Hillary Smacks Down Cheney (& Dana Rohrbacher)

The combat of Mars & Minverva (detail) by Jacques-Louis David via Olga's Gallery

by Damozel |  Cheney's been shit-stirring right in the forefront lately, trying to whip up some partisan rage against Obama. I would like to say to Cheney, in the immortal words of Jon Stewart, "You don't know Dick."  But if I did, he wouldn't listen, understand, or care.

Huzzah for SoS Hillary Clinton.

Congressman Dana Rohrbacher, R-Calif., took up Dick Cheney's cause today and pressed Secretary of State Clinton to urge the Obama administration to declassify and release documents he believes demonstrate the success of the enhanced interrogation techniques employed during the Bush administration.....

"Well, it won't surprise you, I don't consider him a particularly reliable source of information," responded Secretary Clinton to a smattering of laughter in the hearing room.

Congressman Rohrbacher didn't like Hillary getting the best lines and all the laughs.  He "bit back," says Anne Schroeder. 

"Madam Secretary, I asked you a specific question. ... Dick Cheney has asked that specific documents be declassified. ... I didn’t ask you what your opinion is of Dick Cheney and if you want to maintain your credibility with us, what is your opinion on the release of those documents?”

Showing only the tiniest ladylike protrusion of claw and tooth, Hillary sweetly purred:

"Congressman, I believe we ought to get to the bottom of this entire matter. I think it is in the best interest of our country and that is what the president believes and that is why he has taken the actions he did," said Clinton.  (abc news)

And when she says "we ought to get to the bottom of this entire matter," you know exactly what she thinks we're going to find at the bottom of the Bush Cheney sandbox. 

My fellow Hillary fan Taylor Marsh says:

Cheney misled the country about WMDs in Iraq. He pontificated about some fantasy Prague meeting. He orchestrated the outing of a covert C.I.A. operative in order to get revenge against her husband, Joe Wilson, who just happened to torpedo the Bush administration’s claims on Iraq and uranium procurement. Then he helped lead the White House on a torture policy that is illegal under national and international law. To say that he is not considered “a particularly reliable source of information” is the understatement of the post-Bush era. Given what is prologue, it is also an irrefutable judgment.

For example, this:

Intelligence and military officials under the Bush administration began preparing to conduct harsh interrogations long before they were granted legal approval to use such methods -- and weeks before the CIA captured its first high-ranking terrorism suspect, Senate investigators have concluded....

One Army lieutenant colonel who reviewed the program warned in 2002 that coercion "usually decreases the reliability of the information because the person will say whatever he believes will stop the pain," according to the Senate report. A second official, briefed on plans to use aggressive techniques on detainees, was quoted the same year as asking: "Wouldn't that be illegal?"

Once they were accepted, the methods became the basis for harsh interrogations not only in CIA secret prisons, but also in Defense Department internment camps at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and in Afghanistan and Iraq, the report said.

Sen. Carl M. Levin (D-Mich.), chairman of the committee, said the new findings show a direct link between the early policy decisions and the highly publicized abuses of detainees at prisons such as Abu Ghraib in Iraq.

Senior officials sought out information on, were aware of training in, and authorized the use of abusive interrogation techniques," Levin said. "Those senior officials bear significant responsibility for creating the legal and operational framework for the abuses.  (WaPo; emphasis added)

And also, this:

Adm. Dennis C. Blair, President Obama's national intelligence director, told colleagues in a private memo last week that the Bush administration's detainee abuse did, in fact, produce "high value information" about al Qaeda.....

This is one of those instances in which reading the rest of the article is worthwhile.

We learned from the same report that Adm. Blair, had he been in a position of authority when these interrogation techniques were approved, "would not have approved those methods." Got that? He knows the abuse led to some "high value information," but despite this, Blair still would have rejected the tactics.

And why is that?

"The information gained from these techniques was valuable in some instances, but there is no way of knowing whether the same information could have been obtained through other means," Admiral Blair said in a written statement issued last night. "The bottom line is these techniques have hurt our image around the world, the damage they have done to our interests far outweighed whatever benefit they gave us and they are not essential to our national security."  (Steve Benen; emphasis added)

More at Memeorandum....

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