Oct 4, 2007 at 6:05 PM by Political Chase
In today’s White House press briefing, Dana Perino made it abundantly clear the administration’s interpretation and definition of torture is the sole authority, and the White House wants no input from the international community.
Perino wrongly stated all parties to the Geneva Conventions were supposed to apply their interpretations of the Conventions. When challenged that interpretation of the Conventions was the responsibility of the International Crimes Court, Perino said, “I don’t think we’re seeking their help.”
Oct 4, 2007 at 3:21 PM by Political Chase
The House overwhelmingly passed a bill, 389 to 30, that would make all private contractors working in Iraq subject to prosecution in United States civilian courts. The Senate is expected to propose similar legislation. If the Senate’s bill receives the same level of support as the House bill, the Decider will have to leave his veto pen in his desk drawer.
Late Update: Details of the bill, H.R. 2740, are available here.
Oct 4, 2007 at 2:52 PM by Political Chase
The White House has acknowledged the existence of legal opinions authorizing “enhanced interrogation techniques,” that were issued in early 2005 and in late 2005. However the existence of those opinions would surely not taint the pristine Bush-Cheney administration — Dana Perino has the chutzpah to still assert, just like her boss, they do not employ torture.
Perino did a soft-shoe shuffle over the whole issue at today’s White House Press Briefing. Paul Kiel has the details.
Oct 4, 2007 at 2:23 PM by Political Chase
From Reuters:
A Minnesota judge on Thursday refused to let U.S. Senator Larry Craig take back the guilty plea he made after a sex sting arrest, making it likely the Idaho Republican will resign his Senate seat as planned.
Judge Charles Porter of the Hennepin County District Court ruled a week after Craig’s lawyers contended at a hearing that he had panicked and had been rushed into pleading guilty after an undercover officer arrested him in an airport men’s room.
Craig has said he would resign from the Senate but might reconsider if he could take back the plea and try to clear his name.
Oct 4, 2007 at 1:36 PM by Political Chase
House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) and Sub-Committee Chair Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) demanded the release of secret legal opinions issued by the Justice Department that authorized the harshest interrogation techniques ever used by the CIA.
Conyers and Nadler also demanded that Steven Bradbury, the acting head of the Office of Legal Counsel “be made available for prompt Committee Hearings.”
A complete copy of Conyer’s and Nadler’s letter is available here (pdf).
Oct 4, 2007 at 10:29 AM by Political Chase
The Decider is getting closer to achieving his self-fulfilling prophecy that Laura and Barney may be the only supporters he has left. In yet another example of “its my way or the highway,” President Bush has now turned on the best ally of his entire administration — Great Britain.
After British Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced the withdrawal of significantly more than 1,000 troops from Iraq, the White House retaliated with a terse statement saying, “there’s concern about Brown.”
ThinkProgress has the details.
Oct 4, 2007 at 1:03 AM by Political Chase
Earlier tonight I began writing a reflective post about the failure of Congress to effectively investigate the Justice Department and the White House, and hold them accountable for the various and sundry malfeasance they have committed. After working on it for about an hour, I stopped, deciding to finish later. Moments ago, I just finished reading an incredibly disturbing piece in the Times that reveals more about the abyss Alberto Gonzales, the White House, and many at the DOJ reside in. I regret not completing and publishing the reflective post.
As a POW in World War II, my father was tortured and imprisoned in inhumane conditions. When he died at the age of 81, he still could not talk about many of the horrific experiences he encountered. There is little goodness one can find in the death of their father, but I’m glad he doesn’t have to read or hear about this on the evening news.
An excerpt from the six-page piece.
When the Justice Department publicly declared torture “abhorrent” in a legal opinion in December 2004, the Bush administration appeared to have abandoned its assertion of nearly unlimited presidential authority to order brutal interrogations.
But soon after Alberto R. Gonzales’s arrival as attorney general in February 2005, the Justice Department issued another opinion, this one in secret. It was a very different document, according to officials briefed on it, an expansive endorsement of the harshest interrogation techniques ever used by the Central Intelligence Agency.
The new opinion, the officials said, for the first time provided explicit authorization to barrage terror suspects with a combination of painful physical and psychological tactics, including head-slapping, simulated drowning and frigid temperatures.
Mr. Gonzales approved the legal memorandum on “combined effects” over the objections of James B. Comey, the deputy attorney general, who was leaving his job after bruising clashes with the White House. Disagreeing with what he viewed as the opinion’s overreaching legal reasoning, Mr. Comey told colleagues at the department that they would all be “ashamed” when the world eventually learned of it.
Later that year, as Congress moved toward outlawing “cruel, inhuman and degrading” treatment, the Justice Department issued another secret opinion, one most lawmakers did not know existed, current and former officials said. The Justice Department document declared that none of the C.I.A. interrogation methods violated that standard.
The classified opinions, never previously disclosed, are a hidden legacy of President Bush’s second term and Mr. Gonzales’s tenure at the Justice Department, where he moved quickly to align it with the White House after a 2004 rebellion by staff lawyers that had thrown policies on surveillance and detention into turmoil.
Congress and the Supreme Court have intervened repeatedly in the last two years to impose limits on interrogations, and the administration has responded as a policy matter by dropping the most extreme techniques. But the 2005 Justice Department opinions remain in effect, and their legal conclusions have been confirmed by several more recent memorandums, officials said. They show how the White House has succeeded in preserving the broadest possible legal latitude for harsh tactics.
Dick Cheney and his invertebrate minions (includes GWB) must be stopped and held accountable.
