harsh interrogation

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CIA Calls on Court to Keep Interrogation Files Secret

Panetta warns that releasing records would benefit al-Qaeda

(Newser) - The head of the CIA urged a federal judge yesterday to keep records of harsh interrogations of al-Qaeda suspects under wraps, CNN reports. The ACLU is suing to make the files, which describe the content of destroyed CIA tapes, public. But Leon Panetta warned that doing so would have "...

Dems Rip GOP for Sharing Interrogation Secrets

House Republicans go on record after closed-door briefing

(Newser) - Democrats are seething today after Republicans told the press about classified intelligence gleaned in a closed-door briefing about interrogation techniques. GOP members told the Hill they were informed that harsh techniques led to information that prevented terrorist attacks. That led Democrats to blast their rivals for disclosing secret information, triggering...

Cheney Championed Interrogations Before Congress

Veep intervened when legislators got twitchy

(Newser) - Dick Cheney personally led at least four briefings with senior House and Senate members about harsh interrogation techniques, reports the Washington Post. The former vice president's interventions took place at critical moments when Congress was threatening to investigate or even outlaw techniques, such as waterboarding, that are widely considered torture....

Bush: Interrogations Were Legal

Former president says CIA program was legal, saved lives

(Newser) - George W. Bush didn't mention Dick Cheney by name, but he backed his assertions that the CIA's harsh interrogations were legal and saved lives, CNN reports. After terror suspect Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was captured in 2003, for example, Bush said he checked with "the lawyers" to determine how to...

Fidel to Cheney: It's Torture
 Fidel to Cheney: It's Torture 
May 27, 2009 8:42 PM CDT

Fidel to Cheney: It's Torture

(Newser) - Fidel Castro thinks those creative forms of interrogation used by the US amount to torture, and he criticized Dick Cheney for defending them, the AP reports. In an online essay, Castro argued that torture should never be used to get information from terror suspects. In fact, he went one better...

Politics? This Was Ali vs. Frazier

(Newser) - Today's "televised smackdown" between Obama and Cheney was the "political world's equivalent of Ali-Frazier," writes Dana Milbank in the Washington Post. After the president warned against "fear-mongering," Cheney came out swinging. He "used the word 'attack' 19 times, 'danger' and 'threat' six times apiece,...

Cheney 'Answers' Obama, Defends Bush Policy

Says he's 'firm proponent' of 'enhanced interrogation program'

(Newser) - Dick Cheney offered an “answer” to President Obama’s national-security speech today, standing up for the policies of the Bush administration and saying he remained “a strong proponent of our enhanced interrogation program,” CNN reports. “In the fight against terrorism,” Cheney said, “there is...

Pelosi Backtracks on CIA Claims
Pelosi Backtracks on CIA Claims
May 16, 2009 2:16 AM CDT

Pelosi Backtracks on CIA Claims

Speakers shifts focus to Bush administration after Panetta rebuff

(Newser) - Nancy Pelosi retreated yesterday from her claim the CIA lied to Congress about its interrogation program and shifted the blame to the Bush administration, Politico reports. The speaker said her criticism is "separate from my respect for those in the intelligence community who work to keep our country safe....

'Moral Calculus' Made Torture OK: Krauthammer

Krauthammer doing 'moral calculus'

(Newser) - Nancy Pelosi’s “contemptible hypocrisy” on the torture issue tells us a great deal about the “moral calculus” behind the issue, writes Charles Krauthammer in the Washington Post. “Our jurisprudence has the ‘reasonable man’ standard,” he argues, which asks a jury to decide what a...

Pelosi Raises Stakes in Torture Debate

Speaker puts herself at center of storm over Bush policies

(Newser) - Whether by accident or design, Nancy Pelosi has turned the debate on the Bush administration's anti-terror program into a high-stakes game of brinksmanship, Dan Balz writes in the Washington Post. Pelosi's declaration yesterday that the CIA lied to Congress amounts to "a declaration of war," Balz writes, setting...

Pelosi: CIA Misled Me on Waterboarding

(Newser) - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said today she was not complicit in the government’s decision to waterboard terrorist suspects, and she claimed the CIA misled her about whether the interrogation technique considered torture by many was being used. “To the contrary … we were told explicitly that waterboarding was...

Rove: Pelosi's an Accomplice to Torture
Rove: Pelosi's an Accomplice to Torture
OPINION
May 14, 2009 6:50 AM CDT

Rove: Pelosi's an Accomplice to Torture

'Someone appears not to be telling the truth' about waterboarding

(Newser) - Karl Rove indulges in a bit of revenge on Nancy Pelosi in his Wall Street Journal column today, writing that "the political persecution of Bush administration officials she has been pushing may now ensnare her." As evidence mounts that the CIA told her as early as 2002 about...

Obama's Photo Flip-Flop Has Political Roots
Obama's Photo Flip-Flop Has Political Roots
ANALYSIS
May 14, 2009 6:26 AM CDT

Obama's Photo Flip-Flop Has Political Roots

White House wasn't prepared for scale of torture outrage

(Newser) - Barack Obama's about-face on the release of photographs of abused detainees has angered civil libertarian groups, who have denounced the president for turning back on campaign promises. But as Politico writes, the move demonstrated how carefully the administration is treading on an issue that has become explosive, subsuming George Bush's...

Anti-Torture Memo May Embarrass Bush Camp
Anti-Torture Memo May Embarrass Bush Camp
analysis
May 13, 2009 4:52 PM CDT

Anti-Torture Memo May Embarrass Bush Camp

(Newser) - Probably the most newsworthy item out of today’s Senate hearing into alleged torture techniques is that a memo written by a former State Department counselor who questioned their legality has been located and may be released, writes Zachary Roth for Talking Points Memo. Philip Zelikow’s memo, which he...

Obama Reverses, Will Block Release of Abuse Photos

In reversal, president says images would endanger US troops

(Newser) - President Obama has reversed position and will oppose the release of abuse photos of detainees in US custody, the Washington Post reports. "The publication of these photos would not add any additional benefit to our understanding of what was carried out in the past by a small number of...

Publicity Hound Cheney Makes Strategic Return

Ex-VP setting himself, party up to benefit from another 9/11

(Newser) - Dick Cheney isn’t in an undisclosed location anymore. The former VP is suddenly waging a one-man campaign defending the Bush administration’s interrogation tactics. Even he can’t believe that’s a great political move, writes Michael Duffy of Time, so what’s he up to? It’s possible...

White House Backpedals on Releasing Torture Photos

(Newser) - The White House is rethinking its promise to release photos of detainees being abused in US custody, press secretary Robert Gibbs suggested yesterday, saying President Obama has “great concern” about the impact they would have. At issue are 44 photos targeted in a Freedom of Information Act suit by...

Liz Cheney: Dad Is Not a Crazy Old Coot

Duty calls him to forgo retirement to bash Obama, daughter says

(Newser) - Liz Cheney went on MSNBC’s Morning Joe today, firing back at Washington Post scribe Eugene Robinson for calling her dad a “crazy old coot.” Robinson had said we ought to send Cheney “back to Wyoming” where he could rant in peace. “My dad would probably...

Let's Put Cheney Out to Pasture
 Let's Put Cheney Out to Pasture 
OPINION
May 12, 2009 9:03 AM CDT

Let's Put Cheney Out to Pasture

VP is a veritable font of nonsense

(Newser) - Isn’t it time we sent Dick Cheney back to Wyoming, found him a home “where the buffalo roam and there’s always room for one more crazy old coot down at the general store?” Eugene Robinson asks in the Washington Post. It’s no wonder the TV networks...

Cheney Might Be Right on Torture
 Cheney Might 
 Be Right 
 on Torture 
OPINION
May 12, 2009 3:20 AM CDT

Cheney Might Be Right on Torture

Despite his record, Cheney might be telling the truth this time

(Newser) - It's hard to believe a word Dick Cheney says but that doesn't mean his claims that "enhanced interrogation" saved lives should be dismissed out of hand, Richard Cohen writes in the Washington Post. The former vice president has been loudly defending the program, and it would be a mistake...

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