Colin Powell Initially Kept In The Dark About CIA Interrogation Practices, Report Finds

[applegrove]

Colin Powell Initially Kept In The Dark About CIA Interrogation Practices, Report Finds

By KEN DILANIAN & EILEEN SULLIVAN

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/30/colin-powell-cia_n_5635636.html?utm_hp_ref=politics

"SNIP......................


WASHINGTON (AP) — A Senate report on the CIA's interrogation and detention practices after the 9/11 attacks concludes that the agency initially kept the secretary of state and some U.S. ambassadors in the dark about harsh techniques and secret prisons, according to a document circulating among White House staff.

The still-classified report also says some ambassadors who were informed about interrogations of al-Qaida detainees at so-called black sites in their countries were instructed not to tell their superiors at the State Department, the document says.

The 6,300-page Senate report on the CIA's interrogation program has been years in the making. The findings are expected to reveal additional details about the CIA's program and renew criticisms that the U.S. engaged in torture as it questioned terrorism suspects after the 2001 attacks.

A congressional official who has read the Senate report confirmed that it makes the findings outlined in the document. A former senior CIA official said the secretary of state at the time, Colin Powell, eventually was informed about the program and sat in meetings in which harsh interrogation techniques were discussed. But Powell may not have been informed when the techniques were first used in 2002, the official said. A spokeswoman Wednesday said Powell would not comment.



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[applegrove]

1. Cheney & Rumsfeld used Colin Powell as the bait in a 'bait & switch'. People

thought they were getting Powell's integrity and thoughtfulness in George W. Bush's foreign policy. It was not so.

[Aerows]

2. They helped ruin the reputation

of a man that served his country faithfully. I'd say that Cheney and Rumsfeld should be ashamed of themselves, but I don't think there is an atrocity that could come to light that they orchestrated that would shame them.

[TheKentuckian]

6. I think you might be edging too far into Powell's corner here.

The statement was he MAY not have known about torture when it was first hatched and employed but then was in on subsequent meeting at some point for sure.

That isn't exactly an exoneration from knowledge and involvement with the torture program just that he possibly was not privy early on.

It does not clear him a single bit for lying us into America's dumbest war and I would argue nothing can because he perhaps more than anyone in the country was in a position to see the folly from many miles away. He knew the regional strategy. He knew the capabilities, he knew we had them under an air cap and embargo, he knew all all about the balance of power in the region, he had a better picture than virtually one.

There is no way a man of his intellect that has held the high posts Powell has, particularly the unique combination of said posts and be able to say he was hornswoggled or bamboozled on this subject. A torture program? Quite plausibly he was a mushroom on that one but then it is clear at some point he did know and I think it is fair to say he won't be heralded as a Paul Revere on that note either.

Served faithfully is dubious unless you are talking about the neocon and corporate agendas and then I would agree. The Constitution and people of the United States? A much more dicey proposition. All I can say comfortably about the man is that eventually the sewer became too foul for him to hang any longer at least.

Maybe it was the torture that was the straw that broke the old camel's back but it sure couldn't have been Iraq unless he is pretty fucking stupid and oblivious and I just missed it.

[Aerows]

8. This is true

and perhaps I spoke too strongly in his defense. Still the villains of this piece, Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld got off with absolutely no consequences.

[TheKentuckian]

11. Yup, yup. Lots of blame to go around on that, including Powell who could have blown a lot of it up

and shed the light of day on their criminality and very much including Democratic leadership for "off the table" and "looking forward".

[HooptieWagon]

7. He tried to cover up My Lai.

His reputation isn't all that pristine and honorable. If he has a moral code, he's willing to set it aside for career advancement.

[Aerows]

9. True

Though I'd take him over Rumsfeld and Cheney's utter lack of morality that descend into pure evil.

[SummerSnow]

3. He's an ass anyway.

Remember when he had that vial?

[applegrove]

4. He knew it was bullshit. I fell for him then. I guess Cheney and Rumsfeld only

pushed Powell as hard as he would not fight back. Normal people have limits. Cheney and Rumsfeld don't.

[trumad]

5. Fuck Powell

He knew it was all bullshit and instead of resigning in protest...he kept going.

[UTUSN]

10. "initially". "eventually". What was the shelf life of those?!1 His whole career started with My Lai

A career of TOOL for old white males.