Ashcroft, Rumsfeld and Tenet urged the 9/11 Commission to limit its investigation

i'm so tired of all these little bits and pieces when at this point in time we can be reasonably sure we still don't know the whole story...

anyway, here's another little piece...

Senior Bush administration officials sternly cautioned the 9/11 Commission against probing too deeply into the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, according to a document recently obtained by the ACLU.

The notification came in a letter dated January 6, 2004, addressed by Attorney General John Ashcroft, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and CIA Director George J. Tenet [ACLU PDF document, page 26]. The ACLU described it as a fax sent by David Addington, then-counsel to former vice president Dick Cheney.

In the message, the officials denied the bipartisan commission's request to question terrorist detainees, informing its two senior-most members that doing so would "cross" a "line" and obstruct the administration's ability to protect the nation.

here's the letter... see for yourself how those three bozos tied the hands of those seeking the truth...


(click on image for larger version)

fer god's sake... can't we just get to the truth and get past all of this dribble-drabble crap...

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The "Torture 13"

marcy wheeler (emptywheel at firedoglake) writing in salon via alternet, does her usual thorough job laying out the case against the usual suspects...

1. Dick Cheney, vice president (2001-2009)
2. David Addington, counsel to the vice president (2001-2005), chief of staff to the vice president (2005-2009)
3. Alberto Gonzales, White House counsel (2001-2005), and attorney general (2005-2008)
4. James Mitchell, consultant
5. George Tenet, director of Central Intelligence (1997-2004)
6. Condoleezza Rice, national security advisor (2001-2005), secretary of state (2005-2008)
7. John Yoo, deputy assistant attorney general, Office of Legal Counsel (2001-2003)
8. Jay Bybee, assistant attorney general, Office of Legal Counsel (2001-2003)
9. William "Jim" Haynes, Defense Department general counsel (2001-2008)
10. Donald Rumsfeld, secretary of defense (2001-2006)
11. John Rizzo, CIA deputy general counsel (2002-2004), acting general counsel of the Central Intelligence Agency (2001-2002, 2004-present)
12. Steven Bradbury, principal deputy assistant attorney general, OLC (2004), acting assistant attorney general, OLC (2005-2009)
13. George W. Bush, president (2001-2009)

memorize these names... i want to be around to post on them again when they start doing time...

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Torture starts at the top (as if we didn't know)

more "news" we've known all along...

U.S. President George W. Bush's most senior advisers approved "enhanced interrogation techniques" of top al Qaeda suspects by the Central Intelligence Agency, ABC News reported on Wednesday, citing sources it did not name.

ABC reported that the so-called "principals" discussed interrogation details in dozens of top-secret talks and meetings in the White House.

Then national security adviser Condoleezza Rice chaired the meetings, which took place in the White House Situation Room and were typically attended by a select group of senior officials or their deputies, ABC said.

"Highly placed sources said a handful of top advisers signed off on how the CIA would interrogate top al Qaeda suspects -- whether they would be slapped, pushed, deprived of sleep or subjected to simulated drowning, called waterboarding," ABC reported.

In addition to Rice, the principals at the time included Vice President Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Secretary of State Colin Powell, CIA Director George Tenet and Attorney General John Ashcroft, the report said.

anybody who believed for a single minute that those poor low-level schmucks that took the rap for abu ghraib were acting on their own initiative has been smoking some truly powerful shit...

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Why should people wonder if the President of Afghanistan is a U.S. puppet? Let's remove all doubt.

sometimes the news is so jaw-droppingly unbelievable, that if i didn't read it myself, i'd think it was an urban legend that snopes would summarily debunk...

[P]ersistent chatter has it that Zalmay Khalilzad, our ambassador to the U.N., is also thinking of running for president . . . of Afghanistan.

The Afghan-born Khalilzad, a former Pentagon official, former ambassador to Afghanistan, then to Iraq and now to the U.N., is said to be in the mix for a run, which would probably be in the fall of 2009.

Honest. This is a real rumor. So real that we hear Afghan President Hamid Karzai asked Khalilzad about it when the two met in London back in October.

george tenet got the medal of freedom for helping george bush lie to the american people about wmd in iraq... paul wolfowitz got the presidency of the world bank - at least for a little while - for helping justify an unprovoked and illegal war... but why waste your time with such small-minded, insignificant baubles and sinecures... go for something REALLY big... your VERY OWN COUNTRY...!

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Worried about possible criminal charges? Destroy the evidence! [UPDATE: Hayden assures us the interrogation techniques were "legal"]

< duh > it's a no-brainer...

The Central Intelligence Agency in 2005 destroyed at least two videotapes documenting the interrogation of two Al Qaeda operatives in the agency’s custody, a step it took in the midst of Congressional and legal scrutiny about the C.I.A’s secret detention program, according to current and former government officials.

The videotapes showed agency operatives in 2002 subjecting terror suspects — including Abu Zubaydah, the first detainee in C.I.A. custody — to severe interrogation techniques. They were destroyed in part because officers were concerned that tapes documenting controversial interrogation methods could expose agency officials to greater risk of legal jeopardy, several officials said.

The C.I.A. said today that the decision to destroy the tapes had been made “within the C.I.A. itself,” and they were destroyed to protect the safety of undercover officers and because they no longer had intelligence value. The agency was headed at the time by Porter J. Goss. Through a spokeswoman, Mr. Goss declined this afternoon to comment on the destruction of the tapes.

[...]

It was not clear who within the C.I.A. authorized the destruction of the tapes, but current and former government officials said it had been approved at the highest levels of the agency.

george...!?!? hey, GEORGE...!?!? TENET...!?!? yeah, YOU...! C'MERE...!! yeah, ok... you too, dubya... ok, guys... siddown... let's have us a li'l chat, k...? huh...? yeah, ok, porter... you can come along too...

[UPDATE]

c'mon, mike... reassure us that there's REALLY no reason whatsoever to be concerned... tell us again that our government has things well in hand and would NEVER, EVER cross a line, ANY line...

CIA Director Michael Hayden said House and Senate intelligence committee leaders were informed of the existence of the tapes and the CIA's intention to destroy them. He also said the CIA's internal watchdog watched the tapes in 2003 and verified that the interrogation practices were legal.

He said the CIA began taping the interrogations as an internal check on the program after President Bush authorized the use of harsh questioning methods. The methods included waterboarding, which simulates drowning, government officials said.

"The Agency was determined that it proceed in accord with established legal and policy guidelines. So, on its own, CIA began to videotape interrogations," Hayden said in a written message to CIA employees, obtained by The Associated Press.

The CIA also decided to destroy the tapes in "the absence of any legal or internal reason to keep them," Hayden wrote. He said the tapes were destroyed only after it was determined "they were no longer of intelligence value and not relevant to any internal, legislative or judicial inquiries."

whatever...

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Ray McGovern's take on George Tenet

it's a goodie... here's some teasers...

• Tenet’s book is a self-indictment for the crimes with which Socrates was charged: making the worse cause appear the better, and corrupting the youth.

• Tenet’s book and tiresome interviews have earned him the degree for chutzpah summa cum laude.

• Tenet’s pitiable apologia demonstrates once again not only that absolute power corrupts absolutely, but that the corruption befouls all those nearby.

• [Tenet's] book offers a keyhole-peep into a White House of ill repute, with Vice President Dick Cheney playing at his chess board, moving sniveling pawns like Tenet from one square to another.

• Tenet should not be behind a microphone, but behind bars.

besides nailing tenet to the wall via the printed word, mcgovern provides a well-researched, well-sourced, very nearly first-hand perspective on what ACTUALLY took place over the time covered in tenet's book, and, in the process, manages to completely debunk tenet's sad attempt at self-justification...

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Oh, and Mr. Tenet, be sure to wear your Medal of Freedom

it'll add to your credibility...

Today Chairman Henry A. Waxman announced that the Oversight Committee will postpone the hearing with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice from May 15, 2007, to June 19,2007. The hearing is being postponed to allow former CIA Director George Tenet to testify with Secretary Rice and to accommodate Secretary Rice's travel schedule.

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Former intelligence officers on Tenet

Phil Giraldi

Ray McGovern

Larry Johnson

Jim Marcinkowski

Vince Cannistraro

David MacMichael

have a few things to say to george (tenet)... i had my say the other day...

We write to you on the occasion of the release of your book, At the Center of the Storm. You are on the record complaining about the “damage to your reputation”. In our view the damage to your reputation is inconsequential compared to the harm your actions have caused for the U.S. soldiers engaged in combat in Iraq and the national security of the United States. We believe you have a moral obligation to return the Medal of Freedom you received from President George Bush. We also call for you to dedicate a significant percentage of the royalties from your book to the U.S. soldiers and their families who have been killed and wounded in Iraq.

[...]

Mr. Tenet, you cannot undo what has been done. It is doubly sad that you seem still to lack an adequate appreciation of the enormous amount of death and carnage you have facilitated. If reflection on these matters serves to prick your conscience we encourage you to donate at least half of the royalties from your book sales to the veterans and their families, who have paid and are paying the price for your failure to speak up when you could have made a difference. That would be the decent and honorable thing to do.

read it all at tpm cafe...

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Tenet

George J. Tenet, the former director of central intelligence, has lashed out against Vice President Dick Cheney and other Bush administration officials in a new book, saying they pushed the country to war in Iraq without ever conducting a “serious debate” about whether Saddam Hussein posed an imminent threat to the United States.

[...]

The 549-page book, “At the Center of the Storm,” is to be published by HarperCollins on Monday. By turns accusatory, defensive, and modestly self-critical, it is the first detailed account by a member of the president’s inner circle of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the decision to invade Iraq and the failure to find the unconventional weapons that were a major justification for the war.

i will say this once, and once only...

mr. tenet, you can go directly to hell... along with colin powell, you were in perhaps the best position to speak out in real time on the - now - very clear fact that the bush administration was railroading the united states into an illegal war with iraq... now, you want to sell me your fracking book... screw you AND the horse you rode in in...

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