Former Attorney General John Ashcroft spoke at the fifth part of a hearing entitled “From the Department of Justice to Guantanamo Bay: Administration Lawyers and Administration Interrogation Rules.” Ashcroft defended the Department of Justice’s action in Guantanamo Bay, saying that they worked within the framework of the law and never supported torture. (more…)
Former White House Press Secretary under George W. Bush Scott McClellan testified under oath before the House Judiciary Committee. McClellan presented the committee with his knowledge of the lead-up to the war in Iraq and the Valerie Plame leak, two topics he discusses in his book “What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington’s Culture of Deception.”
McClellan stated that he did not know if the leak of former covert CIA agent Valerie Plame was used as a way to further criticize Plame’s husband, Ambassador Joseph Wilson. In his book, McClellan says that he finds it unlikely that President Bush would have authorized Scooter Libby to leak classified information and said he cannot rule out Vice President Cheney give the authorization. Rep. Robert Wexler (D-Fla.) said that the statements made in McClellan’s book are enough to consider impeachment proceedings on Cheney.
On the Iraq War, McClellan said that counterevidence is crucial in the lead-up to a war and that the Bush White House ignored evidence that was contradictory to the administration’s goals. Though he admitted Bush never used words like “shade the truth” or “propaganda,” McClellan said that the war was presented to Americans in those manners.
McClellan explained that the purpose for writing his book was to share his experiences with the American people and to analyze how a popular governor became a polarizing president, frequently beginning his responses by reminding the committee that he discussed the answer in his book. Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas) posed questions to McClellan that challenged his motivations for writing the book, asking about the political positions of the book’s editors and inquiring on the profits McClellan will receive. After McClellan repeatedly said “Can I finish my response?” as Smith interjected with additional questions, Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) apologized to McClellan, stating that the committee’s purpose was to investigate topics discussed in the book, not to question McClellan’s character.
The American Foreign Policy Council hosted their second annual conference on missile defense.
The biggest themes from both Jim Woolsey, CIA director under Clinton and Sen. Jon Kyl were that we are moving away from a cold war way of thinking and a focus on negotiating with Russia and focusing on new threats from Iran, China, and North Korea.
Woolsey focused on the ideology that controls Iran and that it should be taken as seriously as Hitler. He advocated even stronger sanctions against Iran for example, cutting off their refined petroleum product such as diesel. He said that the United States should increase their outreach to citizen’s in Iran who are displeased with the Amadinejad regime via broadcasting mediums like VOA. He said that caveats the National Intelligence Estimate in December had been ignored and those indicated that Iran continues to March toward developing nuclear weapons. Woolsey said if Iran continues to advance in it’s nuclear development the only thing worse than the use of force would be to let Iran have a nuclear weapon.
Kyl went a bit more into Russian and Chinese threats and how a missile that travels through space to reach it’s target is a “space weapon.” He defended the recent shoot down of the broken US satellite as a good sign for US missile defense. Kyle was much more political saying that the Democrats have been failing in appropriate funding for missile defense. Sen. Kyl said that only John McCain would return solid funding to missile defense. He criticized a “mindset on Capitol Hill that we should be spending as much on the Peace Corps as missile defense.” He called for studies on space based missile defense and full funding for missile defense. He said he feared that a new administration with the same person said we should eliminate money from the missile defense program.
Acting Assistant Attorney General Steven Bradbury of the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, said there is a specific definition as to what is torture. Torture, he said, is when severe mental or physical suffering causes prolonged mental harm. He said the physiological sensation of the “gag” or “drowning” reaction is what makes the technique acute, even though you know you’re not going to drown.
There are new statutes in the War Crimes Act, Bradbury said, that took the definition of torture and changed it. The new statutes became effective Fall 2006, and the department has not analyzed the practice of waterboarding under that new statute. He also said he is not aware of any deaths resulting from being waterboarded.
During questioning about the destroyed CIA tapes, Bradbury said he was not involved in the discussion nor did he have personal knowledge about it, and when asked who may have destroyed them he said, “I don’t know.” Although he was repeatedly asked the same question in various different ways, he kept saying “I don’t know.”
Representative Melvin Watt (D-NC) asked if the president had the authority to “disregard” the legality of waterboarding, and under Article II of the Constitution, would he be able to order waterboarding to be done. Bradbury would not directly answer the question, instead saying that the president would not do that even with the power to do so. Watt repeated the question six times, and emphasized that he did not want to know if the president “would” do it, the question was if the president “could” step over the law under Article II. Bradbury never answered that question.
At the House Foreign Affairs Committee International Relations Budget Full committee hearing on the “International Relations Budget for FY2009,” Representative Robert Wexler asks Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice if it was true that she had intelligence that cast doubt that
Vice President Dick Cheney, speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference, says that the interrogation program run by the CIA against high-value targets are “a tougher program for tougher customers.” He says that the information gained through these programs has been useful. (0:49)
During the Annual Threat Assessment of the Director of National Intelligence for the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Director of the Central Intelligence Agency General Hayden says that information gathering techniques used by the CIA are lawful, appropriate, and adequate to the needs of the CIA program. He then says that their manual is different than the Army Field Manual. He then uses as an example the information gathered from Saddam Hussein using the CIA’s techniques. Vice Chairman Senator Kit Bond (R-MO) interrupts by saying that the information was obtained right before he [Hussein] was about to be hanged. “Talk about an enhanced interrogation technique,” Bond says. (:55)
During the Annual Threat Assessment of the Director of National Intelligence for the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Senator Russell Feingold (D-WI) asks both Director of National Intelligence J. Michael McConnell and Director of the Central Intelligence Agency General Michael Hayden what defines torture, and says that pain is pain “it doesn’t depend on the circumstances.” McConnell says he was talking about “excruciating pain.” General Hayden said that the requirement for something to be defined as torture depends on the adjectives that are in front of the word “pain,” and that it also depends on level, duration, and lasting effects of the pain. (1:03)
During the Annual Threat Assessment of the Director of National Intelligence for the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Director of the Central Intelligence Agency General Michael Hayden says that both government and independent contractors are used to get information, and that they are a governmental activity under governmental control. “We are not outsourcing this.” (:25)
Attorney General Michael Mukasey testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee explains what it would take for waterboarding to be authorized for use by the CIA
