ALL: Probably by no means comprehensive, so feel free to add. This is a timeline of the DU threads as news broke. For timeline research of the torture actions of the Bush administration, see the DKos thread on Bush's complicity listed below. - H'spitAPRIL 1Sabra: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=3252139Justice interrogation memo: Constitution not in play http://blogs.trb.com/news/politics/blog/2008/04/justice_dept_releases_interrog.htmlSource: Chicago Trib
The Justice Department late Tuesday released a declassified 2003 memorandum long sought by congressional Democrats and other administration critics that outlines the government's legal justification for harsh interrogation techniques used by the military against captured enemy combatant outside the United States.
The memo, written by John Yoo, then a key architect of legal policy in the wake of 9/11, dismisses several legal impediments to the use of extreme techniques.
Yoo was long a proponent of an aggressive approach in the war against terrorism and a believer in the executive branch authority. But the memo was withdrawn as formal government policy less than a year after it was written.
In the March 14, 2003 memo, Yoo says the Constitution was not in play because the Fifth Amendment (which provides for due process of law) and the Eighth Amendment (which prevents the government from using cruel and usual punishment) does "not extend to alien enemy combatants held abroad.":
- snip -
"If a government defendant were to harm an enemy combatant during an interrogation in a manner that might arguably violate a criminal prohibition, he would be doing so in order to prevent further attacks on the United States by the al Qaeda terrorist network," Yoo wrote. "In that case, we believe that he could argue that the executive branch's constitutional authority to protect the nation from attack justified his actions."
APRIL 3
Hissyspit: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x114260
Olbermann: New Torture Memo Smoking Gun (w/ Jonathan Turley) 4/3
Run time: 06:17
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ix6RHyGttpA
Posted on YouTube: April 03, 2008
By YouTube Member: VOTERSTHINKdotORG
Views on YouTube: 2789
Posted on DU: April 04, 2008
By DU Member: Hissyspit
Views on DU: 1504
MSNBC Countdown w/ KEITH OLBERMANN - April 3, 2008.
MULTIPLE high crimes and misdemeanors. No impeach. Welcome to Bizarro World.
alllyingwhores
Fri Apr-04-08 02:57 AM
Response to Original message
2. ...and exactly what will come from this latest documented evidence of Bush being directly...
...connected to a torture program?...oh yeah, absolutelyfuckingnothing.
APRIL 6
Hissyspit: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x3117461
Yoo Memo Makes Wa. Post: Permissible Assaults Cited in Graphic Detail ("an unconscionable document")
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/05/AR2008040502099.html?nav=rss_print/asection
2003 MEMO ON INTERROGATION
Permissible Assaults Cited in Graphic Detail
Drugging Detainees Is Among Techniques
By Dan Eggen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, April 6, 2008; Page A03
Thirty pages into a memorandum discussing the legal boundaries of military interrogations in 2003, senior Justice Department lawyer John C. Yoo tackled a question not often asked by American policymakers: Could the president, if he desired, have a prisoner's eyes poked out?
Or, for that matter, could he have "scalding water, corrosive acid or caustic substance" thrown on a prisoner? How about slitting an ear, nose or lip, or disabling a tongue or limb? What about biting?
These assaults are all mentioned in a U.S. law prohibiting maiming, which Yoo parsed as he clarified the legal outer limits of what could be done to terrorism suspects as detained by U.S. authorities. The specific prohibitions, he said, depended on the circumstances or which "body part the statute specifies."
But none of that matters in a time of war, Yoo also said, because federal laws prohibiting assault, maiming and other crimes by military interrogators are trumped by the president's ultimate authority as commander in chief.
The dry discussion of U.S. maiming statutes is just one in a series of graphic, extraordinary passages in Yoo's 81-page memo, which was declassified this past week. No maiming is known to have occurred in U.S. interrogations, and the Justice Department disavowed the document without public notice nine months after it was written.
In the sober language of footnotes, case citations and judicial rulings, the memo explores a wide range of unsavory topics, from the use of mind-altering drugs on captives to the legality of forcing prisoners to squat on their toes in a "frog crouch." It repeats an assertion in another controversial Yoo memo that an interrogation tactic cannot be considered torture unless it would result in "death, organ failure or serious impairment of bodily functions."
Yoo, who is now a law professor at the University of California at Berkeley, also uses footnotes to effectively dismiss the Fourth and Fifth amendments to the Constitution, arguing that protections against unreasonable search and seizure and guarantees of due process either do not apply or are irrelevant in a time of war. He frequently cites his previous legal opinions to bolster his case.
Written opinions by the Office of Legal Counsel have the force of law within the government because its staff is assigned to interpret the meaning of statutory or constitutional language. Yoo's 2003 memo has evoked strong criticism from legal academics, human rights advocates and military-law experts, who say that he was wrong on basic matters of constitutional law and went too far in authorizing harsh and coercive interrogation tactics by the Defense Department.
"Having 81 pages of legal analysis with its footnotes and respectable-sounding language makes the reader lose sight of what this is all about," said Dawn Johnsen, an OLC chief during the Clinton administration who is now a law professor at Indiana University. "He is saying that poking people's eyes out and pouring acid on them is beyond Congress's ability to limit a president. It is an unconscionable document."
MORE
APRIL 8
kpete: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=3123398
Scott Horton: "Following the implementation of these techniques, more than 108 detainees died in detention."
A Tale of Three Lawyers
http://harpers.org/archive/2008/04/hbc-90002819
BY Scott Horton
PUBLISHED April 8, 2008
Diaz spent six months in prison and left it bankrupt and without a job. In addition to his sentence, the Pentagon is working aggressively to have Diaz stripped of his law license so he will not be able to practice his profession. The Bush Administration has sought to criminalize, humiliate and destroy Diaz. Its motivation could not be clearer: Diaz struck a blow for the rule of law. And nothing could be more threatening to the Bush Administration than this.
In the week in which Diaz received the Ridenhour Prize, another Pentagon “secret” was disclosed. This “secret” was a memorandum made to order for William J. Haynes II, Rumsfeld’s General Counsel, and the man at the apex of the Pentagon’s military justice system that tried, convicted and sentenced Diaz. The memo was authored by John Yoo. This memorandum was designed to authorize the introduction of torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading interrogation techniques to be used upon prisoners held at Guantánamo, and ultimately also used in Afghanistan and Iraq. The memorandum authorized waterboarding, long-time standing, hypothermia, the administration of psychotropic drugs and sleep deprivation in excess of two days in addition to a number of other techniques. Each of these techniques is long established as torture as a matter of American and international law. The application and implementation of these techniques was and is a crime.
- snip -
The exact circumstances surrounding the dealings between Haynes and Yoo that led to the development of this memorandum are unclear. However, it is clear that Haynes had previously authorized the use of the torture techniques, and had secured an order from Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld authorizing them.
Following the implementation of these techniques, more than 108 detainees died in detention. In a large number of these cases, the deaths have been ruled a homicide and connected to torture. These homicides were a forseeable consequence of the advice that Haynes and Yoo gave.
Hardhead: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=3126880
HAHAHA! Conyers wants to talk to YOO!
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/04/conyers_schedules_hearing_with.php
Conyers has gone ahead and scheduled a hearing for May 6th on the memo and invited Yoo in a letter today. But it's apparent from the letter that Yoo is not too enthusiastic about the prospect of testifying to Congress. He's apparently raised concerns to committee staff that the topics covered might "implicate executive confidentiality interests" and generally indicated that he'd rather not appear.
But given that Yoo has spoken with a variety of news outlets about the memo and other matters, Conyers points out, there's no reason why he couldn't talk to Congress. And while Conyers has invited Yoo to appear voluntarily, he makes it clear that he will issue a subpoena if Yoo declines.
Hopefully lawmakers will use the opportunity to ask Yoo why it was that he signed the memo himself, bypassing even the attorney general.
The full letter is below.
APRIL 9
whereismyparty: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=3261242
National Lawyers Guild Calls on Boalt Hall to Dismiss Law Professor John Yoo,
http://nlg.org/news/index.php?entry=entry080409-083133
Source: National Lawyers Guild Press Release
In a memorandum written the same month George W. Bush invaded Iraq, Boalt Hall law professor John Yoo said the Department of Justice would construe US criminal laws not to apply to the President's detention and interrogation of enemy combatants. According to Yoo, the federal statutes against torture, assault, maiming and stalking do not apply to the military in the conduct of the war.
deminks: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x116618
Original ABC News Report Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5UyCQp-IM0
Bozita: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=3261831&mesg_id=3261831
Sources: Top Bush Advisors Approved 'Enhanced Interrogation'
KoKo01: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=3136944
Sources: Top Bush Advisors Approved 'Enhanced Interrogation'
Detailed Discussions Were Held About Techniques to Use on al Qaeda Suspects
http://abcnews.go.com/print?id=4583256
By JAN CRAWFORD GREENBURG, HOWARD L. ROSENBERG and ARIANE de VOGUE
April 9, 2008—
In dozens of top-secret talks and meetings in the White House, the most senior Bush administration officials discussed and approved specific details of how high-value al Qaeda suspects would be interrogated by the Central Intelligence Agency, sources tell ABC News.
The so-called Principals who participated in the meetings also approved the use of "combined" interrogation techniques -- using different techniques during interrogations, instead of using one method at a time -- on terrorist suspects who proved difficult to break, sources said.
Highly placed sources said a handful of top advisers signed off on how the CIA would interrogate top al Qaeda suspects -- whether they would be slapped, pushed, deprived of sleep or subjected to simulated drowning, called waterboarding.
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.
The advisers were members of the National Security Council's Principals Committee, a select group of senior officials who met frequently to advise President Bush on issues of national security policy.
At the time, the Principals Committee included Vice President Cheney, former National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Secretary of State Colin Powell, as well as CIA Director George Tenet and Attorney General John Ashcroft.
As the national security adviser, Rice chaired the meetings, which took place in the White House Situation Room and were typically attended by most of the principals or their deputies.
Contacted by ABC News today, spokesmen for Tenet, Rumsfeld and Powell declined to comment about the interrogation program or their private discussions in Principals Meetings. Powell said through an assistant there were "hundreds of meetings" on a wide variety of topics and that he was "not at liberty to discuss private meetings."
APRIL 10
maddezmom: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x3263464
Cheney, others OK'd harsh interrogations
By LARA JAKES JORDAN and PAMELA HESS, Associated Press Writer Thu Apr 10, 7:29 PM ET
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080410/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/interrogation_tactics
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.
Between 2002 and 2003, the Justice Department issued several memos from its Office of Legal Counsel that justified using the interrogation tactics, including ones that critics call torture.
"If you looked at the timing of the meetings and the memos you'd see a correlation," the former intelligence official said. Those who attended the dozens of meetings agreed that "there'd need to be a legal opinion on the legality of these tactics" before using them on al-Qaida detainees, the former official said.
The meetings were held in the White House Situation Room in the years immediately following the Sept. 11 attacks. Attending the sessions were then-Bush aides Attorney General John Ashcroft, Secretary of State Colin Powell, CIA Director George Tenet and national security adviser Condoleezza Rice.
The White House, Justice and State departments and the CIA refused comment Thursday, as did a spokesman for Tenet. A message for Ashcroft was not immediately returned.
Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., lambasted what he described as "yet another astonishing disclosure about the Bush administration and its use of torture."
"Who would have thought that in the United States of America in the 21st century, the top officials of the executive branch would routinely gather in the White House to approve torture?" Kennedy said in a statement. "Long after President Bush has left office, our country will continue to pay the price for his administration's renegade repudiation of the rule of law and fundamental human rights."
The American Civil Liberties Union called on Congress to investigate.
"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."
The former intelligence official described Cheney and the top national security officials as deeply immersed in developing the CIA's interrogation program during months of discussions over which methods should be used and when.
At times, CIA officers would demonstrate some of the tactics, or at least detail how they worked, to make sure the small group of "principals" fully understood what the al-Qaida detainees would undergo. The principals eventually authorized physical abuse such as slaps and pushes, sleep deprivation, or waterboarding. This technique involves strapping a person down and pouring water over his cloth-covered face to create the sensation of drowning.
The small group then asked the Justice Department to examine whether using the interrogation methods would break domestic or international laws.
"No one at the agency wanted to operate under a notion of winks and nods and assumptions that everyone understood what was being talked about," said a second former senior intelligence official. "People wanted to be assured that everything that was conducted was understood and approved by the folks in the chain of command."
The Office of Legal Counsel issued at least two opinions on interrogation methods.
In one, dated Aug. 1, 2002, then-Assistant Attorney General Jay Bybee defined torture as covering "only extreme acts" causing pain similar in intensity to that caused by death or organ failure. A second, dated March 14, 2003, justified using harsh tactics on detainees held overseas so long as military interrogators did not specifically intend to torture their captives.
- snip -
The department issued another still-secret memo in October 2001 that, in part, sought to outline novel ways the military could be used domestically to defend the country in the face of an impending attack. The Justice Department so far has refused to release it, citing attorney-client privilege, and Attorney General Michael Mukasey declined to describe it Thursday at a Senate panel where Democrats characterized it as a "torture memo."
Not all of the principals who attended were fully comfortable with the White House meetings.
The ABC News report portrayed Ashcroft as troubled by the discussions, despite agreeing that the interrogations methods were legal.
"Why are we talking about this in the White House?" the network quoted Ashcroft as saying during one meeting. "History will not judge this kindly."
OregonBlue: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=3139399
Mukasey Refuses to Say Yoo Fourth Amendment Memo Withdrawn
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/04/mukasey_the_4th_amendment_appl.php
By Paul Kiel - April 10, 2008, 11:24AM
During a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing this morning, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) questioned Attorney General Michael Mukasey about that October, 2001 Justice Department memo in which John Yoo found that the Fourth Amendment, which protects citizens against "unreasonable searches and seizures," had "no application to domestic military operations."
Has that memo been withdrawn? If not, was it still in force? Feinstein wanted to know.She found it difficult to pry an answer loose. "I can't speak to the October, 2001 memo," Mukasey said when she asked whether it had been withdrawn. He said that Yoo's later March, 2003 memo -- which broadly authorized the use of torture by military interrogators on unlawful combatants -- had been withdrawn, but refused to discuss that October, 2001 memo.
Here's video of the exchange:That memo remains classified, and Mukasey said that working to declassify portions of or entire secret Justice Department legal memos by Yoo and others was a "priority" of his, but he refused to supply a timeline for when he might make those determinations. He was very mindful of Congress' "legitimate oversight role," he said.
"But Mr. Yoo's contention was that the Fourth Amendment did not apply and that the President was free to order domestic military operations," Feinstein replied.
"Without regard to the Fourth Amendment?"
"Yes."
"My understanding is that is not operative."
marmar: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=3136721
AlterNet: Memo Shows Bush Administration Says to Hell with Fourth Amendment Rights
http://www.alternet.org/rights/81905
By Liliana Segura, AlterNet. Posted April 10, 2008.
News that the Bush administration threw out the 4th Amendment after 9/11 is a sobering reminder of the lawlessness of its spying program.
News last week of former White House lawyer John Yoo's recently disclosed 2003 memo positing, among other things, that the president's authority as commander in chief allows him to override federal laws prohibiting "assault, maiming, and other crimes" against suspects in the "war on terror," was followed by a second revelation: an alarming footnote on page 8 referring to another secret memo, written shortly after 9/11, and, in the name of national security, dispensing with the Fourth Amendment.
In the age of the "war on terror," according to the footnote, the Department of Justice "recently concluded that the Fourth Amendment had no application to domestic military operations." (Emphasis in the original.)
The Fourth Amendment, of course, lays out "the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures." Critics of the Bush administration's warrantless wiretapping program -- which was started in the same weeks the memo was written -- have staked their claims in part on its violation of this right. Proof that the program originated at the same time that the White House officially jettisoned the Fourth Amendment in the name of national security is a damning -- if not surprising -- revelation.
APRIL 11
maddezmom: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x3264980
Bush: 'I Was Aware' of Harsh Tactics
President Says He Knew His Senior Advisors Approved Tough Interrogation Methods
http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/LawPolitics/story?id=4635175&page=1
Source: ABC News
By JAN CRAWFORD GREENBURG, HOWARD L. ROSENBERG and ARIANE de VOGUE
April 11, 2008
President Bush says he knew his top national security advisors discussed and approved specific details about how high-value al Qaeda suspects would be interrogated by the Central Intelligence Agency, according to an exclusive interview with ABC News Friday.
Well, we started to connect the dots, in order to protect the American people." Bush told ABC New s White House correspondent Martha Raddatz. "And, yes, I'm aware our national security team met on this issue. And I approved."
As first reported by ABC News on Wednesday, the most senior Bush administration officials repeatedly discussed and approved specific details of exactly how high-value al Qaeda suspects would be interrogated by the Central Intelligence Agency.
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.
These top advisers signed off on how the CIA would interrogate top al Qaeda suspects -- whether they would be slapped, pushed, deprived of sleep or subjected to simulated drowning, called waterboarding, sources told ABC news.
Jackpine Radical: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=3143792
Where is all this stuff coming from?
Why now?
First ABC gets the story about the underlings.
Then AP confirms it, adding "Cheney-on-down"
Now Bush.
There are several possible theories.
1--The CIA is covering their asses
2--(Some portion of) the CIA has decided to hit Bushco very hard
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.
HamdenRice: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=3137944
ROFL!!! Students on Rate my Professor: "Torture memo" professor John Yoo
http://www.ratemyprofessors.com/ShowRatings.jsp?tid=581083
kpete: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x3141944
"What's important now we have at least ONE signed memo which establishes George W. Bush as the executive authority making final decisions in the NSC process which established a United States run torture regime; the document shown at the bottom of this post."
...and Shraby: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=3140215
Memo Signed By Bush, AUTHORIZING TORTURE, Surfaces
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/4/10/95033/2181/104/493151
Here's the central point:
As detailed in the recent ABC News story on how top White House officials in the National Security Council discussed specific details of torture, the Bush Administration torture policy was determined by the NSC.
What ABC didn't mention is that Bush is the head of the National Security Counsel and the 2002 NSC decision memo in question, shown at the bottom of this post, signed by George W. Bush, establishes that Bush was in 2002 indeed doing his job as acting head and final decision maker of the National Security Council.
An April 11 AP News study claims Bush was "insulated" from the torture decision making process but existing documents, such as showcased in this post, rebut that claim and indicate Bush was in the torture loop, the top "decider"
UPDATE:
On Countdown last night, George Washington University Law Professor Jonathan Turley emphasized that there was a torture program and that it was authorized "AT THE HIGHEST LEVEL".
Turley said, about the "NSC Principals Committee" that discussed torture at a grotesquely specific level of detail, "this is like a meeting of the badda bing club".
Turley stated, bluntly,"This was a torture program... and it goes right to the President's desk."
But Turley went even further than that:
"Olberman: You said it goes to president Bush's desk here... Is it the smoking gun that president Bush authorized torture by the United States of America ?"
Turley: "We really don't have much of a question about the president's role here. He's never denied that he was fully informed of these measures. He in fact, early on in his presidency, he seemed to brag that they were using harsh and tough methods. And I don't think there's any doubt that he was aware of this. The only doubt is simply whether anybody cares enough to do something about it."
SUMMARY: We have at least ONE signed memo which establishes George W. Bush as the executive authority making final decisions in the National Security Council policy formation and decision making process which created a United States run torture regime; the document shown at the bottom of this post.
This post discusses that and also outlines the National Security Council process, Bush's role in the NSC process and how the NSC generates national policy. Key concept: the US president is the final decision maker in the NSC process and the chair of the NSC.
As corroborating evidence, Bush's August 3, 2003 signing of the "Hague Invasion Law" which asserted a US right top use military force to liberate Americans held by the International Criminal Court at the Hague indicate Mr. Bush was aware of the possibility that Americans might be charged with crimes under international law. Bush's signing of the law was part of a broader attack against the new war crimes court at the Hague, by the United States, which was underway at the time Bush signed the August 2003 legislation. IN short, on February 7, 2002 Bush signed an NSC memo selectively setting aside Geneva Conventions restrictions against torture and then, on August 3, 2002, Bush signed a law asserting a US right to use military force to liberate Americans held by the new International war crimes court at the Hague. That further establishes Bush as the top executive decision maker signing off on laws and policy decisions shaping the evolving US policy regarding torture and International Law, which led to the abuses at Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo and elsewhere.
- snip -
SUBSTANTIATING DOCUMENTS
"On June 22, 2004, the White House officially released 14 documents originating from the White House, the Pentagon and the Justice Department concerning the Administration's interrogation policies. These records include only one that previously was published by news media sources, and did not include at least 5 additional documents widely reported in the news media and already made available to the public by the news media concerning interrogation policies from the White House, Pentagon, Justice Department and Department of State. Still other records are reported to exist or referenced in the already released materials, but have not been made available -- either officially or unofficially -- to the public. This Electronic Briefing Book includes a comprehensive listing of available records relating to U.S. interrogation policies, including records officially released by the White House and the Department of Defense on June 22, leaked documents that have not been officially released, and a description of 17 records that have not been made available to the public. In addition, this posting includes the text of a congressional subpoena proposed by Senators Leahy and Feinstein that was defeated on June 17, 2004 by the Senate Judiciary Committee and a copy of the "Taguba Report" detailing the findings of a Department of Defense investigation into the treatment of prisoners at Abu Ghraib Prison in Iraq."
Here is a large trove of declassified National Security documents which help substantiate the overall picture which is finally starting to emerge and which I've elaborated in this post - the Bush Administration torture policy and torture program came right out of the White House and George W. Bush, in all likelihood, probably signed off on National Security Council memos and resolutions on torture.
The memo discussed in this post undercuts the frame that the recent ABC torture story established (and that other news media is already picking up) - the ABC story suggested, by simply not mentioning the central role of the president in the NSC, that George W. Bush was elsewhere when decisions were made about torture. Now, we have signed memo indicating Bush was probably at the helm.
The media frame on this, per a Google search, is that "Bush's Principal Advisors OK'd torture" but that's highly misleading because it suggests Bush was out of the loop.
Memo shows Bush at Top of NSC Decision Making Loop On Torture
Ray McGovern has pointed the way to an NSC action memo, signed by George W. Bush himself, which was part of the process under which an entire torture regime, using methods that violate not only the Geneva Conventions but also US anti-torture laws signed by Bill Cinton, came to be.
MUCH MUCH MORE AT THIS THREAD
kpete: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x3146100
Rice To CIA Regarding Torture: "This is your baby. Go do it."
http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/LawPolitics/Story?id=4635175&page=4
At one meeting in the summer of 2003 -- attended by Vice President Cheney, among others -- Tenet made an elaborate presentation for approval to combine several different techniques during interrogations, instead of using one method at a time, according to a highly placed administration source.
A year later, amidst the outcry over unrelated abuses of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib, the controversial 2002 legal memo, which gave formal legal authorization for the CIA interrogation program of the top al Qaeda suspects, leaked to the press. A new senior official in the Justice Department, Jack Goldsmith, withdrew the legal memo -- the Golden Shield -- that authorized the program.
But the CIA had captured a new al Qaeda suspect in Asia. Sources said CIA officials that summer returned to the Principals Committee for approval to continue using certain "enhanced interrogation techniques."
Then-National Security Advisor Rice, sources said, was decisive. Despite growing policy concerns -- shared by Powell -- that the program was harming the image of the United States abroad, sources say she did not back down, telling the CIA: "This is your baby. Go do it."
maddezmom: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=3264949
Conyers Invites Top Officials To Testify At Torture Hearing
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/04/11/politics/politico/thecrypt/main4010254.shtml
Source: CBS
(The Politico) House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-Mich.) Friday invited several former Bush administration officials to testify at an upcoming committee hearing on the legality of several torture techniques.
Conyers invited a slew of high profile names, including former Attorney General John Ashcroft, former CIA Director George Tenet, former Undersecretary of Defense Douglas Feith, Chief of Staff to the Vice-President David Addington, and former Assistant Attorney General Daniel Levin to testify at the hearing which will take place on May 6.
Conyers also invited John Yoo, a former Justice Department official who authored a controversial March 2003 memorandum establishing the legal guidelines for the interrogation of detainees.
“New and troubling allegations suggest that the decisions on torture came from the highest levels of government,” said Conyers in a statement. “These reports, if true, represent a stain on our democracy. The American people deserve to hear directly from those involved.”
Newsjock: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=3264700
Berkeley Dean Defends Law Professor (Yoo)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/04/11/national/w110534D63.DTL&tsp=1
deminks: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=385&topic_id=117008
Countdown 4/10: Team Torture? (w/ Jonathan Turley)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yh8FJbJ9SE4
seemslikeadream: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x3141546
This is not just a smoking gun -- it's a MOAB
http://www.chris-floyd.com
This is not just a smoking gun -- it's a MOAB dropped right on the White House, confirming, yet again, what any sentient being should already know: the illegal torture tactics (yes, they are torture; and yes, they are illegal, no matter what "the Attorney General says") used on George W. Bush's Terror War captives were approved by the highest officials of the government, all of whom knew -- in exacting, sickening detail -- just what they were inflicting.
These cold-blooded atrocities were not restricted to "high value al Qaeda suspects" - the demure fiction that the ABC report, like most others in the mainstream media that have begun, gingerly, to delve into these crimes, still retains. As mountains of evidence has already shown, these "enhanced interrogation techniques" were used throughout the Terror War prison system, from top to bottom, on prisoners rounded up at random in mass raids in Iraq and Afghanistan, on innocent people sold into captivity by bounty hunters, on innocent people snatched off the streets in Asia, Africa, Europe. They've been used on "low-level prisoners" in Bagram, Diego Garcia, Guantanamo Bay, Abu Ghraib, in the brig at the Naval Weapons Station in Charleston, South Carolina, and all the other "secret prisons" and holding pens of the Terror War regime.
All of the atrocities and murders that have thus far come to light from the hellish pit of the Bush gulag are the direct responsibility of the "Principals," the inner circle, the Privy Council, the Star Chamber of the real American government: the "National Security State" that operates outside all law, all oversight, all constitutional legitimacy.
Yet even as the media digs out the workings of this junta, they feel compelled to offer what they believe is a fig leaf that will allow all good and decent folk to retain their sacred faith in American exceptionalism: "Hey, we're not evil; we only torture the really bad guys, the worst of the worst, the high value al Qaeda scum. Torture's too good for the likes of them!"
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