Col. Wilkerson Testimony --House Panel : Cheney +torture tactics.

[chill_wind]

Feith to testify- was a no-show.

Cheney linked to torture tactics
Leadership failed at top levels
Tom Ramstack THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Thursday, June 19, 2008

A former military officer who served as chief of staff to former Secretary of State Colin Powell on Wednesday said Vice President Dick Cheney probably knew the U.S. military was using torture on Iraqi detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and at prisons in Iraq.

Col. Lawrence B. Wilkerson's testimony before a House panel followed revelations this week that detainees were subjected to beatings and other aggressive interrogation techniques with the authorization of government attorneys.

(...)

Col. Wilkerson said, "The president may have been ignorant of the worst parts of the failure."

Douglas Feith, one of the government attorneys suspected of contributing legal advice for the Defense Department's authorization of aggressive interrogation techniques, had notified the committee he would not appear at the hearing Wednesday.

Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, New York Democrat, said Mr. Feith, a former undersecretary of defense for policy, would be compelled to testify later.



"Mr. Feith's unwillingness to attend voluntarily and provide the truth about this government's actions shows a fundamental disrespect for Congress and the American people," Mr. Nadler said.

He also said the military's use of so-called waterboarding, beatings and putting prisoners in painful "stress positions" appears to be "more widespread and the legal justifications more flimsy than have been initially reported. Evidence also appears to be mounting that officials at the highest levels of this administration may have been directly involved to a far greater extent and far earlier in the process than had been previously represented to Congress and to the American people."

(...)

Daniel Levin, former acting assistant attorney general, testified that he contributed legal advice on torture to the Bush administration, but that he told high-level officials that it was unjustified under international law.

more: http://www.washtimes.com/news/2008/jun/19/cheney-linked-to-torture-tactics/

[Octafish]

1. Investigate. Indict. Impeach. Indict again in the Hague. Imprison. Repeat as necessary.

Wilkerson just torpedoed the BFEE.

[seemslikeadream]

4. I've been listening to the hearing tonight

It was very good to hear this

http://www.c-span.org/


Senate Armed Service Cmte. Hearing on Aggressive Interrogation Techniques: Panels Two & Three (June 17, 2008)
How did waterboarding come to be used on detainees in U.S. custody? The Senate Armed Service Cmte. asks military advisors and officials, including former DOD General Counsel William Haynes, to detail the debate over aggressive interrogation techniques.
Washington, DC : 4 hr. 10 min.

[chill_wind]

6. Marty Lederman on Haynes and Dan Levin testimonies

(if you haven't seen...)

http://balkin.blogspot.com/

Lots of assorted junk falling out of the BFEE trunk...

[libnnc]

10. I will NOT let this sink

[chill_wind]

12. Thanks libnnc. n/t

[libnnc]

2. So did Condi and Dick personally

direct the abuses at Abu Ghraib too?

The ones that included raping women and boys?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x3480875

They know about these tapes...

That would make Condi, Dick and Chimp pedophiles in my book.

[chill_wind]

5. Rice, Powell, Tenet, Ashcroft (ABC + Wapo- April 10)

(cross-posting)

White House Torture Advisers


By Dan Froomkin
Special to washingtonpost.com
Thursday, April 10, 2008; 1:20 PM



Top Bush aides, including Vice President Cheney, micromanaged the torture of terrorist suspects from the White House basement, according to an ABC News report aired last night.

Discussions were so detailed, ABC's sources said, that some interrogation sessions were virtually choreographed by a White House advisory group. In addition to Cheney, the group included then-national security adviser Condoleezza Rice, then-defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld, then-secretary of state Colin Powell, then-CIA director George Tenet and then-attorney general John Ashcroft.

At least one member of the club had some qualms. ABC reports that Ashcroft "was troubled by the discussions. He agreed with the general policy decision to allow aggressive tactics and had repeatedly advised that they were legal. But he argued that senior White House advisers should not be involved in the grim details of interrogations, sources said.



(....)

As the national security adviser, Rice chaired the meetings, which took place in the White House Situation Room."

full article (5 pages)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2008/04/10/BL2008041002069.html

[libnnc]

3. kick because it's all I can do

[slipslidingaway]

7. Great headline "Cheney linked to torture tactics" n/t

[crickets]

8. K&R

[libnnc]

9. kick

[chill_wind]

11. ...

[bdamomma]

13. kick