Cheney-Personally Led Torture Briefings-Democrats Objected-Started Investigation-Repubs "Quashed It"

[kpete]

Cheney Led Torture Briefings, Democrats Objected, Post Reveals; CIA, Republicans Mum on Veep’s Role
By: emptywheel Wednesday June 3, 2009 6:05 am

..............

The article does provide two more important details that add to the damning story.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/02/AR2009060203999.html?hpid=topnews

Cheney's briefings on interrogations began in the winter of 2005 as the top Democrats on the Senate and House intelligence committees, Sen. John D. Rockefeller III (W.Va.) and Rep. Jane Harman (Calif.), publicly advocated a full-scale investigation of the tactics used against top al-Qaeda suspects.

On March 8, 2005 -- two days after a detailed report in the New York Times about interrogations -- Cheney gathered Rockefeller, Harman and the chairmen of the intelligence panels, Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) and Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-Mich.), according to current and former intelligence officials. Weeks earlier, Roberts had given public statements suggesting possible support for the investigation sought by Rockefeller. But by early March 2005, Roberts announced that he opposed a separate probe, and the matter soon died.

Cheney's efforts to sway Congress toward supporting waterboarding went beyond secret meetings in Washington. In July 2005, he sent David S. Addington, his chief counsel at the time, to travel with five senators -- four of them opponents of the CIA interrogation methods -- to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. On the trip, Sen. Graham urged Addington to put the interrogations at secret prisons and the use of military tribunals into a stronger constitutional position by pushing legislation through Congress, rather than relying on executive orders and secret rulings from Justice Department lawyers.

First, the WaPo reports that Jello Jay pushed for an investigation, but Pat Roberts quashed it. I guess that explains why Roberts is so quiet now. But in case anyone wanted any more affirmation that Democrats opposed torture and Republicans sustained it, there's yet one more data point.

And then yet another Gitmo trip for Addington, this time with some Senators in tow. Was this an all-Republican affair as well? The question is particularly relevant, since Lindsey Graham has helpfully reminded us that all these Republican-only briefings are proof of criminal intent. Or was it just Graham, McCain and the few other anti-torture Republicans, off on a field trip to be coerced by Cheney's right hand man?

If anyone needed yet more proof that torture was Cheney's baby, his active lobbying of Congress--hidden as "CIA briefings"--out to do the trick.

more:
http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2009/06/03/why-did-cia-hide-dick-cheneys-role-in-briefing/

[LynneSin]

1. But I thought Nancy Pelosi was the ringleader personally waterboarding those who stood in her way

:eyes:

[bdamomma]

2. all roads led to Cheney

no wonder he is pleading his case, on what Mike Malloy calls it, Dick Cheney's Godamnit,I am innocent tour!!!

[Jennicut]

3. Cheney is on a public tour to sell his side of the story but no one believes him

Its kind of obvious what he did.

[gratuitous]

4. Hey, you know what I just noticed?

It's not 2005 anymore, and the Republicans don't control both houses of Congress anymore. Has anyone told Sen. Rockefeller that if he still wants to investigate, he'd pretty much have a clear field?

[Wednesdays]

5. K&R

:kick:

[Canuckistanian]

6. What did Cheney say in the "briefings"?

And why did the CIA not list Cheney as having been present? What sort of fucked-up meetings were these?