EX-CIA Chiefs Warn AG Eric Holder Of International Implications From Interrogation Probe...Should He Listen?

Ex-CIA chiefs seek halt to interrogations probe


(CIA report details litany of abuses)

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(Former AG Chief Gonzales backs Holder on CIA decision)

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(Cheney, McCain fuel National Security debate)

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Seven former CIA directors asked President Barack Obama on Friday to quash a criminal probe of harsh interrogations of terror suspects during the Bush administration.

The CIA directors, who served both Democratic and Republican Presidents and include three who worked under President George W. Bush, made their request in a letter Friday to the White House.

Attorney General Eric Holder announced last month that he was appointing an independent counsel to investigate possible incidents of abuse by CIA personnel during interrogations that went beyond guidelines imposed by the Bush administration.

The incidents were referred by the CIA inspector general to the US Justice Department during the Bush administration, but Justice officials at the time prosecuted only one case.

"If criminal investigations closed by career prosecutors during one administration can so easily be reopened at the direction of political appointees in the next, declinations of prosecution will be rendered meaningless," wrote the former directors.

Possible indictments?
The Washington Post reported on its Web site Friday night that the Justice Department will focus on only two or three cases for possible indictment.

One of them, said the newspaper, involved an Afghan prisoner who died after being beaten and chained on a cold night to a concrete floor without blankets. The report cited unidentified officials.

The seven former CIA directors included Michael Hayden, Porter Goss and George Tenet, who served under Bush; John Deutch and James Woolsey, who worked for President Bill Clinton; William Webster, who served under President George H.W. Bush; and James Schlesinger, who ran the agency under President Richard Nixon. Tenet also served under Clinton.

They urged Obama to reverse Holder's Aug. 24 decision to reopen the investigation of interrogations following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

CIA spokesman Paul Gimigliano said the agency is cooperating with the Justice Department review "in part to see that they move as expeditiously as possible."

"The director has stood up for those who followed legal guidance on interrogation, and he will continue to do so," said Gimigliano.

In their letter, the former directors warned that the investigations could discourage CIA officers from doing the kind of aggressive intelligence work needed to counter terrorism and may inhibit foreign governments from working with the United States.

Matthew Miller, Holder's spokesman, said Holder does not believe his probe will affect CIA employees' commitment to their work.

"The attorney general's decision to order a preliminary review into this matter was made in line with his duty to examine the facts and to follow the law. As he has made clear, the Department of Justice will not prosecute anyone who acted in good faith and within the scope of the legal guidance given by the Office of Legal Counsel regarding the interrogation of detainees," Miller said in a written statement.

The former CIA directors also warned that foreign governments may be hesitant to cooperate with the United States if the probe continues.

"As a result of the zeal on the part of some to uncover every action taken in the post-9/11 period, many countries may decide that they can no longer safely share intelligence or cooperate with us on future counter-terrorist operations. They simply cannot rely on our promises of secrecy," the letter says.

The letter said the CIA referred fewer than 20 incidents to Bush administration prosecutors, including the case of CIA contractor David Passaro. Passaro was prosecuted, convicted and sentenced to eight years for beating an Afghan detainee in 2007. The detainee later died.

One former CIA official familiar with the cases now under review said that Bush-era Justice lawyers declined to prosecute either because they were not certain they could win conviction or because some of the CIA personnel involved had already been disciplined by the agency. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the cases.

Though not a signatory to the letter, current CIA Director Leon Panetta also opposed Holder's investigation.

"I think the reason I felt the way I did is because I don't believe there's a basis there for any kind of additional action," Panetta said.

"My concern is ... that we don't get trapped by the past. My feeling is ultimately, we're going to be able to move on," he told reporters this week after a speech in Michigan.



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Sources: MSNBC, Politico, Hardball, Whitehouse.gov, US Dept Of Justice, Wikipedia, Google Sight Seeing, Google Maps

CIA Anti-Terrorism Interrogation Guidelines Docs Released To The Public

MSNBC, Washington Post, Politico, The Plum Line----


(Former Vice President Dick Cheney slammed the Obama administration's decision to investigate CIA interrogations on Tuesday, saying it was politically motivated. NBC's Andrea Mitchell reports.)

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As the session begins, the detainee stands naked, except for a hood covering his head. Guards shackle his arms and legs, then slip a small collar around his neck. The collar will be used later; according to CIA guidelines for interrogations, it will serve as a handle for slamming the detainee's head against a wall.

After removing the hood, the interrogator opens with a slap across the face -- to get the detainee's attention -- followed by other slaps, the guidelines state. Next comes the head-slamming, or "walling," which can be tried once "to make a point," or repeated again and again.

"Twenty or thirty times consecutively" is permissible, the guidelines say, "if the interrogator requires a more significant response to a question." And if that fails, there are far harsher techniques to be tried.

Five years after the CIA's secret detention program came to light, much is known about the spy agency's decision to use harsh techniques, including waterboarding, to pry information from alleged al-Qaeda leaders. Now, with the release late Monday of guidelines for interrogating high-value detainees, the agency has provided -- in its own words -- the first detailed description of the step-by-step procedures used to systematically crush a detainee's will to resist by eliciting stress, exhaustion and fear.

The guidelines, along with thousands of pages from other newly released documents, also show how the CIA gradually imposed limits on the program and eliminated some of the most controversial practices after the agency's medical advisers protested.

Still, by Dec. 30, 2004, the date of the CIA memo that outlines the guidelines to the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel, agency interrogators had grown adept at using sleep deprivation, stress positions and sometimes multiple methods to create a "state of learned helplessness and dependence."

"Certain interrogation techniques place the detainee in more physical and psychological stress and, therefore, are considered more effective tools," according to the memo, released under a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by Amnesty International USA and the American Civil Liberties Union.

The CIA on Tuesday declined to comment on the memo, which was written by an agency lawyer whose name was redacted from the document. But agency spokesman George Little noted that the interrogation program operated under guidelines approved by top legal officials of the Bush administration's Justice Department.

"This program, which always constituted a fraction of the CIA's counterterrorism efforts, is over," Little said. "The agency is, as always, focused on protecting the nation today and into the future."

CIA officials also have noted that harsh techniques were reserved for a small group of top-level terrorism suspects believed to be knowledgeable about the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Agency officials believe the methods prevented future attacks.

Medical concerns

As outlined in the memo, the agency's psychological assault on a detainee would begin immediately after his arrest. With blindfolds and earmuffs, he would be "deprived of sight and sound" during the flight to the CIA's secret prison. He would have no human interaction, except during a medical checkup.

In the initial days of detention, an assessment interview would determine whether the captive would cooperate willingly by providing "information on actionable threats." If no such leads were volunteered, a coercive phase would begin.

The detainee would be ushered into a world of constant bright light and high-volume "white noise" at levels up to 79 decibels, about the same volume as a passing freight train. He would be shorn, shaved, stripped of his clothes, fed a mostly liquid diet and forced to stay awake for up to 180 hours.

"Establishing this baseline state is important to demonstrate to the [detainee] that he has no control," the memo states.

Interrogations at CIA prisons occurred in special cells outfitted on one side with a plywood wall, to prevent severe head injuries. According to the agency's interrogation plan, the nude, hooded detainee would be placed against the wall and shackled. Then the questioning would begin.

"The interrogators remove the [detainee's] hood and explain the situation to him, tell him that the interrogators will do what it takes to get important information," the document states.

If there was no response, the interrogator would use an "insult slap" to immediately "correct the detainee or provide a consequence to a detainee's response." If there was still no response, the interrogator could use an "abdominal slap" or grab the captive by his face, the memo states.

Each failure would be met with increasingly harsher tactics. After slamming a detainee's head against the plywood barrier multiple times, the interrogator could douse him with water; deprive him of toilet facilities and force him to wear a soiled diaper; or make him stand or kneel for long periods while shackled in a painful position. The captive could also be forced into a wooden box for up to 18 hours at a stretch.

Such techniques raised concerns among some agency officials, particularly members of a medical advisory group known as the Office of Medical Services (OMS). When the interrogation program began, the group "was neither consulted nor involved in the initial analysis of the risk and benefits" of enhanced interrogation techniques, according to a 2004 report by the CIA's inspector general.

According to the report, the OMS did not issue formal medical guidelines until April 2003, after the waterboarding of Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the self-proclaimed mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks.

Over time, however, as the interrogation program was refined and strict guidelines were imposed on the use of certain techniques, the OMS began to play an increasingly pivotal role.

A 2005 Justice Department memo repeatedly referred to December 2004 OMS guidelines in assessing the application of coercive techniques, noting that the "OMS has, in fact, prohibited the use of certain techniques in the interrogation of certain detainees."

The medical office appears to have been deeply skeptical of the use of waterboarding, a simulated-drowning technique that was suspended by 2004. OMS personnel told the inspector general that "the reported sophistication" of the preliminary review of waterboarding was "exaggerated," and it said the power of the technique was "appreciably overstated."

The OMS also raised serious concerns about the medical dangers of waterboarding.

"Most seriously, for reasons of physical fatigue or psychological resignation, the subject may simply give up, allowing excessive filling of the airways and loss of consciousness," the OMS warned, according to the 2005 Justice Department memo.

Modifying the program

Such warnings, combined with congressional concerns about the CIA's secret prisons, gradually led the agency to modify the program. The menu of enhanced interrogation techniques was reduced from about a dozen to six, according to a Justice Department memo. Gone were nudity, walling, water-dousing, stress positions, cramped confinement in boxes and waterboarding. The proposed six techniques to be kept were dietary manipulation, sleep deprivation for up to 180 hours, the facial hold, the attention grasp, the abdominal slap and the insult slap.

The CIA said those techniques were "the minimum necessary to maintain an effective program."

By the summer of 2006, the number of detainees in CIA prisons had dropped below 20, including 14 high-value detainees who were transferred to the secret Camp 7 at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Still, as late as 2006, many of the basic conditions remained, according to a Justice Department memo dated Aug. 31, 2006.

The facilities were constantly illuminated, and the agency used closed-circuit surveillance to monitor the prisoners at all times, suggesting that hidden cameras were placed inside cells.

"The detainee is isolated from most human contact, confined to his cell for much of each day, under constant surveillance, and is never permitted a moment to rest in the darkness and privacy that most people seek during sleep," the memo said.

But, to combat mental problems, each detainee was given quarterly psychological examinations "to assess how well he is adapting to his confinement," the memo said. Detainees also had regular access to gym equipment and physical exercise.

"The CIA also counteracts the psychological effects of isolation by providing detainees with a wide variety of books, puzzles, paper and 'safe' writing utensils, chess and checker sets, a personal journal, and access to DVD and VCR videotapes," the document said.

Detainees were even allowed to grow back their hair and beards, which were shaved when they arrived.

"The CIA provides detainees with the option of shaving other parts of their bodies in recognition of specific Islamic practices," according to the 2006 memo.



Sources: MSNBC, Washington Post, Politico, The Plum Line, Daylife

Cheney Directed CIA To Hide Counter Terrorism Program Info. From Congress...War Crime Or No?

Huffington Post, Wall Street Journal----


WASHINGTON — Former Vice President Dick Cheney directed the CIA eight years ago not to inform Congress about a nascent counterterrorism program that CIA Director Leon Panetta terminated in June, officials with direct knowledge of the matter said Saturday.

Subsequent CIA directors did not inform Congress because the intelligence-gathering effort had not developed to the point that they believed merited a congressional briefing, said a former intelligence official and another government official familiar with Panetta's June 24 briefing to the House and Senate Intelligence committees.

Panetta did not agree.

Upon learning of the program June 23 from within the CIA, Panetta terminated it and the next day called an emergency meeting with the House and Senate Intelligence committees to inform them of the program and that it was canceled.

Cheney played a central role in overseeing the Bush administration's surveillance program that was the subject of an inspectors general report this past week. That report noted that Cheney's chief of staff, David Addington, personally decided who in Bush's inner circle could even know about the secret program.

But revelations about Cheney's role in making decisions for the CIA on whether to notify Congress came as a surprise to some on the committees, said another government official. All spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the program publicly.

An effort to reach Cheney was unsuccessful.

A former intelligence official, who was familiar with former CIA Director Gen. Michael Hayden's tenure at the CIA, said Hayden never communicated with the president or vice president about the now-canceled program and was under no restrictions from Cheney about congressional briefings. The official said Hayden was briefed only two or three times on the program.

Exactly what the counterterrorism program was meant to do remains a mystery. The former intelligence official said it was not related to the CIA's rendition, interrogation and detention program. Nor was it part of a wider classified electronic surveillance program that was the subject of a government report to Congress this past week.

The official characterized it as an embryonic intelligence gathering effort, and only sporadically active. He said it was hoped to yield intelligence that would be used to conduct a secret mission or missions in another country _ that is, a covert operation. But it never matured to that point.

The government official with direct knowledge of the Panetta briefing and the former intelligence official said the CIA has numerous efforts ongoing under its existing authorities that have not yet been briefed to Congress. He said they are not yet known to be viable for intelligence gathering.

The Cheney revelation comes as the House of Representatives is preparing to debate a bill that would require the White House to expand the number of members who are told about covert operations. The White House has threatened a veto over concerns that wider congressional notifications could compromise the secrecy of the operations.

That provision, however, would have no effect on programs like this one.

The former intelligence official familiar with Hayden said Congress has a right to contemporaneous information about all CIA activities. But he said there are so many in such early stages that briefing Congress on every one would be too time consuming for both the CIA and the congressional committees.

The New York Times initially reported about Cheney's direction not to tell Congress of the program on its Web site Saturday.



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Sources: Huffington Post, Day Life, Wikipedia, Google Maps

Senators Lieberman, Graham Attempts To Hold Congress Hostage Until Law Preventing Release of Detainee Photos Passes

Huffington Post----

Sens. Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) lambasted transparency advocates at a press conference Tuesday, when they renewed their promise to bring Senate business to a halt until their bill blocking the release of detainee photographs becomes law.

"We're not going to do any more business in the Senate," Graham said, his face flushed red. "Nothing's going forward until we get this right."

The duo's bill, which would allow the Pentagon to exempt Bush-era photos from the Freedom of Information Act, was stripped from the conference version of the war supplemental Monday night. In anticipation of trouble, Lieberman and Graham had already inserted the bill into the tobacco-regulatory legislation currently on the floor of the Senate.

By turns sober and furious, the two senators vowed again Tuesday to vote against -- and, if possible, filibuster -- the troop-funding bill and all other legislation until they get their way. They equated the weapons supplied by the war supplemental spending bill with detainee photos that they said would serve as a recruiting tool for al-Qaida and a weapon against U.S. troops.

"If these photos see the light of day, it will be a death sentence to some serving abroad," Graham said. The removal of the photo amendment, he said, "is one of the most outrageous and irresponsible acts in the history of the Congress." He said the initial response to the Abu Ghraib scandal was necessary and the punishments meted out were appropriate.

Lieberman, for his part, dismissed release of the photos as "sheer voyeurism" and "disclosure without a purpose." The Detainee Treatment Act and the Military Commissions Act, Lieberman said, are ample enough evidence that the system has been sufficiently reformed.

"Transparency in government is an American value, but it is not without limits, no more than any of the values embraced in our Constitution," Lieberman said. "The transparency in this case is needless and dangerous transparency."

Graham said there is consensus among many senators, military officials and diplomats about the need to pass the bill. Even the White House is in support, he said, and helped them draft the bill, remaining supportive of it in conference. Both senators dismissed House Democrats' concerns about the bill as "naive" opinions held by a "fringe minority."

"Is the ACLU now in charge of the House of Representatives?" Graham asked.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is "very concerned" by the bill's stalling, Graham said. American embassies, he said, have been fortifying their defenses in anticipation of the photos' release, and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has warned that "Baghdad will burn."

Key House Democrats said Monday they would want hearings on the photos bill before they even consider voting it into law, but Lieberman and Graham said that wasn't going to happen. The bill is explicitly designed to apply retroactively to the ACLU's victorious federal court case compelling release of the photos, which the Obama administration has appealed.

Even in the unlikely event that the government wins that appeal, however, Lieberman and Graham said they will still fight to exempt detainee photos from FOIA.

"This is the first shot in a long war," Graham said. "There are other lawsuits pending out there that want to compromise our national security in the name of freedom of information and transparency. There's more to come. Let us fight this battle today. Let us win the day so we don't have to fight it tomorrow."

UPDATE: Media Matters notes that a mere two years ago, Sen. Lieberman vehemently condemned any political delay of funding for the troops:

"We all know what our most important responsibility is. Our forces in Iraq and Afghanistan are looking to us. They need the funding that only we in Congress can provide them. The money is running out.

I understand that many in this chamber saw the supplemental appropriations bill as an opportunity to force a withdrawal of our troops from Iraq, and that many of us argued vigorously against the amendments that attempted to do that. Each side has now had an opportunity to make its case, and the result is clear: there are not enough votes in Congress to enact a mandatory date for withdrawal of American forces from Iraq. The time for having debates and sending messages on this troop funding bill should be over.

It is time to get our troops the equipment, the training, the supplies they need-and without delay.

We in this chamber have a responsibility to make certain that-no matter what our disagreements and differences here in Washington-our men and women in uniform in Iraq and Afghanistan are not caught in the political crossfire." [Lieberman.senate.gov, 5/10/07; emphasis added]

Sources: Huffington Post

CIA Director Leon Panetta Tells Judge To Keep Detainee Docs Secret

Huffington Post----


WASHINGTON — CIA Director Leon Panetta told a federal judge Monday that releasing documents about the agency's terror interrogations would gravely damage national security.

Panetta sent a 24-page missive to New York federal judge Alvin Hellerstein, arguing that release of agency cables describing tough interrogation methods used on al-Qaida suspects would tell the enemy far too much about U.S. counterterrorism work.

The CIA director filed the papers in a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union. The suit has already led to the unveiling of Bush administration legal memos authorizing harsh methods _ among them waterboarding, a type of simulated drowning, and slamming suspects into walls _ and a fight over releasing long-secret photos of abused detainees.

"I have determined that the disclosure of intelligence about al-Qaida reasonably could be expected to result in exceptionally grave damage to the national security by informing our enemies of what we knew about them, and when, and in some instances, how we obtained the intelligence," Panetta wrote.

Panetta acknowledges in the court papers that the CIA destroyed 92 videotapes of detainee interrogations that took place in 2002. Officials have previously said that a dozen of those tapes showed the so-called "enhanced interrogation techniques," which critics call torture. The destruction of the videotapes has spurred a criminal investigation into why they were destroyed.

The tapes _ and the interrogations _ are also an issue in the ACLU's lawsuit.

The CIA is fighting efforts to force release of the documents, including dozens of agency cables. The cables, Panetta said, describe in detail the methods used on terror suspects, the information gleaned from them and what U.S. officials still did not know at the time the suspects were being questioned.

The CIA last month denied a request by former Vice President Dick Cheney to declassify secret memos that detail whether valuable intelligence was gained from the use of the harsh interrogation techniques. Cheney said the documents show that the tactics prevented terrorist attacks and saved lives, contrary to the Obama administration's criticism of the Bush-era policies.

President Barack Obama also said last month he would try to block the court-ordered release of photos showing U.S. troops abusing prisoners, reversing his position out of concern the pictures would "further inflame anti-American opinion" and endanger U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.


Sources: Huffington Post

Senators Lieberman and Graham Threaten To Block Or Filibuster Release Of Detainee Torture Photos

Politico----

The Senate and House may be on a major collision course over the possible release of those photographs of detainee interrogations.

In an incendiary joint statement, Sens. Joe Lieberman and Lindsey Graham are threatening to use any means possible — including a filibuster — to block the House from overturning their amendment blocking the release of detainee interrogation photos.

Some House Dems were incensed when the pair — with the backing of the White House — inserted a three-year ban on Freedom of Information Act releases of the pictures without notifying them.

After initially saying she'd back the ban, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is apparently wavering under pressure from the left wing of her party.

Word that Pelosi was on the fence prompted Graham and Lieberman to blast away, according to a snior Senate Democratic aide.

Calling the release of the so-called torture pics tantamount to a "death sentence" for some U.S. operatives working in hostile countries, Lieberman and Graham took the unusual step of vowing to attach their ban to every piece of legislation passed in the upper chamber if their amendment is removed from the war supplamental.

Their statement:

“We will employ all the legislative means available to us including opposing the supplemental war spending bill and attaching this amendment, which was unanimously adopted by the Senate, to every piece of legislation the Senate considers, to be sure the President has the authority he needs not to release these photos and any others that would jeopardize the safety and security of our troops.

“The release of the photos will serve as propaganda and recruiting tool for terrorists who seek to attack American citizens at home and abroad. We should strive to have as open a government as possible, but the behavior depicted in the photos has been prohibited and is being investigated. The photos do not depict anything that is not already known. Transparency, and in this case needless transparency, should not be paid for with the lives of American citizens, let alone the lives of our men and women in uniform fighting on our behalf in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere.

“Let it clearly be understood that without this legislation the photos in question are likely to be released. Such a release would be tantamount to a death sentence to some who are serving our nation in the most dangerous and difficult spots like Iraq and Afghanistan. It is this certain knowledge of these consequences of having the photos released that will cause us to vote against the supplemental and continue our push to turn our important amendment into law.”

Sources: Politico, Washington Post

Some Torture Photos Are Too Sexually Graphic For Release (Photos)

According to reports from The Daily Beast, CNN and Radio Netherlands Worldwide the Pentagon has known since 2004 about the terrible acts of Torture inflicted upon prisoners of war by U.S. soldiers.

Many of the acts were of a Sexually Explicit nature.

This is the main reason why President Obama, the Pentagon, Secretary of Defense Gates and General Petraeus are fighting so hard to keep those Torture photos from being released.

There are graphic photographs in existence of female prisoners giving male U.S. Soldiers oral sex, U.S. Government Contractors performing Sodomy on male prisoners, male U.S. Soldiers raping female prisoners, U.S. Soldiers sexually assaulting both male and female prisoners with objects, etc.,

General Petraeus advised President Obama that the release of those pics would cause anger, backlash and great harm to come upon the U.S. Armed Forces currently serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.

I now totally agree the pictures should not be exposed to the world, however I do strongly believe that all those involved in Torturing and Humiliating those prisoners should be punished.

Including those individuals in Leadership positions.

Ugh! What a disgrace!


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Sources: The Daily Beast, CNN, Radio Netherlands Worldwide, Google Maps

Dick Cheney is a Media Genius (For the G.O.P.) Or Not!

Several weeks ago every network "Talking Head" was blasting the airwaves with news of the G.O.P. dying.

Everyone (including myself) thought they were finished, kaput, dead and gone forever that is until....

"Papa Cheney" stepped in to help clean up their mess, wipe their noses and put them back on course.

First his daughter Liz Cheney emphatically preached about the usefulness of Torture, while battling it out toe to toe with MSNBC's Nora O'Donnell in front of millions of viewers.

Now suddenly former V.P. Richard Bruce "Dick" Cheney is seen everywhere (Face the Nation, Meet the Press) defending the Bush Administration's right to torture, welcoming Moderates and calling former Secretary of State Colin Powell a Democrat!

He even blatantly suggested that the idea of President Obama's administration releasing CIA torture memos was the RIGHT thing to do and (gasp!) offered to testify before Congress under oath.

I mean this guy has turned himself into a G.O.P. rock star for goodness sake!

To top it all off Liz shows up (again) this time on "Morning Joe" foolishly implying that President Obama is "siding with Terrorists", while still trying to brainwash us all on why Torture is the coolest thing since Twitter. Isn't she a chip off the old block? (no offense to former V.P. cheney)

You have to admit that these two (Dick and Liz) are an awesome pair. I'd say they both deserve Oscars for being so persuasive in their arguments, even if no one else agrees with them.

Well guess what? All that media coverage may have actually worked! This week the tables have turned.

The Republicans are waking up out of their stupor and happy to be back on top.

The focus is currently on Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D) and whether or not she knowingly helped to authorize those terrible Interrogation techniques, such as Waterboarding, for use in stopping Terrorist attacks on our country after 9-11.

Even Senator John Boehner came out of hiding, pointing fingers. Wait a minute! Is that a smirk I see on his face as Speaker Pelosi is being pummeled by the Press?

Here's a word to the wise for the Republican Party: This "Pelosi Media Circus" isn't going to last forever.

Nancy is a Strong, Resilient, Intelligent Woman and very devoted to President Obama's agenda for our nation, especially as it relates to Health Care Reform.

Take Heed G.O.P. when you mess with Speaker Pelosi.

Take Heed.

You may have chosen the wrong person to pick on. Throwing darts at Nancy just may prove fatal for the Republican Party's future existence.

On the other hand I still say that Dick Cheney is a Media Genius (for the G.O.P.) that is. Or not!

Hello Mr. Cheney sir, may I please have your autograph?

Cheney calling Colin Powell a Democrat.



Cheney defending the former Bush administration and stating that Torture was legal.



Cheney's daughter Liz defends her dad and Torture.



Sources: CBS News, Face the Nation, MSNBC, Meet the Press, Think Progress, Huffington Post, ABC News, Whitehouse.gov, CNN, Daylife, Youtube

President Obama Explains His Decision Not To Release Gitmo Detainee Photos

This afternoon during a Press Conference President Obama explained his decision not to release the Gitmo Detainee photos. He also addressed the current Sri Lanka civilian hostage situation.

Whether or not we agree on why he suddenly chose not to release the photos shouldn't be a big deal.

For the time being let's focus on far more important issues like Health Care Reform.

President Obama: "Now, let me also say a few words about an issue that I know you asked Robert Gibbs about quite a bit today, and that's my decision to argue against the release of additional detainee photos. Understand, these photos are associated with closed investigations of the alleged abuse of detainees in our ongoing war effort."

"And I want to emphasize that these photos that were requested in this case are not particularly sensational, especially when compared to the painful images that we remember from Abu Ghraib, but they do represent conduct that did not conform with the Army Manual. That's precisely why they were investigated -- and, I might add, investigated long before I took office -- and, where appropriate, sanctions have been applied."

"In other words, this is not a situation in which the Pentagon has concealed or sought to justify inappropriate action. Rather, it has gone through the appropriate and regular processes. And the individuals who were involved have been identified, and appropriate actions have been taken."

"It's therefore my belief that 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 individuals. In fact, the most direct consequence of releasing them, I believe, would be to further inflame anti-American opinion and to put our troops in greater danger."

"Moreover, I fear the publication of these photos may only have a chilling effect on future investigations of detainee abuse. And obviously the thing that is most important in my mind is making sure that we are abiding by the Army Manual and that we are swiftly investigating any instances in which individuals have not acted appropriately, and that they are appropriately sanctioned. That's my aim and I do not believe that the release of these photos at this time would further that goal."

"Now, let me be clear: I am concerned about how the release of these photos would be -- would impact on the safety of our troops. I have made it very clear to all who are within the chain of command, however, of the United States Armed Forces that the abuse of detainees in our custody is prohibited and will not be tolerated. I have repeated that since I've been in office, Secretary Gates understands that, Admiral Mullen understands that, and that has been communicated across the chain of command."

"Any abuse of detainees is unacceptable. It is against our values. It endangers our security. It will not be tolerated."



Sources: Whitehouse.gov, A Soldier's Perspective, Daylife, Youtube

Obama Administration Fights To Block Release Of Gitmo "Torture Gate" Photos

The Obama administration is working diligently to reverse a previous decision regarding the release of Gitmo Detainee photos, after hearing from commanders in Iraq and Afghanistan that the release of such pictures could greatly endanger the lives of American troops currently serving in those theaters.

Despite having permission from Federal Appeals judges to release the shocking yet embarrassing photographs which clearly showed proof of Prisoner Abuse at Gitmo, President Obama advised White House legal officials it would no longer be in the best interest of our Soldiers to continue with such plans.

Both Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Department of Defense Spokesman Geoff Morrell, have now expressed great concern regarding the matter.

Much debate has been made recently over the Interrogation techniques authorized by former President Bush's administration.

Former Vice-President Dick Cheney and former Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice have stated that the techniques used including Waterboarding, did not violate the Geneva Conventions Treaty because they were not considered to be Torture.

Amrit Singh, a staff attorney with the A.C.L.U., sued for release of the photos under the Freedom of Information Act.



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Sources: Huffington Post, Think Progress, MSNBC, NY Times, The Hill, Wikipedia, Flickr, Google Maps