Cheney personally oversaw ’secret’ congressional briefings on torture: report
Published: June 3, 2009
Updated 8 months ago
Former Vice President Dick Cheney “personally” oversaw at least four briefings with members of Congress about the Bush administration’s interrogation program in an effort to maintain support for the torture of detainees in U.S. custody.
The briefings, part of a “secret” defense of the program Cheney began in 2005, were held as congressional oversight committees were threatening to investigate, or end the use of the interrogation methods, lawmakers and officials told The Washington Post.
Cheney’s advocacy of the use of waterboarding and warrantless wiretapping are certainly no secret, but his role in defending the program to lawmakers was undisclosed to the public until this time.
Documents delivered to Capitol Hill last month by the CIA listed every lawmaker briefed on the interrogation program since 2002, but made no mention of Cheney’s involvement in the meetings. For the briefings led by Cheney, intelligence committee members were told that information pertaining to the person who oversaw the meetings was “not available.”
During the briefings, Cheney “was adamant that the enhanced interrogations were needed to preserve national security,” two participants in the briefings told the paper, and when lawmakers questioned the legality of the program, “CIA briefers said that half of the agency’s knowledge about al-Qaeda’s plans and structure had been obtained through the interrogations.”
The report offers nothing to confirm or deny that top Democrats were aware that waterboarding was being used on detainees as early on as 2002, but does state that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi “was not present at any of the briefings that included Cheney.” Pelosi has been under fire since she accused the CIA of intentionally misleading her during a 2002 briefing on the use of waterboarding.
One of Pelosi’s most vocal critics, Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-Mich.), was in attendance during a very private meeting with the former vice president in 2005, reports the paper:
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.
Beyond the secret briefings with lawmakers, Cheney also reportedly sent five senators to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba with his chief counsel, David Addington. Senator Graham, who was along for the trip, voiced concern about the legality of the interrogation program, and “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.”
Addington pulled a pocket-sized copy of the Constitution from his coat, according to Graham, and replied “I’ve got all the authority I need right here.”
Read the full Washington Post story here.
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Why is this man not being investigated for his role in the cover-up of 9/11? Why is he not behind bars for being a war criminal?
By this point in time, I would hope your questions are purely rhetorical.
You know as well as I do why he’s not being investigated and why he’s not behind bars. It’s because messiah Obushma is protecting the Bush Crime Family which includes war criminal Cheney.
Nothing is going to happen to any of these despicable war criminals and traitors to the US Constitution because the war criminal and traitor to the US Constitution sitting in the White House at the moment is PART OF IT ALL….as some of us Nader and McKinney voters said during the campaign.
Corruption is systemic in this nation now…with both the “Dem Team” and the “Repug Team” millionaires who charade as politicians.
lindsey graham… you and your silly ‘laws’. that’ll teach you to mess with david ‘the beard’ addington.
Having not found a link to 9/11, does this confession make the invasion of Iraq an illegal war crime?
http://www.youpolls.com/details.asp?pid=5426
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The plot thickens.
Keep talking, Dick.
The evidence of Cheney’s guilt is piling up.
When will Obama allow AG Holder to appoint a Special Prosecutor?
When will Congress open Congressional Hearings on Bush Admin?
How much longer do Voters have to wait?
SIGN THE PETITION To Prosecute Them For Torture
http://ANGRYVOTERS.ORG
Over 250,000 have signed
Join them and call yourself a Patriot
.
Q. When will Obama allow AG Holder to appoint a Special Prosecutor?
A. He won’t. Period. Obushma is protecting the Bush Crime Family.
Q. When will Congress open Congressional Hearings on Bush Admin?
A. There will be no *serious* investigations or hearings on the Bush REGIME. The “Dem Team” and “Repug Team” (one-in-the-same) are protecting the criminals they served as accomplices with. Any *serious* investigations would INCRIMINATE and IMPLICATE the Bush-accomplice Dems as well, including messiah Obama.
A. How much longer do Voters have to wait?
Q. Until the voters are willing to get into the streets by the millions and millions in every city and town and hamlet in this nation. (Pssssst: That ain’t going to happen. Because the voters are too busy watching American Idol).
Statement: SIGN THE PETITION To Prosecute Them For Torture
Response: People have been signing petitions since 2000 and you see the state of things don’t you? These D and R war criminals don’t give a fuk about petitions. They ignore petitions. They listen to their owners, who are NOT any of us.
That’s a gallon of Poland Spring water in the picture used for waterboarding? What an endorsement for Nestle who owns Poland Spring and exploits (empties) various local water springs for their profits! After it’s been sitting in the plastic it’s no longer “fresh spring water”, it tastes like plastic! Why do people waste their money on Poland Spring, when it’s not as regulated as most tap water is? Oh, maybe because the torturers and torturees use it during their sport of waterboarding. Selling water requires slick advertising. (Tap is not good enough -glug glug gulag gasp- it has to be Poland Spring!)
“Addington pulled a pocket-sized copy of the Constitution from his coat, according to Graham, and replied “I’ve got all the authority I need right here.”
This just goes to show you how power mad these A-holes were. They didnt feel they were obliged to Congressional oversight of any kind. In their minds, they could whatever they wanted…whenever they wanted! Screw Congress and screw the american people. Spy on americans, out CIA agents, torture people! All in a days work for the disgraceful Bush/Cheney administration. These people need to be rounded up, investigated, tried for war crimes and treason, then publicly executed!!
Cheney’s flurry of media appearances is in itself evidence of how much he has to hide and how afraid he is.
I’m not sure what new information this story provides. Unless I hear that Deadeye was personally overseeing the actual torture, then no additional details about his defending it seem to contribute much. What am I missing?
Most nations lock up their fools and sociopaths. We elect them to run the country.
I like to see Jesse Ventura waterboard ( enhanced interrogations ) Cheney on live TV and get some answers to his roll on 911!
CFR member Dick Cheney another good buddy like Rush to David Rockefeller.
Sure Cheney did this and that, but as a barnacle he had no official capacity. I think we have to rack it up to experience that the Veep isn’t going to take a big hit. The A-Z of this is the Presidency. What did Bush know and order and when. There ought to be enough information in presidential log books for us to wrap this up with a nice little bow and hand it to the AG for action.
It’s not like the Clinton affair where trained seals, er Republican attack dogs went after him for a very long time and couldn’t touch him or Hillary. In this case the information has been coming out for a long time and there just needs to be a little more which has been kept secret and then it’ll be done.
So…….isn’t the “liberal media” interested to know if Pelosi was at these “secret meetings”?
So what if she were?
If the CIA or FBI came in briefed her about first degree murder by Bush or Cheney and slapped a “Classified” label on it, Pelosi would face charges of treason if she said boo about it. And then where would we be? The Corporate Media would have had sole focus on a member of Congress committing treason rather than looking into the facts and truth of what actually brought the Member to such actions.
The Administration slapped “Classified” on every conceivable briefing they could. It kept the Democrats bound and gagged, then allowed the Administration to claim Democrats were culpable when the shit started to hit the fan.
The evidence that has emerged over the course of Cheney’s term as Vice President clearly defines that he is a psychologically deficient human that should have never held such a powerful public office.
His renegade actions and stealth behavior while in office, make the strongest case yet that all future candidates, before they can qualify to be on the ballot for such positions, should be required to pass the same battery of psychological testing and evaluation that our military’s nuclear missile silo and nuclear submarine launch crews have to pass.
That sick and sadistic bastard probably oversaw the actual torturing.
Waterboard Cheney Now
Cheney’s been trying to taint the jury pool since January 20th.
Keep talking Dick. Prosecutors are taking notes.
Bush was and is too stupid to have masterminded anything. He was a pupet. Cheney, on the other hand, was and is smart enough and wicked enough to have pulled the strings on a lot of illegal activities that fell under the classified umbrella.
I agree, waterboard Cheney!!!!