‘Holy Hell’ Over Torture Memos

[babsbunny]

http://www.newsweek.com/id/192314/page/1

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.

[berni_mccoy]

1. I trust Obama to make a reasoned decision over this. If there is a real risk to National Security

he will recognize that for what it is.

[guy]

2. The reason given was...

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.

The Brits seem to be loking at this themselves.

The Commons foreign affairs select committee will examine Britain's involvement in the detention, transfer and interrogation of prisoners held during the so-called war on terror. Among the matters to be examined later in the year are allegations, reported in the Guardian over the past two years, that British intelligence officers colluded in the torture of Britons held in Pakistan and Egypt.
http://www.rawstory.com

[johnnypneumatic]

3. Release the memos? Holder, it's your job to prosecute them,

the ones who wrote them, the ones who carried out the torture, the ones who approved the torture. War crimes must be prosecuted. What are you waiting for? Are you the Attorney General of the United States, or are you a political flunkie who only does what he is told, like Gonzales?