Torture r us - waterboarding, hypothermia, heat injury, forced nakedness, forced sex acts, mock executions, descrating religious objects

there's something truly rotten at the core of my country when our elected representatives cannot bring themselves to condemn torture... absolutely disgusting...

As it debated legislation to reauthorize U.S. intelligence programs, the House Friday morning at the last minute stripped language from a wide-ranging amendment that would have prohibited U.S. intelligence operatives from engaging in cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.

The torture prohibition had been included Thursday in a package of amendments offered by House Intelligence Committee Chairman Silvestre Reyes (D-Texas) that was debated on the House floor. The section of the amendment was titled, “Cruel, Inhuman, and Degrading Treatment in Interrogations Prohibited.”

According to Politico, the language was drafted by liberal Washington Democratic Rep. Jim McDermott, and included in Reyes’ package of amendments at the insistence of Rules Committee Chairwoman Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.) .

The torture language drew immediate criticism from key House Republicans and conservative opinion leaders off Capitol Hill. Peter Hoekstra (R-Mich.), the ranking minority member of the Intelligence Committee, complained, “Republicans brought this to the attention of the American people, who were rightly outraged that Democrats would try to target those we ask to serve in harm’s way. … The annual intelligence bill should be about protecting and defending our nation, not targeting those we ask to do that deed and giving greater protections to terrorists.”

Before the House voted on the amendment, leaders decided that the provision should be removed, judging that its inclusion could put passage of the entire bill at risk. That required a hurriedly scheduled Rules Committee meeting Thursday evening to approve a rule that modified the Reyes amendment, to take out the torture provision. All of that delayed further action on the amendment, and the bill, until Friday.

When the House finally voted on the Reyes amendment Friday morning, it was on the modified version — sans the torture language, which would have specifically prohibited waterboarding, inducing hypothermia or heat injury, forcing a person to be naked or to perform a sex act, or conducting mock executions. The amendment also would have banned interrogators from forcing a prisoner to maintain stress positions or to desecrate a religious object.

reading things like this just make me want to cry...

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Jon Stewart is right... Obviously we don't know Dick...

maybe THIS will smoke the big dick out of his undisclosed location and into the arms of sweet, sweet accountability... somehow, however, i don't think i should hold my breath...

Cheney Is Linked to C.I.A. Concealment of Terror Program

The Central Intelligence Agency withheld information about a
secret counterterrorism program from Congress for eight years
on direct orders from former Vice President Dick Cheney, the
agency's director, Leon E. Panetta, has told the Senate and
House intelligence committees, two people with direct
knowledge of the matter said Saturday.

The report that Mr. Cheney was behind the decision to conceal
the still-unidentified program from Congress deepened the
mystery surrounding it, suggesting that the Bush
administration had put a high priority on the program and its
secrecy.

Mr. Panetta, who ended the program when he first learned of
its existence from subordinates on June 23, briefed the two
intelligence committees about it in separate closed sessions
the next day.

the clever daily show line notwithstanding, most of us who have paid the slightest bit of attention in fact DO know dick and have essentially been saying this all along... nice to see it making headlines in the traditional media, however...

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NO-O-O-O-O-O-OOOOOOO...!

did ANYONE ANYWHERE entertain anything but the most psychotic delusion that this wouldn't happen...?

Lawmakers may consider a compromise bill that would renew the law, which expired last month, and possibly grant some sort of protection to phone companies from lawsuits. But it would differ from a Senate-passed measure backed by the White House that would provide blanket immunity.

"We think we're very close. Probably within the next week, we'll be able to hopefully bring it to a vote," House Intelligence Committee Chairman Silvestre Reyes of Texas said of efforts to craft and pass such legislation.

[...]

Reyes said House Democrats were now reviewing confidential U.S. documents they received in recent weeks about the warrantless electronic surveillance program and were talking with phone companies.

Consequently, Reyes said he now had an "open mind" on whether to shield companies from lawsuits.

keee-f'ing-rist... is there even one of the s.o.b.'s that takes their goddam oath of office seriously...? the country they're screwing with belongs to ME TOO...!

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John Bolton uses the Karl Rove tactic on the Iran NIE

you all know the karl rove tactic, i'm sure... that's where, on the biggest public platform you can find, using the biggest megaphone around, you point-blank accuse someone else of doing precisely what you routinely do yourself... it's jaw-droppingly effective because it's the essence of the "BIG LIE..." when you hear it, you can only shake your head and marvel at the incredible chutzpah of someone who could lie like this... here's one of the principal "POLITICIZERS" of intelligence in the entire world, one of the neocon vampires who lied us into an illegal war in iraq, accusing people in the intelligence community of POLITICIZING intelligence... it's breathtaking...

I really think the House and Senate Intelligence Committees have to look at how this NIE was put together because there are a lot unexplained points in here. […]

I think there is a risk here, and I raise this as a question, whether people in the intelligence community who had their own agenda on Iran for some time now have politicized this intelligence and politicized these judgments in a way contrary to where the administration was going. I think somebody needs to look at that.

so, WTF does having "their own agenda" mean...? is that an agenda that calls for NOT wanting to go to war...? NOT bombing another country back into the stone age...? does "contrary to where the administration is going" mean "contrary to death and destruction"...?

please, dear lord, spare me from this kind of man and this kind of thinking...

(thanks to think progress...)

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Dear John Ashcroft, the pleasure of your company is requested

standard business attire... rsvp to john rockefeller or silvestre reyes...

The Senate and House Intelligence Committees are asking former attorney general John Ashcroft to testify about a March 2004 hospital-room confrontation during which he refused to sign off on a continuation of President Bush’s warrantless eavesdropping program, according to congressional and administration sources.

The sources, who asked not to identified talking about sensitive matters, said the Senate Intelligence Committee has tentatively scheduled a closed-door hearing for later this month. The panel plans to question Ashcroft, his former chief of staff David Ayres and former deputy attorney general James Comey about a heated dispute with the White House that roiled the Justice Department three years ago. The House committee is also planning a separate closed-door hearing with Ashcroft, according to a spokeswoman for Ashcroft.

i find this encouraging for two reasons... one, i wondered when somebody was going to go after ashcroft... it seems he's got a lot to offer none of which he's shared... two, i'm glad to see the house and senate intelligence committees getting really cranked up in the oversight department... i definitely don't think silvestre reyes is the sharpest tack in the box, but maybe between him and rockefeller, they can put together a squeeze play... and, then again, maybe not... it does kinda sound like it might happen, tho'... if ashcroft and half of his gang were ready to resign as comey stated, john's got a lot o'splainin' to do...

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Yet another deeply troubling illegal Bushco activity

the hits just keep on comin'...

U.S. intelligence recently undertook a "significant" covert action without notifying Congress, as required by law, the House Intelligence Committee disclosed in a new report on the 2008 intelligence authorization bill.

"The Committee was dismayed at a recent incident wherein the Intelligence Community failed to inform the Congress of a significant covert action activity. This failure to notify Congress constitutes a violation of the National Security Act of 1947."

"Despite agency explanations that the failure was inadvertent, the Committee is deeply troubled over the fact that such an oversight could occur, whether intentionally or inadvertently."

"The Committee firmly believes that scrupulous transparency between the Intelligence Community and this Committee is an absolute necessity on matters related to covert action."

In response to this lapse, the Committee adopted a provision in its authorization bill that would require the CIA Inspector General to audit each covert action program at least once every three years.

very deeply troubling... it seems that we have a presidential administration that feels it can act totally outside the law without explanation or accountability... every day, we learn more... where does it end...?

p.s. wouldn't you really like to know what the "covert action" was...?

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