Ex-Bush official (Zelikow) : 'Abuse' was approved (told to destroy memo critical of interrogation)

[sabra]

Source: MSNBC

Zelikow says he was told to destroy memo critical of interrogation methods

WASHINGTON - A former Bush administration official told a congressional hearing Wednesday that he was asked to destroy a memo he wrote arguing against the use of waterboarding and other enhanced techniques.

Philip Zelikow, who served as a top adviser to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice from 2005 until 2007, argued in the memo that some of the tactics used on suspected terrorists violated the constitution's ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

Zelikow said he was later told that his memo was "not considered appropriate for further discussion" and that he was ordered to destroy it. Zelikow said he didn't comply, adding that the document was now being reviewed for possible declassification.

He accused the Bush administration of taking the "unprecedented" step of backing "dehumanizing abuse and ... torment to extract information."

Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30721458/

[underpants]

1. Ex-Bush official: 'Torment' was approved (Zelikow. they tried to destroy the memo-didn't)

Source: MSNBC

updated 40 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - A former Bush administration adviser told a congressional hearing Wednesday that White House officials tried to destroy copies of a memo he wrote arguing against the use of waterboarding and other enhanced techniques.

Philip Zelikow, who served as a top adviser to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice from 2005 until 2007, argued in the memo that some of the tactics used on suspected terrorists violated the constitution's ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

Zelikow said he was later told that his memo was "not considered appropriate for further discussion."

Zelikow said White House officials attempted to collect and destroy copies of his memo but failed. The document now is being reviewed for possible declassification, he said.

Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30721458/

[Hekate]

2. After seeing his interview awhile back I just knew there had to be copies somewhere...

Drip, drip, drip.

Hekate

[HelenWheels]

3. The word is "torture"

but they just can't seem to say it.

[leveymg]

4. As far as I can tell. this is just Zelikow remaking his own tainted image

Can someone explain why this guy, who does not seem to have anything of interest to reveal or say about Bush-Cheney torture, is getting all this media?

I know that he's acting as a surrogate for Condi. But, so what?

Zelikow is just another neocon with vain glory in his blood and a lost vision of world domination.

:wtf:

[Turborama]

5. (Zelikow) US detainee abuse 'unprecedented'

Source: Al Jazeera English

A former US official has accused the administration of George Bush, the former president, of authorising "unprecedented" acts of abuse during the interrogation of terror suspects.

Phillip Zelikow told a US senate hearing on torture practices that the Bush administration was guilty of a "collective failure" over the interrogation of "war on terror" detainees.

"The US government over the past seven years adopted an unprecedented programme in American history of cruelly calculated dehumanising abuse and physical torment to extract information," Zelikow said on Wednesday.

"This was a mistake, perhaps disastrous one. It was a collective failure in which a number of officials and members of congress and staffers of both parties played a part, endorsing a CIA programme of physical coercion."

Read more: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2009/05/2009513171344291514.html

[democrank]

6. No more looking the other way.

Prosecute!

[CJCRANE]

7. Is Zelikow playing the same role

he did in the 9/11 Commission?

Blame both parties then say "everyone made a mistake, let's learn from it and move forward".

[SpiralHawk]

8. "cruelly calculated dehumanising abuse and physical torment"

There you have the anti-American, anti-Christian Republicon Homelander Family Values in a nutshell.