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You are here: Home / Archives for torture

Obama Should Prosecute the Torturers

December 22, 2014 at 10:38 am EST By Taegan Goddard 111 Comments

The New York Times has a blistering editorial calling on President Obama to prosecute those who committed torture and the officials who authorized them.

“The nation cannot move forward in any meaningful way without coming to terms, legally and morally, with the abhorrent acts that were authorized, given a false patina of legality, and committed by American men and women from the highest levels of government on down.”

“Starting a criminal investigation is not about payback; it is about ensuring that this never happens again and regaining the moral credibility to rebuke torture by other governments. Because of the Senate’s report, we now know the distance officials in the executive branch went to rationalize, and conceal, the crimes they wanted to commit. The question is whether the nation will stand by and allow the perpetrators of torture to have perpetual immunity for their actions.”

Filed Under: National Security Tagged With: torture

Quote of the Day

December 16, 2014 at 10:38 am EST By Taegan Goddard 8 Comments

“I’m going to end on a note of gratitude — something I never thought that I would say. George W. Bush, thank you for not dying while you were in office.”

— Jon Stewart, on former Vice President Dick Cheney’s defense of torture during the Bush administration.

Filed Under: Bush Legacy Tagged With: Dick Cheney, torture

Bonus Quote of the Day

December 11, 2014 at 7:55 am EST By Taegan Goddard 33 Comments

“The report’s full of crap, excuse me.”

— Former Vice President Dick Cheney, quoted by Politico, on the Senate Intelligence Committee’s torture report.

Filed Under: Bush Legacy Tagged With: Dick Cheney, torture

Why Obama Isn’t Abandoning CIA Chief

December 11, 2014 at 6:43 am EST By Taegan Goddard 4 Comments

CIA Director John Brennan “has been as close as anyone to President Obama on his most sensitive national security decisions, from drone strikes to the 2011 raid that killed Osama bin Laden,” Bloomberg reports.

“That helps explain why Obama isn’t abandoning his Central Intelligence Agency director despite some calls for his resignation following release of a Senate report detailing the CIA’s brutal interrogations of terrorism suspects during President George W. Bush’s administration. Brennan was a top official at the agency under Bush and then served as head of the National Counterterrorism Center before going to work for Obama.”

Filed Under: National Security Tagged With: John Brennan, torture

Cheney Says Bush Wasn’t Kept in the Dark on Torture

December 10, 2014 at 9:28 pm EST By Taegan Goddard 59 Comments

Former Vice President Dick Cheney said that President Bush was not kept in the dark on the CIA’s interrogation techniques, calling the Senate Intelligence Committee report’s claim a “flat out lie,” according to The Hill.

Said Cheney: “I think he knew certainly the techniques, we did discuss the techniques, there was no effort on our part to keep him from that. That the president wasn’t being told is just a flat out lie.”

Filed Under: Bush Legacy, National Security Tagged With: Dick Cheney, George W. Bush, torture

Obama Stays Out of Torture Debate

December 10, 2014 at 3:13 pm EST By Taegan Goddard 30 Comments

“The C.I.A. maintains that the brutal interrogation techniques it used on terrorism suspects a decade ago worked. The Senate Intelligence Committee concluded that they did not. And on that, at least, President Obama is not taking sides,” the New York Times reports.

“That debate, after all, has left Mr. Obama facing an uncomfortable choice between two allies: the close adviser and former aide he installed as director of the C.I.A. versus his fellow Democrats who control the Senate committee and the liberal base that backs their findings.”

Filed Under: National Security Tagged With: torture

Udall Discloses Classified Info to Prove CIA Is Lying

December 10, 2014 at 11:48 am EST By Taegan Goddard 38 Comments

“In a career-defining speech, Sen. Mark Udall (D-CO) took to the Senate floor Wednesday to disclose classified information regarding an internal CIA investigation into the agency’s Bush-era ‘enhanced interrogation techniques,'” National Journal reports.

Udall “began revealing key conclusions from the so-called Panetta Review, written in 2011 and named after then-CIA Director Leon Panetta. Udall says that the Panetta Review gives evidence that the CIA is still lying about the scope of enhanced interrogation techniques used during the Bush administration.”

[speech_bubble type=”std” subtype=”a” icon=”pwdome.jpg” name=””]Now, that’s a memorable way to leave the U.S. Senate [/speech_bubble]

Filed Under: National Security Tagged With: Mark Udall, torture

Bonus Quote of the Day

December 10, 2014 at 10:57 am EST By Taegan Goddard 63 Comments

“It served absolutely no purpose other than one last thumb in the eye of the Bush administration and was a big mistake in my opinion.”

— Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), quoted by TPM, on the Senate’s torture report.

Filed Under: Bush Legacy, National Security Tagged With: Mitch McConnell, torture

Quote of the Day

December 10, 2014 at 8:47 am EST By Taegan Goddard 62 Comments

“The United States of America is awesome, we are awesome. We’ve closed the book on torture, and we’ve stopped doing it. And the reason they want to have this discussion is not to show how awesome we are. This administration wants to have this discussion to show us how we’re not awesome.”

— Fox News co-host Andrea Tantaros, quoted by Gawker.

Filed Under: National Security Tagged With: Fox News, torture

Jon Stewart Pukes Over Torture Report

December 10, 2014 at 8:12 am EST By Taegan Goddard 2 Comments

Jon Stewart: “It’s funny, I just made this movie about a guy who triumphs over the inhuman conditions in his imprisonment in an authoritarian country, and I don’t think they did half that shit to him.”

Filed Under: National Security Tagged With: Jon Stewart, torture

Bush Administration Paid $80M for Torture Consultants

December 9, 2014 at 5:14 pm EST By Taegan Goddard 21 Comments

“The CIA contractors who helped develop and operate the ‘enhanced interrogation techniques’ that the agency used on terror suspects, including waterboarding, were paid more than $80 million,” NBC News reports.

“The contract was for more than $180 million, but the contractors had only received $81 million when their contract was terminated in 2009.”

Filed Under: Bush Legacy, National Security Tagged With: torture

Bush Was Worried He’d Leak CIA Secrets

December 9, 2014 at 3:47 pm EST By Taegan Goddard 32 Comments

Here’s a curious note in the Senate’s report on torture pertaining to President George W. Bush:

“The presentation also noted that the President of the United States had directed that he not be informed of the locations of the CIA detention facilities to ensure that he would not accidentally disclose the information.”

[speech_bubble type=”std” subtype=”a” icon=”pwdome.jpg” name=””]What else did he prefer not to know? [/speech_bubble]

Filed Under: Bush Legacy Tagged With: George W. Bush, torture

Bush Officials Challenge Torture Report

December 8, 2014 at 7:08 am EST By Taegan Goddard 17 Comments

“A long-awaited Senate report condemning torture by the Central Intelligence Agency has not even been made public yet, but former President George W. Bush’s team has decided to link arms with former intelligence officials and challenge its conclusions,” the New York Times reports.

“The report is said to assert that the C.I.A. misled Mr. Bush and his White House about the nature, extent and results of brutal techniques like waterboarding, and some of his former administration officials privately suggested seizing on that to distance themselves from the controversial program, according to people involved in the discussion. But Mr. Bush and his closest advisers decided that “we’re going to want to stand behind these guys,” as one former official put it.”

Filed Under: Bush Legacy Tagged With: torture

Democrats Lash Out at White House Over Torture Report

November 21, 2014 at 10:33 am EST By Taegan Goddard 12 Comments

“The White House’s briefing to Democrats on immigration Thursday erupted instead into a confrontation over the Senate’s classified torture report,” Senate sources told the Huffington Post.

Senate Intelligence Chair Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) “waited for the immigration discussion to end and then pulled out a prepared speech that she read for five or six minutes, making the case for the release of the damning portrayal of America’s post-9/11 torture program…. Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), who served as intelligence committee chair before Feinstein, was furious after the meeting, and accused the administration of deliberately stalling the report.”

[speech_bubble type=”std” subtype=”a” icon=”pwdome.jpg” name=””]This may be one area where the White House will be glad when Republicans take control of the Senate in January. [/speech_bubble]

Filed Under: National Security Tagged With: Diane Feinstein, torture

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About Political Wire

goddard-bw-snapshotTaegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.

Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.

Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.

Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.

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