Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld, Powell, Tenet and Ashcroft definitely approved torture! They'll probably say, "We didn't know we were approving torture"! or DENY these meetings, or say, "We don't think it was torture".
From DN!: Report: Top Admin Officials Approved Assault, Waterboarding of CIA Prisoners
ABC News is reporting senior Bush administration officials personally discussed and approved how top al-Qaeda suspects would be interrogated by the CIA. The group agreed on controversial interrogation techniques including physical assault, sleep deprivation, and waterboarding. The officials were all members of the Principals Committee on the National Security Council. They included Vice President Cheney, former National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Secretary of State Colin Powell, as well as CIA Director George Tenet and Attorney General John Ashcroft. It’s the first time senior White House officials have been linked to an explicit group authorization of the CIA interrogation program. One top official recounted Ashcroft was the lone cabinet member to raise doubts. The official quoted Ashcroft as saying, “Why are we talking about this in the White House? History will not judge this kindly.” In the summer of 2004, amidst the controversy over the Abu Ghraib photos and the withdrawal of a controversial memo approving harsh interrogations, the Principals Committee again approved new techniques on a CIA prisoner captured in Asia. Condoleezza Rice is said to have provided decisive support, reportedly telling CIA officials, “This is your baby. Go do it.”
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The skewed pro-Republican media that were are falsely told is the "liberal media". Did you ever stop to think that the media isn't "liberal"? WHO is saying it is? Even if it ever was, did you think it couldn't ever change? Why not? If it was "liberal", why would you think it would STAY "liberal" forever?
This is how the "liberal media" has described our recent presidential candidates to the American public:
"In the past two weeks, the following events transpired. A Department of Justice memo, authored by John Yoo, was released which authorized torture and presidential lawbreaking. It was revealed that the Bush administration declared the Fourth Amendment of the Bill of Rights to be inapplicable to "domestic military operations" within the U.S. The U.S. Attorney General appears to have fabricated a key event leading to the 9/11 attacks and made patently false statements about surveillance laws and related lawsuits. Barack Obama went bowling in Pennsylvania and had a low score.
Barack Obama is an exotic elitist freak because he went to Harvard Law School and made $1 million from his book. Hillary Clinton can't possibly have any connection to the Regular Folk because her husband, who grew up dirt poor, became quite wealthy after being President. John Kerry was completely removed from the concerns of the Regular People because his second wife was rich.
By contrast, George W. Bush was a down-home, salt-of-the-earth Man of the People despite being the grandson of a U.S. Senator, the son of a President (who greatly magnified his riches in his post-presidency), and the by-product of an extremely wealthy, coddled life. Ronald Reagan was pure Americana despite spending most of his adult life as a very wealthy Hollywood actor (and converting his post-presidency into far greater riches still). And John McCain is as Regular a Guy as it gets, even though he dumped his first wife (the mother of his three children) after she was disfigured and disabled by a near-fatal car accident so that he could marry his much younger, much prettier, and extremely wealthy heiress-mistress, whose family riches then launched his political career and sustained a life of luxury for almost three decades."
The U.S. establishment media in a nutshell
"Every day, it becomes more difficult to blame George Bush, Dick Cheney and comrades for their seven years (and counting) of crimes, corruption and destruction of our political values. Think about it this way: if you were a high government official and watched as -- all in a couple of weeks time -- it is revealed, right out in the open, that you suspended the Fourth Amendment, authorized torture, proclaimed yourself empowered to break the law, and sent the nation's top law enforcement officer to lie blatantly about how and why the 9/11 attacks happened so that you could acquire still more unchecked spying power and get rid of lawsuits that would expose what you did, and the political press in this country basically ignored all of that and blathered on about Obama's bowling score and how he eats chocolate, wouldn't you also conclude that you could do anything you want, without limits, and know there will be no consequences? What would be the incentive to stop doing all of that?"
● Over-Powered: Three Quick Takes
● John Yoo has been getting a bit of guff in the liberal media recently for some legal memoranda he wrote a while back defending the president's right -- and duty -- to protect the American people from terrorism. This criticism is as short-sighted as it is pernicious -- and we are here today to defend this good and faithful public servant against the unwarranted calumnies that have besmirched his name.
● For a candidate running on character and biography, it is also an awkward time to remember: Mr. McCain abandoned his wife, who had reared their three children while he was in Vietnamese prisons, and he then began his political career with the resources of his new wife's family. (article from 2000)
● Petraeus Urges Halt in Weighing New Cut in Force (bd: See? We're not continuing this War of LIES...we're "weighing a new cut in our forces"!!! GOD! How stupid do they think we are???)
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Other News:
● Mississippi Justice: Bush US Attorney targeted my wife, supporters and friends
● The country's top immigration cop, Julie Myers, attempted to suppress photographs taken with a federal employee dressed in an offensive Halloween costume and oversaw a "coordinated effort to conceal" the extent of her involvement in praising the questionable garb until after her Senate confirmation, according to a new investigation.
● Vote Counting Failures in Ohio and New Jersey Violate Federal Law, Accuracy Mandates. Does Anybody Care? Will the EAC or DoJ - or Even State Officials - Take Action Before the November General Election? Error Rates Almost 1/2 MILLION PERCENT HIGHER Than Allowed by Law...
● Oil extends gains after closing at a record. Price of crude near $112 after unexpected drop in inventories
● New study shows US lawmakers have as much as $196 million invested in defense companies
● Top Bush aides approved interrogation tactics: report
● US postal workers union endorses Obama
● Obama may bypass public financing
● McCain tells Fox reports of temper are 'false or exaggerated' Conservative net ignores that McCain called wife a "cunt" on video.
● McCain explains Sunni/Shiite 'confusion': Al-Qaeda 'not necessarily just Sunni'
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Sheesh! Did a sports channel (ESPN) have the best coverage of the Olympic torch flame protestors in San Francisco???
● Olympic torch's chaotic visit to U.S. ends without formal farewell
● House passes Chinese crackdown resolution
Democracy NOW! DISH channels 9410 & 9415, DirecTV channel 275:
China’s Great Leap: Human Rights Watch on the Beijing Games and Olympian Human Rights Challenges
Thousands of protesters turned out in San Francisco to protest the Olympic torch relay and this year’s Beijing Games. Similar protests condemning China’s human rights abuses have attempted to disrupt the torch along its earlier stops in Athens, Istanbul, Paris and London.
DN! transcript or DN! video
