Day: April 11, 2008
Conyers ‘Invites’ Former Bush Officials to Testify about Authorizing Torture
Democratic Rep. John Conyers, chair of the Judiciary Committee, has “invited” Bush officials who were involved in drafting torture guidelines to testify at a hearing on Tuesday, May 6:
“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.â€
According to Politico.com, Conyers’ invitees include first-term Bush officials, including then-Attorney Gen.l John Ashcroft, then-CIA Director George Tenet, former Undersecretary of Defense Douglas Feith, Chief of Staff to the Vice-President David Addington, then-Assistant Attorney Gen. Daniel Levin and John Yoo, the DOJ official who wrote a controversial March 2003 memorandum giving legal cover to his bosses for authorizing torture.
Conyers has received no RSVPs so far, and it is unclear whether he will issue subpoenas to those who decline to appear voluntarily.
What’s Dick See?
Who is she?
You might have already seen this, but it’s Friday afternoon and we need some diversion.
The idea is to guess what that is reflected in Dick Cheney’s glasses in this photo from the White House web site. Maybe I don’t have enough imagination but I’m definitely going with “naked lady.” What do you think? One of his alien cousins? Or…?
Torture Revelations: The Cure for Outrage Fatigue
We all, myself included, gave ourselves a pass a few years into the Bush administration by claiming “outrage fatigue.” Well, fatigue or no, it’s time to get outraged again.
Continuing revelations about Bush cabinet members — the highest level of unelected power-holders in this country — and Vice Pres. Dick Cheney ordering precise torture techniques on individual prisoners are too shocking to ignore. First we found that “The Principals,” as they are known, informed themselves on such methods so they could personally choose which ones would be inflicted. They just as deliberately kept the president slightly beyond their level of direct knowledge.
While his most trusted advisers selected which method to inflict on which detainee, Bush delivered the denials
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…
The meetings were held in the White House Situation Room…Attending the sessions were Cheney, then-Bush aides Attorney General John Ashcroft, Secretary of State Colin Powell, CIA Director George Tenet and national security adviser Condoleezza Rice.
The eagerness on the part of these officials to learn about the methods and then to weigh the consequences of getting caught using them is shocking.
Ashcroft on White House Torture Guidelines: ‘History Will Not Judge This Kindly’
Torture-gate: News that, starting in 2002, Vice Pres. Dick Cheney, then-Sec. of State Colin Powell, then-National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, then-Attorney Gen. John Ashcroft and others, met to draft torture guidelines for CIA interrogators has been met with a collective yawn by the media.
Their blase reaction is revelatory of the fact that they (along with most Americans) have simply become inured to Cheney’s black-hearted depravity. It is also yet another instance in which the corporate media is too focused on something trivial — the Democratic candidates’ bashing each other — to do its job.
There’s no better evidence that Cheney and the others were fully aware that what they were doing was wrong than this quote from Ashcroft, a devout Christian, during one of the sessions:
“Why are we talking about this in the White House? History will not judge this kindly.”
In her capacity as national security adviser, Rice was in charge of the project. What is unknown is whether “Mistress Condi” wore her knee-high black leather boots to the meetings.
