In Secret Memos Waterboarding Got White House Nod

In Secret Memos Waterboarding Got White House Nod

www.washingtonpost.com

The Bush administration issued a pair of secret memos to the CIA in 2003 and 2004 that explicitly endorsed the agency's use of interrogation techniques such as waterboarding against al-Qaeda suspects -- documents prompted by worries among intelligence officials about a possible backlash if details of the program became public.

The classified memos, which have not been previously disclosed, were requested by then-CIA Director George J. Tenet more than a year after the start of the secret interrogations, according to four administration and intelligence officials familiar with the documents. Although Justice Department lawyers, beginning in 2002, had signed off on the agency's interrogation methods, senior CIA officials were troubled that White House policymakers had never endorsed the program in writing.

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How can we convince the rest of the world and especially the Muslim world that we are different, a force for good in the world when we betray our principles so blatantly?

We keep telling the world these things but the reality does not jive with our rhetoric and that is more than anything why the rest of the world distrusts us so.

If we did not go around spouting the American rhetoric so much it wouldn't matter so much.

It would be far better if we just shut up about them instead of lying.

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Originally posted by grover


It would be far better if we just shut up about them instead of lying.

www.washingtonpost.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Absolutely! One of my main problems with the US is the level of hypocracy. It's not that it is the worst violator of human rights in the world. It is that they point the finger at those who violate human rights as though they are any better. And some people believe it. Some people actually buy into the American Dream - that's the biggest sham of all.

They make statements about other countries and their WMDs when they are the only ones to have used a nuclear bomb on anyone. They also have used (along with the British) depleted uranium which they don't classify as a WMD but, to all intents and purposes, is. They decry nations that don't support democracy when the fallacy of their democracy is never to be questioned. They call other states agressors when they are the ones invading sovereign states under specious reasoning. They talk about lack of civilisation in other countries without dealing with their own education, medical and poverty problems. They talk about countries that support terror and yet they are one of the biggest arms dealers in the world (along with the other G8 countries - excluding Japan). The list goes on...

And I want to be crystal clear, my issue is not with Americans. My issue is with the American administrations (particularly, that of the last 8 years) and the propoganda machine that is the American media.

reply to post by grover

Grover thanks for posting the article.
This is a significant paper trail that leads directly to the whitehouse!

I hope when the new administration is sworn in we will begin to see REAL investigations and REAL accountability for the crimes committed by this administration!! This is rock solid evidence for one of those convictions!!

Why is this news? The administration hasn't held that waterboarding didn't occur and wasn't authorized, their stance has always been that waterboarding isn't a form of torture. Memos stating it was approved by the White House really mean nothing at all if they, themselves have admitted they authorized it. Now, show me some memos where they say it is a form of torture rather than a legitimate interogation tactic, and you have something newsworthy.

Here is a quote from the article in the Washington Post:

The classified memos, which have not been previously disclosed, were requested by then-CIA Director George J. Tenet more than a year after the start of the secret interrogations, according to four administration and intelligence officials familiar with the documents. Although Justice Department lawyers, beginning in 2002, had signed off on the agency's interrogation methods, senior CIA officials were troubled that White House policymakers had never endorsed the program in writing.

In other words the CIA thought they were being hung out to dry!
Later George Tenet requested another verification in writing which he never received.

I see a crime being covered up by the guilty parties. What do you see?? If this was all above board and sanctioned by the congress and the american public why the nerves??? Why the Secrecy??

John Ashcroft was quoted as saying "History will not judge us kindly."
I think he is correct.

Its a Theater Macabre.

I just dont even know this country anymore. Nothing surprises me anymore.