Cheney kept CIA program from Congress, source says

[East Detroit]

The CIA withheld information about a secret counterterrorism program from Congress during the Bush administration on direct orders from then-Vice President Dick Cheney, current CIA director Leon Panetta told members of Congress, a knowledgeable source confirmed to CNN.


Former Vice President Dick Cheney reportedly ordered the CIA to withhold information about counterterrorism.

The disclosure to the House and Senate intelligence committees about Cheney's involvement by Panetta was first reported in the New York Times. Efforts to contact Cheney for reaction were unsuccessful late Saturday...


"When a CIA unit brought this matter to Director Panetta's attention, it was with the recommendation that it be shared with Congress. That was also his view, and he took swift, decisive action to put it into effect."

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/07/...nce/index.html

There is still hope that this traitor will be brought to justice. But, by whom?

[gibran]

Maybe a libertarian judge in Maine

[mjs]

There is still hope that this traitor will be brought to justice. But, by whom?

Attorney General Holder. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090712/...Bzb3VyY2Vob2xk

[Lorax]

Here's a couple of additional links:


http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/12/us...html?th&emc=th

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/11/us...html?th&emc=th

Perhaps the slow, deliberate drip, drip of the frauds and felonies of the Bush Crime Family will eventually come to light.

According to Constitutional law professor Jonathan Turley from Georgetown University, the crimes and the evidence we have currently are a mine field that the Justice Department has been stepping over, and will no longer be able to do so.

There is simply too much out there incriminating the Rethuglican Reich to go unprosecuted.

What is particularly telling is how all of these news sources have tried to contact Cheney for comment, and strangely, he's unavailable.

Seems like he was in the news for weeks on end flogging his corrupt track record for all the world to see after 8 years of being in "an undisclosed location". Now he has a chance to answer charges, and has retreated back into his spiderhole.

[mjs]

Nice articles, but I hope future investigations aren't primarily focused on wasteful wiretaps arguably allowed under the Patriot Act and nondiscussions of programs that weren't fully operational. Trash the Patriot Act. Please. Thank god and good riddens. They were out of their minds to have ever been so hysterical as to pass such a piece of garbage. That bipartisaned undermining of the Constitution with the Patriot Act was as short sighted as the bipartisaned undermining of Glass-Steagall with Gramm-Leach-Blily.

The investigations should focus on proving the enhanced interrogation methods were torture and proving who know what when and who gave the green light. It should come out with legislative recommendations to strengthen the weak language of the current laws and fill the huge loopholes. Get the intelligence community in on the discussions. They were the ones who were placed between a rock and hard place as emotions were high and Bush, Cheney, Yoo, and Pelosi played their games.

If you want to open this can of worms, just remember that the Watergate Investigations overshadowed all other legislation, political issues, and initiatives of the Ford Administration. It completely froze the government and made a generation pessimistic about all government so don't be suprised if this divides the nation, especially the Congress, and ends up killing some of the Obama initiatives both internationally and domestically.

Personally, if I were a Dem, I'd be happier with knowing we won the Presidency and a super majority in the Senate and the Bush Administration will forever be marred in the history books and we have the momentum to get the legislation we've been wanting for decades. Its whats going through Obama's head.

[Lorax]

I certainly agree, though there is no evidence that such programs were not operational.

It is true the Bush Administration will forever be known as a secretive, manipulative, and largely corrupt group of thugs. There will always be swirling controversy.

That said, Eric Holder as the new AG has a legal obligation to follow investigations to their natural conclusion. If documents are getting out and evidence being presented, independent of the wishes of the executive branch, he is obligated to pursue it's logical conclusion.

Our president and cabinet officers are sworn to uphold the Constitution- that is first and foremost. Rethuglicans are hidebound to the idea that the chief executive has national security as job #1.

It's not.

Upholding the Constitution comes first. Without guardians at the gate of the Constitution, we don't have much else that matters.

Bush/Cheney force fed congress the Patriot Act, and succeeded in stripping away key constitutional rights, including Habeus Corpus.

I personally know of an individual who was mistakenly swept up in the malestrom caused by the Patriot Act, and was rendered to a foreign prison, without access to legal counsel, and not charged with any crime.

He was thankfully released in a matter of days, unharmed and not tortured, but this is something that by some accounts has happened to thousands of Americans who were illegally wiretapped, and thought to have access to intelligence needed for national security.

This is completely unconstitutional, and illegal.

The Bush Administration used this act to perform crimes against business and political enemies.

The data mining of every American phone call and computer keystroke has been going on illegally since February of 2001, well ahead of 9/11, and continues to this day due to the inclusion of this practice in the Patriot Act.

The crimes are thick and deep, and need investigating further, and no doubt will lead to prosecutions and hopefully jailtime for the criminals involved.

[Lorax]

Here's another link to enlightening information into the frauds and felonies of the Bush Crime Family.

General Who Probed Abu Ghraib Says Bush Officials Committed War Crimes
Thursday 23 April 2009
by: Warren Strobel | Visit article original @ McClatchy Newspapers

Major General Antonio Taguba. "Taguba, whose 2004 investigation documented chilling abuses at Abu Ghraib, is thought to be the most senior official to have accused the administration of war crimes." [[Photo: AP)


Washington - The Army general who led the investigation into prisoner abuse at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison accused the Bush administration Wednesday of committing "war crimes" and called for those responsible to be held to account.

The remarks by Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba, who's now retired, came in a new report that found that U.S. personnel tortured and abused detainees in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, using beatings, electrical shocks, sexual humiliation and other cruel practices.

"After years of disclosures by government investigations, media accounts and reports from human rights organizations, there is no longer any doubt as to whether the current administration has committed war crimes," Taguba wrote. "The only question that remains to be answered is whether those who ordered the use of torture will be held to account."

Taguba, whose 2004 investigation documented chilling abuses at Abu Ghraib, is thought to be the most senior official to have accused the administration of war crimes. "The commander in chief and those under him authorized a systematic regime of torture," he wrote.

A White House spokeswoman, Kate Starr, had no comment.
Taguba didn't respond to a request for further comment relayed via a spokesman.
The group Physicians for Human Rights, which compiled the new report, described it as the most in-depth medical and psychological examination of former detainees to date.

Doctors and mental health experts examined 11 detainees held for long periods in the prison system that President Bush established after the 9-11 terrorist attacks. All of them eventually were released without charges.

The doctors and experts determined that the men had been subject to cruelties that ranged from isolation, sleep deprivation and hooding to electric shocks, beating and, in one case, being forced to drink urine.

Bush has said repeatedly that the United States doesn't condone torture.

"All credible allegations of abuse are thoroughly investigated and, if substantiated, those responsible are held accountable," said Navy Cmdr. J.D. Gordon, a Pentagon spokesman. The Defense Department responds to concerns raised by the International Committee for the Red Cross, he said, which has access to detainees under military control.

"It adds little to the public discourse to draw sweeping conclusions based upon dubious allegations regarding remote medical assessments of former detainees, now far removed from detention," Gordon said.

The physicians' group said that its experts, who had experience studying torture's effects, spent two days with each former captive and conducted intensive exams and interviews. They administered tests to detect exaggeration. In two of the 11 cases, the group was able to review medical records.

The report, "Broken Laws, Broken Lives," concurs with a five-part McClatchy investigation of Guantanamo published this week. Among its findings were that abuses occurred - primarily at prisons in Afghanistan where detainees were held en route to Guantanamo - and that many of the prisoners were wrongly detained.

Also this week, a probe by the Senate Armed Services Committee revealed how senior Pentagon officials pushed for harsher interrogation methods over the objections of top military lawyers. Those methods later surfaced in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld didn't specifically approve of the worst abuses, but neither he nor the White House enforced strict limits on how detainees would be treated.

There was no "bright line of abuse which could not be transgressed," former Navy general counsel Alberto Mora told the Senate committee.
Leonard Rubenstein, the president of Physicians for Human Rights, said there was a direct connection between the Pentagon decisions and the abuses his group uncovered. "The result was a horrific stew of pain, degradation and ... suffering," he said.

Detainee abuse has been documented previously, in photos from Abu Ghraib, accounts by former detainees and their lawyers and a confidential report by the International Committee for the Red Cross that was leaked to the U.S. news media.

Of the 11 men evaluated in the Physicians for Human Rights report, four were detained in Afghanistan between late 2001 and early 2003, and later sent to Guantanamo. The remaining seven were detained in Iraq in 2003.

One of the Iraqis, identified by the pseudonym Laith, was arrested with his family at his Baghdad home in the early morning of Oct. 19, 2003. He was taken to a location where he was beaten, stripped to his underwear and threatened with execution, the report says.

"Laith" told the examiners he was then taken to a second site, where he was photographed in humiliating positions and given electric shocks to his genitals.
Finally, he was taken to Abu Ghraib, where he spent the first 35 to 40 days in isolation in a small cage, enduring being suspended in the cage and other "stress positions."

He was released on June 24, 2004, without charge.

Log

[East Detroit]

Allegations: Bush administration resisted inquiry into CIA-backed Afghan warlord

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/07/...ngs/index.html

Yet, I doubt anyone has the political [[or anti-political) fortitude to really take this on.

[Lorax]

It really is amazing how much like an authoritarian dictator Bush was, and how the expanded Imperial Presidential powers he left in place for Obama will remain.

Don't get me wrong, I am a big fan of Obama's, but believe we need to reverse course and peel back these new powers, so this sort of coverup isn't allowed again.

Another link to another Bush war crime atrocity- the slaughter of thousands of Taliban prisoners at the hands of the US supported Afghanis.

Today's New York Times:

But in some cases, it may be hard to avoid looking back. On the question of the killings in Afghanistan, Mr. Obama said in an interview on CNN that he had just learned of “the indications that this had not been properly investigated� and had directed aides to “collect the facts� on the killing of hundreds or thousands of Taliban prisoners.

“If it appears that our conduct in some way supported violations of the laws of war, then I think that, you know, we have to know about that,� the president said.

Mr. Obama is also likely to face increasing pressure from some of his strongest supporters that Bush administration officials be held accountable for approving what Mr. Obama himself has called torture. The drumbeat of new revelations from the years after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, appears unlikely to let up.

By summer’s end, the Justice Department’s ethics office is expected to release a report on the former department officials who wrote legal opinions justifying brutal interrogations. The C.I.A. has said that at the end of August it will release part of the 2004 agency inspector general’s report on interrogation that questioned the legality and effectiveness of the program.

[Detroitej72]

Maybe they can fully investigate Cheney's "hit squad" whom have been credited by some[[Sy Hirch) for actions including the Anthrax Attacks on Democratic Senators[[like Tom Daschel) and various media outlets.

[ccbatson]

One of hundreds of well intentioned anti terrorist ideas that hadn't left the drawing board. Nobody on either side would desire briefings on any of these potential programs in the earliest stages. This is another in a long line of decoys at the expense of Bush and Cheney. Which, btw, has no teeth beyond stirring up the radical left.

[mjs]

I actually think it actually produced the most honest and well formed commentaries I've ever seen from Lorax. Though its all encompassing attributes can hurt progress on other policies, it has plenty of teeth.

[Lorax]

It's pretty much believed that Cheney authorized the anthrax attacks on Democratic senators and media elites.

He's the Francis Urquhardt of our times.

An evil overlord who deserves prosecution, imprisonment, and bankruptcy for himself and his family.

[ccbatson]

Is that a good thing? Isn't it like describing Hitler as a tolerant Nazi on certain issues? Honest and well formed relative to what?

[Detroitej72]

Wow, Bats is bashing Cheney?

Has hell frozen over?

[ccbatson]

To clarify..the context is in response to MJS describing Lorax's views on this as honest and well informed in #12.

[Gannon]

Good to see that we've not taken our eyes off the prize here, thanks Lorax and Detroitej72 for keeping things on the front burner.

Lest we forget, the Bush Family Trust purchased just under a hundred thousand acres in Asuncion, Paraguay not long after their legislature voted to allow all US government and military harbor from US and International court jurisdictions! I cannot forget that TWO of my threads on that subject have been summarily removed from the internet, all archives, and somehow they even pulled them from Lowell's backups that he's been able to access. [[If I got that story correct from him during the picnic) Beautiful Paraguay in the Post-Apocalypse Springtime...it may be time to re-type that again, actually!


Their little dirty secret war has not ended, and it IS possible that Obama is part of the modern unveiling of a Big Brother that would've kept Orwell awake at night. IF he stands up against it, they will kill him as quickly and as publicly as they did JFK. OF that there is little doubt.


Cheney is a master of False Flag Operations, of that there is even LESS doubt. The work he and his team did on 9/11 and beyond for the cover-up was exemplary.

[Detroitej72]

Their little dirty secret war has not ended, and it IS possible that Obama is part of the modern unveiling of a Big Brother that would've kept Orwell awake at night. IF he stands up against it, they will kill him as quickly and as publicly as they did JFK. OF that there is little doubt.


Cheney is a master of False Flag Operations, of that there is even LESS doubt. The work he and his team did on 9/11 and beyond for the cover-up was exemplary.

Cheney gloated about a month or so, on Fox, no less, that he still had "moles" in Obama's Administration.

For that reason, I fear you might be onto something Gannon, in regards to an assassination against our president. For that reason, I fear for the president's safety.

[Lorax]

Good to see that we've not taken our eyes off the prize here, thanks Lorax and Detroitej72 for keeping things on the front burner.

Lest we forget, the Bush Family Trust purchased just under a hundred thousand acres in Asuncion, Paraguay not long after their legislature voted to allow all US government and military harbor from US and International court jurisdictions! I cannot forget that TWO of my threads on that subject have been summarily removed from the internet, all archives, and somehow they even pulled them from Lowell's backups that he's been able to access. [[If I got that story correct from him during the picnic) Beautiful Paraguay in the Post-Apocalypse Springtime...it may be time to re-type that again, actually!


Their little dirty secret war has not ended, and it IS possible that Obama is part of the modern unveiling of a Big Brother that would've kept Orwell awake at night. IF he stands up against it, they will kill him as quickly and as publicly as they did JFK. OF that there is little doubt.


Cheney is a master of False Flag Operations, of that there is even LESS doubt. The work he and his team did on 9/11 and beyond for the cover-up was exemplary.

Superb and right on.

I am intrigued by the Paraguay land deal. I had heard that Paraguay has no extradition treaty with the US, and is a sanctuary for the Bush Crime Family when the indictments get handed out. I understand they have built quite a compound for the entire family.

When did we ever think we'd have fugitive ex-presidents running like vermin to foreign soil to keep their asses out of jail, a la Pinochet?

I do believe Obama has a target on his back, and the MIC will snuff him out at the first provocation. Anyone who thinks anarchy isn't bubbling just beneath the surface, let the fascist Rethuglicans try something like this, and they'll see what happens to them.

[gibran]

I pray that the analysis of a false flag against our president is wrong..I pray that a small number of extremists in right bowels of agencies doesn't get a foreign government to be part of a conspiracy to damage our credibility...or attack the president with right wing foreign agents...geesh the conspiracy folks have a lot to build on.

[mjs]

I do believe Obama has a target on his back, and the MIC will snuff him out at the first provocation.

Who's MIC?

[Lorax]

Who's MIC?

Military Industrial Complex.

[ccbatson]

Gannon has this one close to the mark...Big brother? not as new fangled as that, good old fashioned Marxism is what he is after.

[Gannon]

In the original speech, when outgoing President Eisenhower warned the nation against what was happening at the national level, they actually wrote Military/Industrial/Legislative Complex...but chose to NOT attack the third branch of government directly with such an implication...no matter HOW accurate.

Such is politics.


I hadn't considered they would kill President Obama to stage a coup or destablize the country...but DO fully believe that every President since Kennedy has been reminded clearly what happens when a figurehead dares speak out against the doing of the shadow government.


But now that you mention it...the FEMA HAS been curiously eager to acquire mass grave sites around the country very recently. We've got reports from Phoenix and Chicago now...that they expect many tens of thousands of deaths soon.


From what and how CAN they know already?!


Will it appear to the public as merely the tardy swine flu epidemic-in-waiting finally appearing in the strength they expected when they started counting publicly the number of those merely SICK with it?!



Come ON now...

[ccbatson]

The person doing the speaking out here is Obama's man running the CIA. Don't you think they are on the same page?