Fmr. Bush Official: White House Tried To Destroy Torture Dissent Memo

[babylonsister]

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/04/state_dept_lawyer_white_house_tried_to_destroy_my.php?ref=fp5

State Dept Lawyer: White House Tried To Destroy My Alternative Memo On Torture
By Zachary Roth - April 21, 2009, 2:06PM


As David noted over at TPM, there was some potentially big news in a blog post that was written this morning over at Foreign Policy by Philip Zelikow, a top State Department lawyer under Condoleezza Rice.

Zelikow wrote that, in 2005, he had written a memo on the legality of harsh interrogation techniques that expressed an "alternative view" to the OLC memos. He continued:

My colleagues were entitled to ignore my views. They did more than that: The White House attempted to collect and destroy all copies of my memo. I expect that one or two are still at least in the State Department's archives.

Trying to get a copy of the memo, we contacted Zelikow. He declined to add much to his blog post, but did say, via email:

The memo I mentioned was highly classified at the time. So any extant copies, or drafts, would only be in an appropriate government safe. Any extant copies at State would be in their archival facilities for top secret papers from my files, or possibly Bellinger's files, or Secretary Rice's files.

We've contacted the State Department, as well as John Bellinger, who served as Rice's chief legal adviser at the department, and is now at the Washington law firm Arnold & Porter. We'll keep you posted...

Related:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=5504437&mesg_id=5504437

[Supersedeas]

1. wonder if asked (and Corp GOP never will), but if Condi were asked to confirm or deny her lil' buddy

story....would she?

[sabra]

2. weird this is coming from Zelikow - remember he was Condi's man on the 9/11 commission

tried to control the report especially when it related to BushCo not listening to pre 9/11 warnings

[Spazito]

3. This is VERY interesting given Mr. Zelikow's relationship with Rice..

One wonders if he is feeling vulnerable given the release of the torture memos and wants to get out ahead of any story that might arise around his involvement.

[babylonsister]

5. He wrote this yesterday...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=5498657&mesg_id=5498657

Keep politics out of the law when judging torture
Mon, 04/20/2009 - 11:19am

By Phil Zelikow

I will have more to say soon about interrogation policies in the Bush administration and the recently renewed debate over them, but for now I'll just say this: I am not eager to see any government officials prosecuted for crimes because of their zeal to protect their country. But crimes committed for worthy motives are still crimes, and we have institutions to sort this out.

So has anyone beside me found it troubling that President Obama is making announcements on who should be prosecuted for possible crimes? Whatever one's view of the matter, didn't the administration ardently announce its dedication to depoliticizing the Department of Justice? So why is it proper for the president to tell Attorney General Eric Holder what he should conclude?

There seem to be four possibilities here:

1. No unlawful conduct occurred. That judgment should, at least initially, be made by the Attorney General, free from political influence.

2. Unlawful conduct occurred, but the suspects have a credible defense -- that before undertaking their unlawful conduct, they relied in good faith on authoritative (though in retrospect, mistaken) legal opinions that the planned conduct would be lawful, and these opinions were also issued in good faith. Again, that judgment should be made, at least initially, by the attorney general, free from political influence.

3. Unlawful conduct occurred, and the legal opinions are not an adequate defense. Federal prosecutors, regular or specially appointed, then go to work. Again, the prosecutorial judgments should be free from inappropriate political influence.

4. Unlawful conduct occurred, and the legal opinions might not be an adequate defense. But President Obama decides to issue a blanket pardon for any possible criminal activity.


Or you have option #5, in which the president does not exercise his pardon power but instead, in effect, tells his attorney general what conclusions he should reach about whether federal officials broke the law.

Can you imagine what folks would say if a Republican president exercised option #5? I wish President Obama would just play this straight. He also does no favor to suspects if he politicizes the question of their innocence.


Phil Zelikow is a former top aide to ex-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and staff director of the 9/11 Commission.

[Spazito]

8. Ahhh, even more interesting!

Putting aside all the questionable points Mr. Zelikow makes, the real reason he is doing this now is stated in his last sentence:

"I wish President Obama would just play this straight. He also does no favor to suspects if he politicizes the question of their innocence."

Mr. Zelikow is the one playing politics by the very nature of his points and the way they are slanted. That last sentence is VERY personal, imo. Obviously if Mr. Zelikow wrote a memo re torture, whether opposing or not, he was involved to the extent he may well be investigated and THAT, imo, is why he is going public in this manner.


Thanks for posting this, it is very enlightening in how those involved are going to try and say it is political when it is not.

[me b zola]

10. And/or

...being put in the very uncomfortable position of potentially testifying against the cabal.

I love the smell of neocon fear.

[Spazito]

11. Yep, either way, I, too, smell the fear....

I do think the rats will start turning on each other at some point in hopes of protecting themselves.

[mmonk]

4. I smell fear.

[glitch]

9. Good. Lie down with dogs. He's one of the major dirty, mangey, flea-ridden dogs anyway.

Perhaps he's not dirty on THIS particular issue, but there is plenty more where that came from (PNAC).

No offense to dirty mangey flea-ridden canines, apologies to them for this association.

[Egnever]

6. The details are veritably starting to pur out.

I love politics! so much more interesting than fiction.

[Uncle Joe]

7. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, babylonsister.:thumbsup: