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:

John Murtha

PMA Probe Heating Up? Visclosky Subpoenaed, While Navy Suspends Contractor Linked To Murtha

Zachary Roth | May 29, 2009, 2:16PM

Is the federal probe into the PMA Group -- the heavy-hitting lobby shop with ties to several Demcoratic powerbrokers, that folded earlier this year after being raided by the FBI -- finally coming to a boil?

Rep. Pete Visclosky of Indiana, has acknowledged in a statement that he's been subpoenaed by a grand jury in connection with the investigaiton, reports The Politico.

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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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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."

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Rod Blagojevich

How Damning Is The Burris Transcript?

Zachary Roth | May 28, 2009, 12:12PM

So what to make of the transcript of that phone call, released earlier this week, between Roland Burris and Robert Blagojevich, brother of the disgraced former Illinois governor?

The crux of the conversation -- which took place in mid November, before the then-governor's arrest -- involves Burris explaining to Blagojevich frere that he'd very much like to hold a fundraiser for the governor and otherwise help him politically, and is also interested in being named to Barack Obama's vacant Senate seat. But he's afraid of how things would look if he raised money for Blago, then got the Senate appointment. So he mulls organizing a fundraiser "in the name of" his law partner, for appearances' sake.

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Alberto Gonzales

Gonzo Rehab Campaign Has Its Work Cut Out

Zachary Roth | May 27, 2009, 2:52PM

We told you earlier today about Alberto Gonzales' apparent use of the nomination of the first Hispanic Supreme Court Justice -- a distinction for which Gonzo himself was once a top candidate -- to rehabilitate his reputation.

But judging by the way that the ex-AG's name is being invoked today -- as a prime example of an unqualified political hack who was seen to be in the running for the top court thanks largely to his personal ties to the president -- that rehab campaign doesn't seem to be going so well.

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New Hampshire Phone Jamming

Feds Drop New Hampshire Phone-Jamming Case

Zachary Roth | May 27, 2009, 2:26PM

Has the New Hampshire phone-jamming case finally come to a quiet end?

Federal prosecutors have dropped their case against former regional NRSC official James Tobin in connection with a GOP plot to jam the phone lines of the New Hampshire Democratic party on Election Day 2002, reports the Associated Press.

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Alberto Gonzales

The Self-Rehabilitation Of Alberto Gonzales

Zachary Roth | May 27, 2009, 12:48PM

Amazing as it seems, there was a time not so long ago, when people were talking about a very different potential first Hispanic Supreme Court Justice: Alberto Gonzales. That never came to pass, of course. But it hasn't stopped Gonzo from using the Sotomayor nomination to get himself back in the media spotlight, making the rounds on cable news to discuss the historic moment.

Still, we can't help but feel there's a longer-term agenda behind the ex-AG's recent media tour. Call it the self-rehabilitation of Alberto Gonzales.

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Bernard Kerik

Feds: Kerik Lied To White House

Zachary Roth | May 27, 2009, 11:19AM

Looks like Bernie Kerik's legal woes aren't going away any time soon.

The former NYC police commissioner and Giuliani crony has been indicted in Washington DC on charges of lying to the Bush White House officials who were vetting him for the job of Homeland Security Secretary (remember that trainwreck?).

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CIA

Source: CIA Dissembles In Briefings

Zachary Roth | May 26, 2009, 6:32PM

Yet more evidence that the CIA may not have been totally up front with Nancy Pelosi during that contested torture briefing from 2002...

A former "deep-cover" CIA operative tells CQ's Jeff Stein that agency briefers often hide facts or shade the truth. "They mumble, they dissemble, and there's a lot of 'on the one hand... '" said the operative, who has written harsh critiques of the CIA, under the pen-name Ishmael Jones.

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Rod Blagojevich

Report: Burris Promised To Write Check To Blago

Zachary Roth | May 26, 2009, 5:50PM

The Blago-Burris affair has been simmering away quietly in the background for the last few months. And today brought some interesting news, via the Chicago Sun-Times.

Burris' lawyer said that last November -- about a month before Blagojevich picked him to fill Barack Obama's Senate seat -- Burris promised Blago's brother he'd write a check to the then-governor's campaign.

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Alberto Gonzales

Gonzo: Don't Blame Me For Torture -- I Wasn't At DOJ Yet

Zachary Roth | May 26, 2009, 5:32PM

TPMmuckraker favorite Alberto Gonzales went on CNN this afternoon to talk Sotomayor.

But Wolf Blitzer also asked him about the ongoing torture debate. And it was interesting to see that Gonzo -- who was White House counsel at the time the torture policies were first formulated -- seemed eager to shift any blame onto the Justice Department he would later go on to lead.

Pressed by Blitzer about his role in approving torture, he first clarified that he wasn't at the Justice Department at the key time, and said "It's the responsibility of the Department of Justice to provide legal guidance on behalf of the executive branch."

In other words: blame Ashcroft, Yoo, and Bybee.

Of course, it's unclear how that stance lines up with a report that Gonzo, while at the White House, personally signed off on CIA requests to conduct torture.

Gonzo also assured Blitzer: "I stand by my record," and "I did my best to defend our country."

Watch:

Barack Obama

Obama Administration Taking Secrecy Efforts Abroad

Zachary Roth | May 26, 2009, 2:27PM

This came out a few weeks ago, but it's worth taking note of: We've told you about the Obama administration's frequent invocations of the state secrets claim in domestic national security cases -- mimicking the Bush administration. But it now appears the administration is going further by leaning on our allies to adopt a similar approach.

Binyam Mohamed, who was released from Guantanamo in February, claims he was tortured into confessing to bombing plots, and that the British government is complicit in the torture, for feeding questions to the CIA.

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Newburgh 4

Was Newburgh Plotter Seeking Money To Treat Brother's Deadly Disease?

Zachary Roth | May 26, 2009, 10:52AM

There's yet more evidence that the government informant in the Newburgh Four case used promises of financial support to lure his targets into participating in the fake terror plot for which they were arrested last week.

Lord McWilliams, the 20-year-old brother of one of the four, David Williams, has told the New York Daily News that Williams agreed to take part in the plot in order to get money to pay for McWilliams' treatment for a deadly liver disease.

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FBI

Defense Lawyer On Newburgh Informant: "A Real Snake"

Zachary Roth | May 25, 2009, 3:51PM

The lawyer for a man convicted of a terror-related crime that was engineered by the same government informant at the center of the Newburgh Four case describes the informant an unscrupulous liar who, in both cases, preyed on the ignorance and lack of sophistication of his targets.

In an interview with TPMmuckraker, defense lawyer Terence Kindlon called Shahed Hussain a "treacherous, clever, completely ingenious dissembler," and "a real snake."

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Newburgh 4

Counter-Terror Expert: You Wouldn't Catch al Qaeda With Newburgh Tactics

Zachary Roth | May 25, 2009, 2:42PM

We wondered earlier, in reference to the Newburgh Four: is sending a government mole out to scrounge up a few dim-witted ex-cons who can be talked -- and perhaps bribed -- into getting involved in a fictitious bomb plot really the best way to use our limited terror-fighting resources?

The picture is still a long way from being clear, but a prominent counter-terrorism expert we spoke to confirms there are legitimate questions about the wisdom of the approach.

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FBI

How A Government Mole Won The Loyalty Of The Newburgh Four

Zachary Roth | May 25, 2009, 11:31AM

Reports last week suggested that the Newburgh four -- the men arrested Wednesday for plotting to bomb two New York synagogues -- perhaps weren't the swiftest ships in her majesty's fleet. But over the weekend, people close to the four came forward to describe how the government informant at the center of the case against them -- the man known to the suspects as Maqsood -- aggressively courted the men before luring them into an imagined jihad.

Here's what the New York Daily News, Post, and Times reported about how "Maqsood" (identified as a Pakistani immigrant named Shahed Hussain) won the men's loyalty:

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