WashPost: Dick Cheney briefed on torture; secret memos detail CIA tactics

There's a healthy Internet buzz today on a Washington Post story saying the CIA endorsed such harsh interrogation techniques as waterboarding against Al Qaeda suspects in 2003 and 2004 -- and eventually got a written endorsement from Bush administration higher-ups.

According to the Post, the existence of two specific memos endorsing the practice had not been disclosed. It said Vice President Dick Cheney and then-national security advisor Condoleezza Rice were briefed by the CIA director, who wanted White House "policy approval."

What we find interesting about the story is the prospect that as the Bush administration fades, there remains the likelihood that its wall of secrecy will slowly turn into shards. The result: The pieces will continue to reveal details of how President Bush conducted the campaign against terrorism.

As for the latest shard:

The Post reported that then-CIA Director George J. Tenet requested the memos "more than a year after the start of the secret interrogations," to create a paper trail leading to the White House.

The paper reported:

The repeated requests for a paper trail reflected growing worries within the CIA that the administration might later distance itself from key decisions about the handling of captured Al Qaeda leaders, former intelligence officials said.

And those concerns only grew after the revelations of prisoner abuse that occurred at Abu Ghraib in Iraq.

-- James Gerstenzang

Photo: Karen Bleier / AFP/Getty Images

Comments

[Jim Farber]

The sad thing is that none of these people - particularly Dick Cheney- are ever likely to be held accountable for their actions, except in the pages of history. We can only hope that a more enlightened administation willl soon be in charge.

[Thomas S. Bean]

There is alot to the TORTURE SCANDAL that has nothing to do with DETAINEES, OR SUSPECTED MIDDLE EASTERN SCAPEGOATS.

I know.

I was tortured as a US CITIZEN WHO SIGNED A DOJOIG--FBIOPR COMPLAINT.

THAT IS THE STORY.

DR MARK GORDON WAS ALSO TORTURED WITH A DIRECTED ENERGY WEAPON...just like his brother, RICHARD GORDON, who was SD US Sen Tom Daschle's ex chief of staff before he was murdered.

SD LAW ENFORCEMENT stood down...and let the murder happen.

Minneapolis FBI also...stood down on TORTURE AND ATTEMPTED MURDER OF DR MARK GORDON...WHILE MARK WAS A COERCED COOPERATING FBI WITNESS deployed to come after me, THOMAS S. BEAN (formerly from the police state punk act known as SOUTH DAKOTA).

Go to my blog...and read about 1,000 posts to understand how LA TIMES can get the Pulitizer for invesigative journalism...by covering a story on TORTURE USED AS PART OF CONSPIRACY TO TAMPER WITH A DOJ WITNESS.