

[Trillo]

8. I can't help but wonder about this in relation to the current Gaza war.

"Doesn't anyone in authority think torture is a war crime? "

If our government is essentially a psychopath without conscience, then keeping psychopaths in power in other countries makes more logical sense, though it is horrifying and extremely sad. Sad because our educations so carefully crafted an alternative storyline for us to swallow, and now we have to wake up to an alternate reality, while the MSM does everything it can to distract.

"And why should the President be afraid of the CIA?"

I don't know, but Kennedy was killed.