‘Holy Hell’ Over Torture Memos (AG Holder wants memos released - Intel officials fighting against)

[sabra]

Source: Newsweek



Attorney General Eric Holder wants to release classified Bush-era interrogation memos. But U.S. intel officials are fiercely lobbying the White House to block him from moving forward.
By Michael Isikoff | Newsweek Web Exclusive
Apr 3, 2009



A fierce internal battle within the White House over the disclosure of internal Justice Department interrogation memos is shaping up as a major test of the Obama administration's commitment to opening up government files about Bush-era counterterrorism policy.

As reported by NEWSWEEK, the White House last month had accepted a recommendation from Attorney General Eric Holder to declassify and publicly release three 2005 memos that graphically describe harsh interrogation techniques approved for the CIA to use against Al Qaeda suspects. But after the story, U.S. intelligence officials, led by senior national-security aide John Brennan, mounted an intense campaign to get the decision reversed, according to a senior administration official familiar with the debate. "Holy hell has broken loose over this," said the official, who asked not to be identified because of political sensitivities.

Brennan is a former senior CIA official who was once considered by Obama for agency director but withdrew his name late last year after public criticism that he was too close to past officials involved in Bush administration decisions. Brennan, who now oversees intelligence issues at the National Security Council, argued that release of the memos could embarrass foreign intelligence services who cooperated with the CIA, either by participating in overseas "extraordinary renditions" of high-level detainees or housing them in overseas "black site" prisons.
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Brennan succeeded in persuading CIA Director Leon Panetta to become "engaged" in his efforts to block release, according to the senior official. Their joint arguments stalled plans to declassify the memos even though White House counsel Gregory Craig had already signed off on Holder's recommendation that they should be disclosed, according to an official and another government source familiar with the debate. No final decision has been made, and it is likely Obama will have to resolve the matter, according to the sources who spoke to NEWSWEEK.

Read more: http://www.newsweek.com/id/192314

[Supersedeas]

1. what would be so embarrassing about rendition to black sites---hmmmm

[tomm2thumbs]

2. if there is nothing bad to hide, why the fear of not hiding it? (obviously GOP's trembling)

Cheney is going to have to avoid Spain for an entire lifetime now (sigh)

[hvn_nbr_2]

16. Dontcha know that logic only applies in one direction? nt

[soothsayer]

3. open the files, and start building the gallows for the previous evil actors

[Gman]

4. "Holy hell has broken loose over this,"

Holy hell will break loose when people are scrambling to avoid charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

[superconnected]

8. I expect bush, bush sr, and cheney to leave the country eventually to avoid a trial

I bet they go to South America. Wonder if they'll last in the US even one more year.

[aquart]

14. Paraguay is a fun place.

I really do want them gone. Not as much as I want them hanged in Union Square, of course.

[Peace Patriot]

26. Nope, not Paraguay. Last summer, they elected the first leftist president in their history,

overturning 61 years of rightwing rule. The new president, Fernando Lugo--the beloved "bishop of the poor"--among other things, wants the U.S. military out of Paraguay. Interestingly, the rightwing Colorado Party, which had created a sanctuary for nazis, fascists and war criminals, began to see "the handwriting on the wall" in South America (leftist governments elected in Venezuela, Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, Chile, Bolivia, Ecuador), and rescinded both their non-extradition law and their law immunizing the U.S. military, just before Lugo was elected, in order to be admitted to South American trade groups, and they also joined Hugo Chavez of Venezuela in creating the Bank of the South (to elbow the U.S.-dominated World Bank/IMF out of the region, and establish local/regional control over development funds).

When Fernando Lugo was elected, Evo Morales, the first indigenous president of Bolivia, sent him this message: "Welcome to the Axis of Evil." (It is a sign of the confidence of the leftist leaders of South America that they can joke about Bushwhack bullshit.)

There is no refuge for Bushwhacks in any of the above-mentioned countries, including Paraguay.* They might be welcome by their narco-thug comrades in Colombia, a country upon which the Bushwhacks larded $6 BILLION of our hard-earned tax dollars, to whack union leaders, human rights workers, peasant farmers, journalists and other inconvenient persons, so Bushwhacks would feel quite at home in Colombia (or parts of Colombia). The corrupt "free tradists" running Peru might welcome Bushwhack criminals, but Peru's democracy is probably still viable enough for the people to toss the current regime out and elect a leftist government like almost everybody else. (Peru's president has about the same approval rating as Bush--20% to 30%--and it would soon plummet to zero if he permitted Bushwhack escapees to reside there.)

Where oh where can our war criminals go? El Salvador's gone leftist. Nicaragua went leftist a while back. Guatemala went leftist. Honduras is leaning leftist. That just leaves Mexico, which is in turmoil (and will likely elect a leftist in the next election), Costa Rica and Cuba--in this hemisphere. Oh, and Canada--which just banned a leftist UK MP from visiting Canada, because he disagrees with US foreign policy. Canada might work, except for the people--it would have to be a remote location with an electronic perimeter. Doable, but then again it might bring down the idiotic rightwing government. There are some islands here and there, that might take war criminals. In fact, a part of the island of Cuba has a U.S. base and a beaut of a prison--a Hotel Hilton, really--which might serve as a good fortress into which Bushwhacks could lock themselves, if the rest of the world becomes too "hot" for them.

---------------------------

*(Long story, but there was a rumor--that I could never find verification for--that the Bush Cartel bought a large--100,000 acres or so--property in Paraguay, next the Rev. Moon's estate, and including South America's major aquifer. I think they had a Rumsfeldian plan to start a white separatist civil war in neighboring Bolivia (which they tried to do this last September, and failed--another long story), to move U.S. troops from a beefed up air base--beefed up with our tax dollars--in Paraguay, across the border into Bolivia, and to create a fascist haven, involving Paraguay and the eastern secessionist part of Bolivia (where the gas/oil reserves are), right in the heart of South America. You may recall their bullshit that Islamic "terrorists" were operating in that region. That was their excuse for holding military maneuvers in Paraguay, with the consent of the prior, rightwing government. But I think that the election of a leftist government in Paraguay, and the extraordinary solidarity of all of these leftist leaders, foiled key elements of that war plan. The Bolivian white separatist insurrection this last September, which was run out of the U.S. (Bushwhack) embassy, was likely a vestige of that plot.)

[liberalsince1968]

5. No doubt Obama will kowtow to Brennan. Suits his turn-a-blind-eye "move forward" MO.

[saigon68]

24. A lot of Kow Towing going on

Seems like Standard Operating Procedure.

Bashing Union workers is also up their sleeves

Paying off crooks and bankers seems to be the First Priority

[pleah]

6. Well, you'd think someone was just a little scared about releasing those memos.

Those memos must be pretty damning. I hope so. Maybe then we can prosecute these criminals.

[Soylent Brice]

7. this could possibly be the one last good push to get indictments against the cabal rolling...

and i bet you that's why their resisting. the whole lot of them are screwed.

[fascisthunter]

9. so... watch how this gets shoved back into the shadows by our corrupt government

good on Holder but he's up against freaks and surrounded by careerists who care more about their jobs than the truth. Those who don't stand up for truth have no business taking tax money from us nor should they work in our government.

[Wizard777]

10. If they know whats good for them they will rat up the chain on that Titanic adventure.

That's really not something the want to anchor.

[pmorlan1]

11. The American People Can Lobby Just Like the CIA

This is OUR government so let's act like it is by letting Obama know how WE feel. He's hearing from the CIA so let's let him hear from us too. Let's not leave the CIA alone in a battle for the ear of the president, let's join them and let our voices be heard, as well. You guys know what to do.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/

[No Elephants]

17. Yes, we can lobby, and my fingertips are wearing down from the emails I sent. BUT,

we cannot donate $100K at a clip, as professional lobbyists do. Most of us can't anyway.

[KansDem]

12. "U.S. intelligence officials, led by senior national-security aide John Brennan,...

...mounted an intense campaign to get the decision reversed"

Are these the same intelligence officials who were bamboozled by 19 box-cutting "terrorists" and who got the intel "wrong" regarding Saddam's WMDs?

And why are we supposed to believe them now?

[Downwinder]

15. Probably the same intelligence officials who set up the 19 box-cutting "terrorists" n/t

[specimenfred1984]

13. Why's our Attorney General waisting his time on laws?

He should just move on to the economy, now's not the time to protest, he must be a fascist, repuke, liar, non-taxpaying whiner. Oops, that's me because I dare to speak the truth to people with their heads up their greedy asses.

[XXXMADAM]

18. Investigative Inspector Generals contact info

Office of the Director of National Intelligence - 703-733-8600
Edward Maguire
Inspector General
Washington, DC 20511
http://www.dni.gov /


Department of Defense - Pentagon switchboard 703-545-6700
Gordon S. Heddell
Acting Inspector General
1400 Defense Pentagon
Washington DC 20301-1400
www.Defenselink.mil


National Security Agency Public Affairs: 301-688-6524
George Ellard
Inspector General
9800 Savage Rd.
Ft. Meade, Maryland 20755
http://www.nsa.gov /


Central Intelligence Agency - main: 703-482-0623
John L. Helgerson
Inspector General
Washington DC 20515
www.cia.gov


U.S. Department of Justice
Glenn Fine - useless
Inspector General
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20530-0001

[Political Heretic]

19. So IF Obama capitulates to intel officials, will it be okay if I'm angry about that?

I'll wait for now, hoping Obama administration will do the right thing, but I'd like to confirm that if they choose to cover for Bush administration crimes, that it will be deemed OK by DU that I'm really pissed about that....

[LynnTheDem]

20. If it was "ok" enough to do, it's "ok" enough to show it the light of day.

Those who have been TORTURED already know all about what was done to them.

[Zorra]

21. IMO, President Obama should remove all Bu*h administration holdovers

from government service.

That whole nest of snakes needs to be cleaned out or mark my words they will do even more serious damage to our country.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

22. If he doesn't we'll all regret it. nt

[L. Coyote]

23. Is this a spin story coming from Bush supporters?

Isn't the decision to release the memos a done deal the context here? Decided in a court of law in the ACLU lawsuit.

"The ... continued internal debate explains the Justice Department's decision late Thursday to ask a federal judge for another two-week delay (until April 16) to file a final response in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union seeking the release of the memos. The ACLU agreed to the two-week delay only after Justice officials represented that "high-level Government officials will consider for possible release" the three 2005 memos as well as another Aug. 1, 2002, memo on torture, that has long been sought by congressional committees and members of Congress .... "

[chill_wind]

25. "for possible" release doesn't sound like a done deal to me

until they actually do it. This is the second extension they've asked for. If I remember, BushCo pushed back the FOIA release by getting a delay in December, pushing it into an early date in the Obama admin. The first thing they did was ask for another 90 day extension to review and familiarize, but since it was only three memos, the judge said no to 90 more days. We could guess from major press around that same time that it appeared to be a stall anyway, in that they (Bush DOJ leftovers, no doubt) were putting the finishing creative touches on a draft report for Eric Holder on those and other memos and had apparently long done "reviewed" them. By creative touches, I'm talking about Bradbury's junk from December claiming the Bush admin had abandoned some of its earlier legal views on torture and other Constitution-shredding domestic police state powers.

I hope Eric Holder will prevail, and laud him for everything else he's released so far, but I don't have any trouble believing the evil held-over scum are fighting this process tooth and nail with everything they have.
Consider the stakes for them. I hope he will prevail!

[chill_wind]

27. And very much related-- questions about the critical report for Holder

all which may or may never become public.

DOJ Watchdog "Revising" Critical Report on John Yoo's Legal Work on Torture

Durbin and Sheldon Whitehouse: Why Did Mukasey Give OLC a Peek at the Yoo/Bradbury Results? (Emptywheel)

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x5368903#5374101