Where are all the torture stories coming from?

[Jackpine Radical]

Why are they flaring up now?

First ABC gets the story about the underlings.
Then AP confirms it, adding "Cheney-on-down"
Now Bush.

The only thing I'm pretty sure of is that this is not the result of any kind of good, investigative reporting on the part of our mass news media. Somebody is feeding them these stories. There are several possible theories about who and why.

1--The CIA is covering their asses, spreading the blame.
2--(Some portion of) the CIA has decided to hit Bushco very hard: a shot across the bow for reasons we will never hear about.
3--The whole thing is a first step in a Roveian-style defusing of a potentially explosive issue.


If the correct answer is #3 (my current bet) it will be followed by something else, like a discrediting of the source like they did with Rather and the AWOL story.

[spanone]

1. congressional hearings now!!!!

[EFerrari]

2. I thought the ACLU has been doing FOIA requests

and just obtained the 81 page memo?

[wtmusic]

4. The Yoo memo made it news again

The court docs make interesting reading. It's clear DOJ is just trying to tie things in knots, and so far been very successful.

You need to sign up for an account, then doc retrieval is $.08/page.

https://ecf.nysd.uscourts.gov/

What's not clear is if we'll ever see all the Darby videos, including the one Sy Hersch alluded to which allegedly shows a boy being raped by US soldiers in front of his mother.

[yardwork]

3. I think that it is a combination of #1 and #2 - we've seen it before.

The Republicans keep saying that they lost Congress in 2006 because of the late-breaking scandals. Foley's was the most notable, but there were others, too. Interestingly, all those sex scandals involving Republicans had occurred earlier, but only hit the press later, just before the 2006 elections.

Payback for betraying Valerie Plame and destroying her operation, resulting in the deaths of who knows how many operatives? I wouldn't want the Company mad at me. Just sayin...

[fasttense]

5. I heard that Ashcroft was behind the leaks of the story.

I heard it on a talk show or something. They believe Ashcroft was behind the leak because he has some serious reservations (now?) about the torture. Ashcroft kind of comes off looking not as criminal as the bush and dick with the comment about history not judging them very positively.

I really think what is happening is not a Rove trap. Rove just isn't that smart, he's just crooked and willing to do illegal and immoral acts to succeed. This kind of sociopath sometimes comes off as looking smart because people can't believe he is so evil.

I honestly believe this is a news leak that was planned by someone in on the meetings to allow torture and is afraid of being prosecuted. He is trying to get the story out so investigators will come to him and he can get/ask for immunity in exchange for the truth. If the person were to come out of nowhere with all these facts no one will believe him and the bushes (including Rove) could make him look like a snitch. Now, the story is already out there. He is just confirming the facts.

I don't know but it sounds possible. We'll see.

[liberal N proud]

6. Have you also noticed a new wave of Support the troops emails

I have been barraged with emails from the fundies that all amount to support our troops.

This shit is all planned down to the chain letters, all timed to fit nicely in the evening snews with coverage of the Betray us hearings.