Zachary Roth | October 28, 2009, 6:25PM

Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL)

A top Democrat on the House Intelligence committee says Republicans who criticized Nancy Pelosi's claim that the CIA lied to her now owe the Speaker an apology.

Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), who has been helping lead a committee probe into the CIA's process for briefing lawmakers, asserted yesterday that the agency had misled or outright lied to Congress five times since 2001. One of those cases, Schakowsky confirmed, concerned the 2002 torture briefing at which, Pelosi has claimed, she was lied to about waterboarding. Republicans, led by Minority Leader John Boehner, had savaged her for that charge.

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Topics: CIA, Jan Schakowsky, Nancy Pelosi, Torture

CIA

Intel Panel: CIA Misled Lawmakers On Torture, Other Issues

Zachary Roth | October 27, 2009, 5:14PM

Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL)

The CIA misled Congress about its torture program and other issues, Democrats on the House Intelligence committee are asserting as the committee continues to probe the matter.

In a hearing of the House Intelligence committee this afternoon, Reps. Anna Eshoo and Jan Schakowsky, both Democrats, pointed to at least five instances going back to at least 2001 in which the C.I.A. withheld information from or lied to Congress.

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Topics: Anna Eshoo, CIA, CIA Tapes, Jan Schakowsky, Leon Panetta, Nancy Pelosi, Torture

Barack Obama

Ex-CIA Directors To Obama: Shut Down Torture Probe

Zachary Roth | September 18, 2009, 5:35PM

Attorney General Eric Holder

Seven former CIA directors have sent a letter to President Obama, urging him to overturn Attorney General Eric Holder's decision to appoint a torture prosecutor.

Holder's decision, they wrote "creates an atmosphere of continuous jeopardy for those whose cases the Department of Justice had previously declined to prosecute." they added that the probe "will seriously damage the willingness of many other intelligence officers to take risks to protect the country."

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Topics: Barack Obama, CIA, Eric Holder, George Tenet, Justice Department, Porter Goss, Torture

Alberto Gonzales

Gonzo On Support For Torture Probe: Um, Never Mind

Zachary Roth | September 3, 2009, 3:22PM

Fmr. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales

Oh this is good...

Remember how Alberto Gonzales came out the other day and said he supports Eric Holder's decision to investigate torture, as long as the probe is limited to CIA personnel who exceeded the lawyers' legal guidance?

Well it looks like even that qualified position was too much for torture supporters on the right. Because now Gonzo has crawled back to the Washington Times to say that, actually, he didn't really mean it.

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Topics: Alberto Gonzales, CIA, Eric Holder, Justice Department, Torture

Alberto Gonzales

Gonzo Backs Torture Probe

Zachary Roth | September 1, 2009, 1:00PM

Fmr. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales

Eric Holder is getting support for his decision to announce a criminal probe of torture from an unlikely source: Alberto Gonzales.

The former Attorney General told a radio interviewer for the Washington Times:

We worked very hard to establish ground rules and parameters about how to deal with terrorists. And if people go beyond that, I think it is legitimate to question and examine that conduct to ensure people are held accountable for their actions, even if it's action in prosecuting the war on terror.

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Topics: Alberto Gonzales, CIA, Eric Holder, Justice Department, Torture

Torture

Whitehouse: Torture Probe Should Look At Bush Officials

Zachary Roth | September 1, 2009, 10:01AM

Another top Democrat has come out in support of the view that the torture investigation announced by the Justice Department shouldn't be limited to CIA personnel.

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, a former federal prosecutor who sits on the Judiciary committee, suggested in an article (sub. req.) for the National Law Journal that the probe should extend to:

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Topics: David Addington, Dick Cheney, Eric Holder, John Conyers, John Yoo, Justice Department, Russ Feingold, Sheldon Whitehouse, Torture

Torture

ACLU Lawyer: Torture Probe Too Narrowly Focused

Zachary Roth | August 31, 2009, 4:45PM

Earlier today, Jameel Jaffer of the ACLU went on MSNBC, and made a crucial point about the decision to probe torture.

The problem, argued Jaffer, is not that we're investigating clear evidence of law-breaking -- as Dick Cheney and countless conservatives would have it. Rather, it's that the scope of the investigation, as we've noted, appears to be unduly narrow. As things stand, it focuses on CIA personnel, but ignores the Bush administration officials -- both Justice Department lawyers like John Yoo, and high-ranking policy-makers like Cheney himself -- who authorized and approved torture in the first place.

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Topics: CIA, Dick Cheney, John Yoo, Justice Department, Torture

John Conyers

Who Will Torture Probe Look At? Justice Dept. Won't Say

Zachary Roth | August 25, 2009, 4:38PM

Attorney General Eric Holder

There's a critical unanswered question about the torture investigation -- or "preliminary review" announced yesterday by Attorney General Eric Holder. And the Justice Department doesn't seem eager to clear it up.

Who, exactly, is to be investigated?

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Topics: CIA, Dick Cheney, Eric Holder, Jay Bybee, John Conyers, John Yoo, Justice Department, Russ Feingold, Torture

Torture

Madeleine Albright: Cheney's Statements Are 'Pathetic'

Rachel Slajda | August 25, 2009, 1:50PM

Former Sec. of State Madeline Albright

Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright told CNN today that former Vice President Cheney's statements about the DOJ's investigation into interrogation techniques "are kind of pathetic."

"He should know that the Obama administration is doing everything they can to keep American secure," Albright said. "That is the major job of the president of the United States and his appointees, and I feel very confident that is taking place."

Albright is apparently referring to Cheney's response to the investigation. The decision "serves as a reminder, if any were needed, of why so many Americans have doubts about this Administration's ability to be responsible for our nation's security," he said last night.

Albright also said she's not an expert on interrogation, but cited experts, included Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), who say torture doesn't produce results. She said we need "to operate in a way that's reflective of America's values and our rule of law."

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Topics: Dick Cheney, Eric Holder, Torture

Dick Cheney

Cheney Spin On CIA Memos Befuddles Politico

Justin Elliott | August 25, 2009, 1:16PM

Former Vice President Dick Cheney

If we're going to have a discussion about torture and the CIA memos -- and it's not at all clear that we are -- it's worth reporting the positions of the interlocutors accurately.

Unfortunately, Politico today fell into a semantic trap set by Dick Cheney in his response to the declassification of the memos, which Cheney himself had sought.

Here's what Cheney said in a statement:

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Topics: CIA, Dick Cheney, Media, Torture

Dick Cheney

Big Surprise: Torture Memos Belie Cheney's Claims

Zachary Roth | August 25, 2009, 11:13AM

Former Vice President Dick Cheney

It's hardly news that Dick Cheney isn't likely to win any prizes for honesty any time soon. But yesterday offered yet another exhibit in the case.

During the debate over torture this spring, Cheney claimed that CIA memos, which he had asked to be declassified, would prove that torture proved effective in obtaining actionable intelligence.

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Topics: CIA, Dick Cheney, Torture

Torture

Lieberman: Probing Torture Puts Us At Risk

Zachary Roth | August 24, 2009, 5:10PM

Joe Lieberman believes that investigating clear evidence of torture will put Americans at risk of another terror attack.

In a statement, the deeply conservative Connecticut senator, who has in the past expressed his support for waterboarding, said that Attorney General Eric Holder's decision -- which already has drawn criticism for not going far enough -- "will have a chilling effect on the men and women agents of our intelligence community whose uninhibited bravery and skill we depend on every day to protect our homeland from the next terrorist attack."

What a responsible centrist.

The full statement follows after the jump...

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Topics: Eric Holder, Joe Lieberman, Justice Department, Torture

CIA

Interrogator Revved Power Drill In Front of Hooded Detainee -- Report Details More Abuses

Zachary Roth | August 24, 2009, 4:53PM

CIA interrogators racked an unloaded handgun close to the head of a high-value detainee, and revved a power drill while the detainee stood naked and hooded, according to the just-released CIA IG report. They also threatened to bring in the mother and family of the detainee, al Nashiri, as well as using a stiff brush to induce pain, and standing on Nashiri's shackles, causing cuts and bruises.

And interrogators threatened another detainee, Khalid Shaykh Muhammad, that they would kill his children if another attack occurred in the US.

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Topics: CIA, Torture

CIA

Torture Report Recommendations Redacted

Zachary Roth | August 24, 2009, 4:28PM

A good catch by McClatchy on the CIA torture report...

The 2004 report, by CIA Inspector General John Helgerson, contains ten recommendations for action on the part of the agency. But all ten are redacted. So we still don't know what the CIA's internal watchdog urged be done about torture -- including whether it recommended prosecutions.

Of course, the report had been released previously, but in an even more redacted form.

Late Update: Helgerson has issued a statement expressing disappointment that his recommendations were redacted.

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Topics: CIA, Torture

Eric Holder

Dems Urge Holder To Allow Torture Probe To Go Further

Zachary Roth | August 24, 2009, 4:11PM

Some top Democrats are expressing disappointment with Eric Holder's announcement of a probe into Bush-era torture, and specifically with Holder's apparent decision to ensure the probe doesn't look at the Bush officials who authorized the policy.

In just-released statements, Reps John Conyers and Jerry Nadler of the House Judiciary committee applaud the decision to probe torture, but add that "it would not be fair or just for frontline personnel to be held accountable while the policymakers and lawyers escape scrutiny after creating and approving conditions where such abuses were all but inevitable to occur."

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Topics: Eric Holder, Jerrold Nadler, John Conyers, Justice Department, Torture

CIA

CIA Torture Report Released

Zachary Roth | August 24, 2009, 3:31PM

The long awaited 2004 CIA IG report on torture -- which according to Eric Holder helped prompt him to appoint a special prosecutor -- has now been released.

The Justice Department didn't put out an online version, but the Washington Independent has posted the first half, plans to follow up with the second.

Preliminary reports suggest that the report says interrogators threatened to kill Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's children if other attacks occurred in the U.S.

Late Update: The Indy now has the whole thing up.

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Topics: CIA, Eric Holder, Torture

Eric Holder

Holder: We're Launching "Preliminary Review" Of Torture

Zachary Roth | August 24, 2009, 3:24PM

Eric Holder has now officially announced his decision to appoint a prosecutor to investigate torture. Depsite what was reported earlier, his statement doesn't appear to rule out looking at the DOJ lawyers who approved the policy

Here's the statement:

The Office of Professional Responsibility has now submitted to me its report regarding the Office of Legal Counsel memoranda related to so-called enhanced interrogation techniques. I hope to be able to make as much of that report available as possible after it undergoes a declassification review and other steps. Among other findings, the report recommends that the Department reexamine previous decisions to decline prosecution in several cases related to the interrogation of certain detainees.

I have reviewed the OPR report in depth. Moreover, I have closely examined the full, still-classified version of the 2004 CIA Inspector General's report, as well as other relevant information available to the Department. As a result of my analysis of all of this material, I have concluded that the information known to me warrants opening a preliminary review into whether federal laws were violated in connection with the interrogation of specific detainees at overseas locations. The Department regularly uses preliminary reviews to gather information to determine whether there is sufficient predication to warrant a full investigation of a matter. I want to emphasize that neither the opening of a preliminary review nor, if evidence warrants it, the commencement of a full investigation, means that charges will necessarily follow.

Assistant United States Attorney John Durham was appointed in 2008 by then-Attorney General Michael Mukasey to investigate the destruction of CIA videotapes of detainee interrogations. During the course of that investigation, Mr. Durham has gained great familiarity with much of the information that is relevant to the matter at hand. Accordingly, I have decided to expand his mandate to encompass this related review. Mr. Durham, who is a career prosecutor with the Department of Justice and who has assembled a strong investigative team of experienced professionals, will recommend to me whether there is sufficient predication for a full investigation into whether the law was violated in connection with the interrogation of certain detainees.

There are those who will use my decision to open a preliminary review as a means of broadly criticizing the work of our nation's intelligence community. I could not disagree more with that view. The men and women in our intelligence community perform an incredibly important service to our nation, and they often do so under difficult and dangerous circumstances. They deserve our respect and gratitude for the work they do. Further, they need to be protected from legal jeopardy when they act in good faith and within the scope of legal guidance. That is why I have made it clear in the past that 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. I want to reiterate that point today, and to underscore the fact that this preliminary review will not focus on those individuals.

I share the President's conviction that as a nation, we must, to the extent possible, look forward and not backward when it comes to issues such as these. While this Department will follow its obligation to take this preliminary step to examine possible violations of law, we will not allow our important work of keeping the American people safe to be sidetracked.

I fully realize that my decision to commence this preliminary review will be controversial. As Attorney General, my duty is to examine the facts and to follow the law. In this case, given all of the information currently available, it is clear to me that this review is the only responsible course of action for me to take.

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Topics: Eric Holder, Justice Department, Torture

Torture

Rights Group Blasts Decision To Limit Torture Probe To "Low-Level Operatives"

Zachary Roth | August 24, 2009, 3:12PM

The news that Eric Holder will appoint a prosecutor to probe Bush-era abuses hasn't satisfied some torture foes.

The Center for Constitutional Rights has issued a statement blasting the AG for apparently limiting the scope of the probe to CIA personnel who exceeded DOJ guidelines -- rather than including the DOJ lawyers who issued those guidelines, which themselves went far beyond what the law appears to allow.

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Topics: CIA, Eric Holder, Justice Department, Torture

Eric Holder

WaPo: Holder To Name Torture Prosecutor

Zachary Roth | August 24, 2009, 2:56PM

The Washington Post is reporting that Eric Holder has decided to name a special prosecutor to probe -- though only up to a point -- instances of torture under the Bush administration.

According to the paper's sources, Holder will name John Durham, a career prosecutor with a reputation for independence and impartiality, who led the investigation into the destruction of CIA interrogation tapes. Read more about Durham here.

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Topics: CIA, CIA Tapes, Eric Holder, John Durham, Justice Department, Torture

CIA

Panetta Spins Forthcoming Torture Report: We Were Told It Was Legal

Zachary Roth | August 24, 2009, 11:23AM

With the Obama administration set later today to release an internal CIA report on torture, director Leon Panetta is preemptively defending his agency, claiming that CIA personnel simply followed the legal guidelines they were given.

In a message to agency employees -- but in fact intended for the reporters to whom it was sent moments ago -- Panetta called the information contained in the 2004 report "old news." He pointed out that the CIA referred cases of abuse to DOJ for prosecution. And he noted: "The Agency sought and received multiple written assurances that its methods were lawful."

Panetta's preemptive message may signal that the report contains even more damaging information than anticipated about Bush-era abuses.

Meanwhile, ABCNews.com is reporting that Panetta last month was involved in a "profanity-laced screaming match" at the White House over DOJ plans to probe whether CIA officers broke the law in carrying out the harsh interrogation techniques.

[Late Update: Greg Sargent adds that in addition to the report itself...

The CIA today will release the two documents Dick Cheney requested this spring that he claims will prove torture worked.

I've also confirmed that the CIA will release a declassified version of the chapter in the CIA Inspector General's 2004 report that's widely expected to conclude that there's no proof torture foiled any attacks.

That jibes with Panetta's statement in his message that "the CIA materials include the 2004 report from our Office of Inspector General and two papers--one from 2004 and the other from 2005--that discuss the value of intelligence acquired from high-level detainees."]

The full message from Panetta follows...

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Topics: CIA, Leon Panetta, Torture

DOJ Office of Professional Responsibility

NYT: DOJ Report Recommends Reopening Prisoner Abuse Cases -- Holder Now "All But Certain" To Probe Torture

Zachary Roth | August 24, 2009, 9:16AM

President Obama's desire to look forward, not back, is turning out to be easier said than done.

Last week, Newsweek reported that the long awaited CIA report on torture, set to be released today, reveals that agency interrogators staged mock executions of detainees.

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Topics: CIA, DOJ Office of Professional Responsibility, Eric Holder, Justice Department, Torture

CIA

CIA Gets Extension Until Aug 24 On Torture Report

Zachary Roth | July 15, 2009, 12:31PM

The Obama administration's request to delay releasing a key report on torture has reportedly been granted.

According to Spencer Ackerman of the Washington Independent, a judge has said the CIA can have until August 24 to release the declassified version of a 2004 inspector general's report on the Bush administration's interrogations program. The report's release has already been delayed several times.

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Topics: CIA, Torture

Barack Obama

Holder May Investigate Torture -- But Several Probes Are Already Underway

Zachary Roth | July 13, 2009, 2:34PM

The pendulum appears to have swung back in the other direction on the issue of criminal investigations into Bush-era torture. It had looked for a while like President Obama's stated desire to look forward not back had carried the day. But now it appears that Attorney General Eric Holder -- independent of his boss's political concerns, which is how things should work -- is leaning back towards initiating a probe. The news was first reported over the weekend by Newsweek, then picked up today by the New York Times and Washington Post.

But whatever Holder ultimately decides, there are already several ongoing government efforts to investigate torture, which figure to substantially fill out our still patchwork understanding of the issue. So as we wait for official word from the Justice Department on a criminal inquiry, it's worth being clear about what those efforts are, and how they relate to each other.

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Topics: Barack Obama, CIA, CIA Tapes, DOJ Office of Professional Responsibility, Dick Cheney, Eric Holder, Jay Bybee, John Yoo, Justice Department, Steven Bradbury, Torture

Barack Obama

CIA Again Delays Release Of Key Torture Report

Zachary Roth | July 2, 2009, 5:49PM

The release of the long-awaited CIA inspector general report on torture has been postponed once again.

The ACLU, which is suing to have the report released, just announced that the government is asking for yet another postponement on the date of the report's release -- this time, until August 31. The CIA had earlier said it would release the report June 19. That was then pushed back to June 26, and then again to July 1.

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Topics: Barack Obama, CIA, Justice Department, Torture

Barack Obama

More Obama Secrecy -- This Time On Cheney's Plame Interview

Zachary Roth | July 2, 2009, 2:46PM

Perhaps we shouldn't be surprised at this point. But the latest example of the Obama administration mimicking the Bushies in opting for secrecy over openness feels like one of the most infuriating yet.

The Justice Department is declining to release Dick Cheney's interview with federal investigators looking into the Valerie Plame leak, arguing -- as it did under President Bush -- that doing so would discourage future high-level officials from cooperating with criminal investigations.

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Topics: Barack Obama, CIA, Detainees, Dick Cheney, Justice Department, Torture, Valerie Plame

John Conyers

Conyers' Wife Facing Scrutiny Over Bribery Scandal

Zachary Roth | June 17, 2009, 2:02PM

Rep. John Conyers, who chairs the House Judiciary committee, has played a prominent role in recent years exposing executive-branch muck, from the US Attorneys scandal to torture. So it's ironic that Conyers' wife is caught up in some serious muck of her own.

The scandal has been brewing for a while, but it reached boiling point Monday, when Rayford Jackson, a Detroit businessman, admitted in a plea deal with prosecutors that he had bribed a council member in 2007, to gain approval for a $1.2-billion waste disposal contract. The Detroit Free Press had previously reported that the council member in question, described in court documents, is Monica Conyers.

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Topics: House Judiciary, John Conyers, Torture, U.S. Attorneys

Barack Obama

Obama Admin Mimics Bush Again: White House Records Are Secret

Zachary Roth | June 16, 2009, 10:03AM

Add another (perhaps more minor) entry to the list of ways in which the Obama administration is mimicking its predecessor on issues of transparency.

MSNBC.com reports that the Secret Service has denied the news outlet's request for the names of visitors to the White House since President Obama was sworn in. It also denied a narrower request by the good-government group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington for records of visits by coal executives.

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Topics: Barack Obama, George Bush, Torture

Barack Obama

CIA Stance On Torture Tape Docs Suggests Obama's New Open Government Era Won't Materialize

Zachary Roth | June 9, 2009, 1:49PM

It's looking more and more like Barack Obama's pledge to usher in a new era of openness in government may well go unfulfilled.

Yesterday, administration lawyers cited national security concerns to argue that Bush-era documents detailing the videotaped interrogations of detainees should not be released. And in the wake of that news, open-government advocates are reluctantly acknowledging that, despite Obama's campaign promises, his approach to secrecy on issues of national security will likely not depart significantly from that of George Bush.

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Topics: Barack Obama, CIA, CIA Tapes, George Bush, State Secrets, Torture, Wiretapping

CIA

Panetta: Too Dangerous To Release Torture Tape Docs

Zachary Roth | June 9, 2009, 9:58AM

Do we have yet another case of the Obama administration mimicking its predecessor's notorious penchant for government secrecy?

The CIA argued yesterday that Bush-era documents detailing the videotaped interrogations of detainees should not be released, citing national security concerns, reports the Washington Post.

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Topics: CIA, CIA Tapes, Leon Panetta, State Secrets, Torture, Wiretapping

Torture

Torture Advocates Mum On Whether They Support Waterboarding Roeder

Zachary Roth | June 8, 2009, 2:18PM

For years now, torture supporters have been using the "ticking time-bomb" scenario to argue that it's irresponsible to issue a blanket ban on torture. If we knew that a bomb was set to explode imminently, goes the argument, and that torture could help obtain information to avert the disaster and save hundreds of lives, who wouldn't do it?

This has always borne more relation to an episode of 24 than to the actual war on terror. Even torture supporters have admitted that no such ticking time-bomb case has ever occurred. But it looks like we may now be confronted with a version of it in a very different context -- and this time, it's hard not to notice that those same torture supporters don't seem to be rushing to call for the waterboard just yet.

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Topics: Dick Cheney, Eric Holder, John Cornyn, Right-wing extremism, Scott Roeder, Torture

Alberto Gonzales

DOJ Torture Emails: How The Times Could Have Reported The Story

Zachary Roth | June 8, 2009, 1:01PM

Over the weekend, the New York Times reported that Justice Department lawyers agreed in 2005 that harsh interrogation techniques were legal. The impact of the story -- which was based largely on email messages written at the time by James Comey, then a high-ranking Justice Department official -- has been, it seems, to bolster the Dick Cheney position in the ongoing torture debate in Washington.

But the Times also, to its credit, released Comey's emails in full, allowing us all to make our own judgments about what they show. And after a close look at the emails, it seems clear that the paper could have used them to write a very different story -- with a very different effect on the public debate.

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Topics: Alberto Gonzales, David Addington, Dick Cheney, George Bush, Harriet Miers, Justice Department, Steven Bradbury, Torture

Pete Hoekstra

Hoekstra: Leaking Classified Info Is Terrible -- Except When GOP Does It

Zachary Roth | June 5, 2009, 12:59PM

Now this is some chutzpah....

You might remember that a few years ago, Washington's Republicans were all up in arms over the fact that classified information about the Bush administration's warrantless wiretapping program had been leaked to the New York Times. The Justice Department began an investigation into the leak, and congressional GOPers gravely declared what a serious crime this was.

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Topics: Pete Hoekstra, Torture, Wiretapping

Dick Cheney

Cheney's Campaign To Keep Lawmakers In Line On Torture

Zachary Roth | June 3, 2009, 12:11PM

The Washington Post reports today that, during 2005, Dick Cheney sat in on several of those CIA torture briefings, in an effort to persuade wavering lawmakers to keep backing the torture program.

The news doesn't really come as a shock -- indeed, some close observers had already guessed that the then-veep was involved in the briefings. But it does add to the picture of Cheney embarking during the middle years of the Bush administration on a focused, stealthy campaign to make sure the US didn't give up what he saw as its right to torture.

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Topics: CIA, Dick Cheney, Intelligence, Torture

Ricardo Sanchez

General Sanchez: We Asked For Help On Interrogations, But "It Didn't Come"

Zachary Roth | June 2, 2009, 4:27PM

General Ricardo Sanchez, the former top commander of coalition forces in Iraq, has added a bit more detail to his claim last night that his soldiers were "abandoned on the battlefield" by civilian leaders in the Bush administration.

Speaking this afternoon to CNN's Rick Sanchez (no relation), General Sanchez repeated the charge that he and his soldiers were abandoned on the battlefield on the issue of harsh interrogations. General Sanchez explained that this occurred "because of a lack of policy guidance, a lack of structure, a lack of training." He added: "And even when commanders were asking for this help, it didn't come."

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Topics: Ricardo Sanchez, Torture

Ricardo Sanchez

Gen. Sanchez: My Soldiers Were "Abandoned On The Battlefield"

Zachary Roth | June 2, 2009, 11:23AM

As we told you yesterday, General Ricardo Sanchez, the former top commander in Iraq, called Sunday night for a truth commission to investigate torture, and declared that the practice never produced actionable intelligence.

And last night, speaking to MSNBC's Keith Olbermann, Sanchez repeated his call for the commission. He added that, in the aftermath of the effort, "we must have all options open, from commendation to prosecution," so that we can "move forward and regain the moral high ground that we have lost."

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Topics: Ricardo Sanchez, Torture

Torture

Former Top Iraq Commander Calls For Truth Commission

Zachary Roth | June 1, 2009, 10:54AM

General Ricardo Sanchez, the former top coalition commander in Iraq, has called for a truth commission to investigate abusive interrogation practices.

At an event last night at the Times Center in New York City, reports the Huffington Post, Sanchez blamed the Abu Ghraib abuses on a failure of civilian and military command at all levels, declaring "and that is why I support the formation of a truth commission."

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Topics: Ricardo Sanchez, Torture

Torture

Taguba: Rape Photos Not At Issue In Lawsuit -- But They Do Exist

Zachary Roth | June 1, 2009, 9:09AM

Last week, the Daily Telegraph reported that, according to the retired major general who led a probe into torture at Abu Ghraib, some of the photos whose release the Obama administration is trying to block in the ACLU's lawsuit show rape and sexual abuse by members of the US armed forces.

The administration quickly and strongly denied that the photos in the lawsuit showed such acts -- but appeared not to rule out the possibility that other photos did, prompting speculation that the Telegraph might have gotten its photos mixed up.

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Topics: Barack Obama, Torture

Dick Cheney

Levin: Cheney "Bore False Witness" On Torture

Zachary Roth | May 29, 2009, 4:07PM

Over at TPMDC, we posted video of a speech given Wednesday night by Sen. Carl Levin, in which he pushed back against Dick Cheney's no-middle-ground approach to torture.

But one specific rebuttal of Levin's that particularly stood out, in part because not enough people have challenged Cheney's claim, comes at the 3:53 mark.

Says Levin:

When former Vice President Cheney said last week that what happened at Abu Ghraib was the work of a quote few sadistic prison guards acting on their own, he bore false witness.

And when he said last week there was no link between the techniques at Abu Ghraib and those approved for use in the CIA's secret prisons, he again strayed from the truth.

The seeds of Abu Ghraib's rotten fruit were sown by civilians at the highest levels of our government.

Hard to put it better than that.

Watch:

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Topics: Dick Cheney, Torture

Torture

In Push-Back On Torture Pics Report, Is Obama Mimicking Bush?

Zachary Roth | May 29, 2009, 1:16PM

We've told you in recent months about the Obama administration's disappointing tendency to mimic some of its predecessor's more troubling war-on-terror tactics. But is the administration's approach to public relations another area to add to the list?

Yesterday's aggressive push-back against the Daily Telegraph report on torture photos suggests it could be.

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Topics: Barack Obama, Defense Department, Donald Rumsfeld, George Bush, Robert Gibbs, Torture

Torture

Taguba: Torture Photos Show Rape

Zachary Roth | May 28, 2009, 2:47PM

Do the Abu Ghraib torture photos that President Obama wants to keep secret show even worse crimes that we've yet known about?

Major General Antonio Taguba, the former army officer who, in a 2004 probe, documented widespread detainee abuse at the prison, has told The Daily Telegraph: "These pictures show torture, abuse, rape and every indecency."