Power Behind the Throne

(Newser) - Senior White House officials explicitly approved interrogation technique details in several meetings beginning in 2002, sources tell ABC. It was previously known that the CIA drafted a “Golden Shield” memo approving highly specific tactics for use on al-Qaeda detainees, but that top officials—including Condoleezza Rice, Dick Cheney, Colin Powell and Donald Rumsfeld—personally condoned the policy, on multiple occasions, is a new revelation. More »

(Newser) - The script for Oliver Stone’s biopic about George Bush has leaked to the press, and Juliet Lapidos picked through it to find some choice lines for Slate: The future president’s proudest moment at Yale? Pouring “cheap vodka into a large garbage can” while another frat pledge “mixes in orange juice.” The day after he turns 40, a hung-over Bush gives up on a jog: “Heart POUNDING in his chest. ... Then leans over, retching.” More »

(Newser) - The Washington Post today won the prestigious Pulitzer Prize for public service for its coverage of the Walter Reed scandal and grabbed five more of the coveted awards in the biggest haul in the paper's history. A series on the power of Dick Cheney earned the national reporting medal, and the breaking news award went to the team that covered the Virginia Tech massacre. More »

(Newser) - The men and women who work in our country’s most classified weapons and intelligence R&D programs—the New York Times calls them "stealthy armies of high-tech warriors" — have developed their own culture, complete with inside humor. That's on display in a new a book by Trevor Paglen on their patches—the kind worn on uniforms—which feature aliens, dragons, ghosts, and superbabes. More »

(Newser) - President Bush sympathizes with the families of 4,000 Americans slain in Iraq, he said today. They "were not lost in vain. One day, people will look back at this moment in history and say, 'Thank God there were courageous people willing to serve,'" CNN reports. In an ABC interview, Dick Cheney said Bush's "burden" in the war is even greater than that of grieving American families. More »

(Newser) - Following an early Easter prayer service in Jerusalem, Dick Cheney continued his 10-day trip focused on the Mideast peace process by meeting with Israel President Shimon Peres this morning. Both men warned of Iran’s rising influence in the region, reports the AP. "We have this problem of the Iranians who want to build two satellites, the Hezbollah (in Lebanon), and the Hamas in Gaza,” Peres says. More »