Bush Official Suggests Cheney Torture Cover-Up

Mother Jones:

On April 21, Philip Zelikow, who was counselor to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice during the Bush administration, revealed on Foreign Policy's "Shadow Government" blog that he wrote a memo in 2005 disputing the conclusions of Bush Justice Department lawyers that torture was legal. The existence of such a memo was a surprise. But Zelikow also disclosed that the "White House attempted to collect and destroy all copies of my memo."

Read the whole story: Mother Jones

Comments

[PhilipTaylor]

06:22 AM on 05/14/2009

Why are we hearing so much from Chainy (sic) and his kin folks?

Could it be because he does not have his f!nger p_pp_t to spread the word anymore?

He said, "no one else will defend .....!" Not one other politician!

This is not about our security! It is about his paran0ia and the many other distortions he pushed on the American People!

[PhilipTaylor]

03:45 AM on 05/11/2009

OUTRAGE LIST - What is wrong in America:

1. A Justice System that does NOT WORK.

2. Campaign Funding System that sells Votes of Senators, House Members, and President to highest bidders. Wall Street gives Congress $5Billion.

3. No Investigation or Prosecution of T0RTURE cr!mes.

4. Use of DELAY&Diversionary Fake News as TOOLS to prevent investigation and prosecution.

5. No Full Prosecution for outing CIA agent.

6. Election system loaded with fraud (Florida-2000, Ohio-2004).

7. No Prosecution for politically motivated firing of attorneys in "Justice."

[knerd]

11:52 PM on 05/06/2009

How could one prove that Zelikow actually wrote an "alibi" memo in the first place? And especially since the memo was supposedly destroyed by Cheney?

I am familiar with Zelikow's relationship with Condoleeza Rice and his work as chairman of the 9/11 Commission. And I don't yet believe what he is saying.

[SmallFarm]

09:35 PM on 05/06/2009

Did he manage to keep record of his meetings and conversations with C.Rice? I bet there are more records in Bush's Liebury than there are in the White House Records. They knew they were doing wrong and ALL of them destroyed legal records. This is a crime and is punishable by doing JAIL-time.

[Jeff5252]

09:14 PM on 05/06/2009

If you had information that your family was in imminent danger of a possible terrorist act, but needed more information to pinpoint the target, would you rather not scare the hell out of a terrorist then save your family? Our families should come first not the KNOWN terrorist! Remember one thing you and your family have been kept safe because of these tactics. Plus lawyers with more education then most of us studied the legality of this and made a decision, do you want every decision made by Obama to be check after he leaves office? I don't, it is time to move on for the good of the country!

Plus if you think Pelosi and Reid and other prominent Dems. were unaware that this was going on, you need to put down the cool aide and start thinking for yourself! Why do you think they backed off once a truth commission was talked about...Because they don't want to be caught in that big of a lie! It would come out and then people would see who these people really are!

[knerd]

12:07 AM on 05/07/2009

Jeff5252,

How many young Americans in Baghdad and Falujah were safe after the photos of Abu Graib hit the Arab Street?

And Is it really a good idea to go along with decisions by others as long as they are deemed to have "more education than most of us"?

If Obama makes an illegal decision, shouldn't he be held accountable even after he has left office?

The issue is not Obama, Bush, Pelosi, Cheney, Republicans or Democrats. The issue is torture.

And torture is morally wrong and it is a legal crime.

[Theo67]

01:40 AM on 05/07/2009

Jeff252 - don't believe the lies you've been told. The stories of lives being saved due to these torture tactics are lies. The attacks they are claiming were thwarted happened a year before these torture tactics were authorized.

The truth of the matter is that torture is illegal - both nationally and internationally. Sanctioning torture makes the world unsafe. If you really want to protect your family, stop listening to right wing talking points, encourage justice for those who broke the law, and stay on the right side of history. There is nothing that was done under this torture umbrella that made anyone safer - that includes your family or anyone in this country or any of our soldiers fighting overseas.

[Sloane7]

08:32 PM on 05/06/2009

Again - is it any wonder the White House accidentally deleted all those emails? The cleaners must have been exhausted with all the skeletons falling out of every closet.

[etc]

08:29 PM on 05/06/2009

ČĤĔŃĔŶ ĨŚ ĤĔĨŃŔĨČĤ ĤĨММĹĔŔ ŐŦ ŤĤĔ 21ŚŤ ČĔŃŤÚŔŶ, ĤĔ'Ś ŴŐŔŚĔ ŤĤĂŃ ĔVĨĹ!

[MarcoEsquandolas]

06:38 PM on 05/06/2009

Like Judas of old
You lie and deceive
A world war can be won
You want me to believe
But I see through your eyes
And I see through your brain
Like I see through the water
That runs down my drain

[Figerre]

03:45 PM on 05/06/2009

Surprise, surprise, surprise! A Cheney cover-up? this is the guy that hid everything he could and obfuscated the rest. He and his snarky smile need to be put out to pasture.

[ebanks84]

03:34 PM on 05/06/2009

That picture of him just makes you want to puke. He is so e v i l!

[ebanks84]

03:29 PM on 05/06/2009

C h e n e y will go into hiding in their secret underground world and just disappear, never to be found again.

[ebanks84]

03:28 PM on 05/06/2009

Cheney will go into hiding in their secret underground world and just disappear, never to be found again.

[MarsAmbassador]

03:23 PM on 05/06/2009

Of course they did, they're evil. And as soon as the public reached it's froth, the swine flu came out and dominated the headlines. Coincidence? I wouldn't put anything past the neocons. They're in bed with big business and big business owns every media outlet we're exposed to, pumping out the message they want us to have. And this swine flu is a complete non-event. But you'd never know it from the 24 hour a day coverage. MSNBC had a huge full-screen headline of "IS THE SWINE FLU THE NEW BLACK PLAGUE?" with a giant picture of a skull and crossbones. The Black Plague killed a third of all Europe., so how is this not ridiculous fear-stoking to the point of criminal negligence? More people have died from the REGULAR flu since this started. 40,000 a year die in the US from the regular flu, an average of 110 people a day. If the swine flu was doing even half of that, the coverage would make us think the world was ending. And once people start talking on MSNBC or CNN about torture again, they'll bombard us with Shark Attack Season and Hurricane Watch and so it goes.

[ebanks84]

03:31 PM on 05/06/2009

Yep. They know how to put out smoke screens to get your attention away from them. But we must stay persistent. No one should be above the law.

[Marcospinelli]

04:00 PM on 05/06/2009

Air Force One's joy ride over NYC last week, with F16s flanking it? "For updating the photo file"?

When asked yesterday, "Where are the photos?", White House press secretary Robert Gibbs replied, "They will not be released."

[sticksnstones]

09:38 PM on 05/06/2009

So, whatcher point ?? Obfuscate much ???

[WilliamProc]

03:10 PM on 05/06/2009

What happened to Darth Cheney's private memos about the detainees that he was to get the White House to release?

[sticksnstones]

09:40 PM on 05/06/2009

They're still in Dick's T0rture Porn Library.

[jimbeaux1961]

03:06 PM on 05/06/2009

Look, I understand that the Republicans won't like it and it will be time-consuming, but these guys MUST be held accountable. If not, our entire system of law is a joke, a bad joke, being played on the poor and powerless.

[AZterritory]

03:11 PM on 05/06/2009

Well said--if the party who is always spewing "what part of illegal don't they understand?" here in the border states about immigration can't 'get' that this cr@p was also illegal, then we might as well use the Constitution for TP.

[sticksnstones]

09:46 PM on 05/06/2009

You're comparing war crimes on the part of an executive office with a civil offense equal in legal weight to a parking ticket. You did, however, include the talking points Rush told you to parrot.

[sheilaofmiami]

03:15 PM on 05/06/2009

But our government is a joke and we are all the poor and the powerless, unless you own and run a bank, a big bank.