Cheney Spox Refuses To Explain His “Formal” Request For CIA Torture Intel
This is getting downright Kafkaesque: I just reached a spokesperson for former Veep Dick Cheney, and she categorically refused to explain what Cheney meant when he claimed on Fox News last night that he had “formally asked” the CIA to release intelligence allegedly proving that torture works.
As I noted below, Cheney claimed he’d asked the CIA to release intel reports he’d read detailing info successfully collected via torture. But an intelligence source familiar with the situation told me that the CIA has received no such request from Cheney.
So I asked a spokesperson for Cheney at his transitional office in McLean, Virginia, to explain Cheney’s formal request. “He made the request at the end of March,” the spokesperson replied. “It was a formal request that the CIA declassify specific documents.”
I told the spokesperson about the intelligence source’s denial, and asked how procedurally this formal request had been made. The reply: “We have no comment.”
Ah, well. Amazingly, Cheney’s claim is being treated with no skepticism whatsoever. Today’s Times, for instance, noted uncritically that Cheney went on Fox to “announce” that he’d asked the CIA to declassify these reports. MSNBC just wrapped up a segment on Cheney’s demand, too.
Let’s be as clear as possible about this: If what Cheney did is merely ask for the release of these documents on TV, that doesn’t count as a formal request, because it won’t result in anything. If news orgs are going to reproduce Cheney’s claim, why not try to determine whether it’s true or not? Is it possible that maybe Cheney doesn’t really mean it when he says he wants the CIA to release this alleged info?
Update: Mystery solved: Cheney made the request for the documents through the National Archives.
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Who knew that pathological lying was contagious? Who is the spokeswoman, Mary Matalin?
You are assuming facts that aren’t in evidence. You are calling Fox a News. Organization?? I always thought they were a propaganda wing of the GOP… sounds like nothing has changed. It’s just a place for Cheney to appear and make his outrageous statement then go back and hide again. Anything to try to make Pres. Obama look bad.
Now, he is also saying that he has never trash talked Pres. Obama.. do we believe that too??
Great journalism Greg! I wish we could see more verification like this from the media, they need to ask some questions before they go to story. Cheney said it on FoxNews, now he needs to explain exactly in what manner did he formally request the release of these memos. It’s hard to believe that he did this back in March, before Obama made the decision to release the justice department memos. It appears to be another Cheney lie.
Cheney just wants the Faux News faithful to believe that the Obama Administration is refusing to release/hiding “proof” that torture works.
You’ll be hearing shortly “Cheney requested the release, he knows what is there, and yet Obama will not release them? Why? Because it would prove that torture worked and torture saved lives”.
It doesn’t matter that he never really requested the release.
One story I’d like to see written, is Cheney’s claim they didn’t go around and apologize for Clinton. Why would they need to apologize? The U.S. was still respected under Clinton’s administration. It’s obtuse to not understand why Obama is having to work so hard to re-establish respect and trust with countries around the world after the Bush administration.
This all makes sense. The request was made to an undisclosed functionary at an undisclosed federal agency on an undisclosed date at an undisclosed time.
.
Further, to protect national security, the request was burned before being submitted.
Thanx for this blog Greg!
Greg: a healthy dose of scepticism is called for. The spokesperson did have any clear statement says something. Cheney was speaking to his friend “Vanity” spinning “Insanity”. This is for Fox News listeners. Now they will have another grievance. Cheney “asked” for all documents to be released; none will be; therefore the Obama Admin is hiding really vital stuff. On Planet Wingnuttia this stuff reverberates.
Jzap–Bingo. Laughing here.
Greg
.
There is another aspect to the story. If you take Cheney’s spox at their word then Cheney made America less safe before President Obama did!
Greg
.
MSNBC is now reporting also that the CIA recieved no formal request from Cheney. Progress!
why did he make the request at the end of March when it is only now that these memos have been released? it makes one wonder if he did ask for something what exactly he asked for (not that i believe him)
I repeat: Cheney is scared. And he’s lying through his teeth – as if he ever did anything else.
Nice work, Greg.
But I have another question about this. Cheney, while obviously a former Vice President, is just a private citizen, isn’t he? So how the heck can a private citizen make a “formal request” (even if he didn’t) to the CIA about anything?
Can I make a “formal request” to have that information released?
On a related note, if he wants all the evidence about how torture worked to be released, isn’t that endangering the country even more? Why on earth would you want the enemy to know what’s successful?
Hello?
The convoluted thinking of Cheney is troubling. I’m seriously starting to think he really does have some health issues that are causing early dementia.
They’re denying it to politico too.
Also, why is he reckelessly endangering national security by requesting the release of classified memos describing raw intelligence information?
Does he really want America’s enemies to succeed?
Last I heard, this would count on the Right as treason and be a hanging offense.
I’d like to see a study done on all the deaths caused by jihadists that were recruited by using the torture the U.S. performed, acknowledged and accepted by Cheney, as a recruitment tool.
.
Just how much blood is on Cheney’s hands?
.
Then, we could see how many deaths Cheney and gang are responsible for and how many he claims his torture prevented and see if his logic of he prevented deaths even pans out. Cause if he caused more deaths than he prevented, even his distorted logic as to why the torture was justified doesn’t even make sense.
Another sleep deprivation researcher pushes back
.
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1892897,00.html
CNS (who knew there was such a thing) is reporting the story about the east Asian plot that was foiled because of torture. As I said elsewhere here, this story has been going around along with the bush rehabilitation tour, but some are claiming the story was released because of Cheney.
.
http://www.cnsnews.com/public/content/article.aspx?RsrcID=46949
On what basis does Cheney even have authority to request declassification of anything?
On a related note, if he wants all the evidence about how torture worked to be released, isn’t that endangering the country even more? Why on earth would you want the enemy to know what’s successful?—what does it matter what techniques were successful or not if we aren’t going to employ them? And, just a thought, perhaps the previous adminstration was informed in March that President Obama was considering releasing the document considering he has been debating the release for four weeks.
Of course he hasn’t. Do you honestly think that if they had hard evidence that torture worked, they would’ve kept that under their hats?
“# Matt | April 21st, 2009 at 03:27 pm
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On what basis does Cheney even have authority to request declassification of anything?”
.
See that note on your monitor giving you authority to ask the CIA to declassify documents? He has one of those too!
Just FYI CNS is the same outfit that claimed (incorrectly) the WhiteHouse wanted pictures of Jesus and any Christian symbols covered up when he spoke at Georgetown.
On what basis does Cheney even have authority to request declassification of anything?” — FOIA. Any citizen can request the declassification of government documents.
“Just how much blood is on Cheney’s hands?”
Well see, this is why I think he’s afraid.
@ Matt–CNS the ‘right’ news? This story has been debunked in the Mayer book.
I think we are all missing this one. Big Dick Cheney going on Fox News and declaring that he submitted a request to the CIA to release memos is in fact a formal declaration in the Republican Fantasy World. We have to remember Fox News is the caretaker of this Fantasy World and by making the request on FNC, Cheney did in fact make it formal.
Keep pushing this Greg. Nah, on second thought there are more important things.
Politico not only stole Greg’s scoop, they are spinning it furiously for Cheney, saying “The Obama Administration denies that Cheney requested…” They also say that they have put in a request to the National Archives. Mike Allen and Josh Gerstein, confirmed Cheney shills.
For those not familiar with CNS News, here’s the description (from the web site):
History
The Cybercast News Service was launched on June 16, 1998 as a news source for individuals, news organizations and broadcasters who put a higher premium on balance than spin and seek news that’s ignored or under-reported as a result of media bias by omission.
Study after study by the Media Research Center, the parent organization of CNSNews.com, clearly demonstrate a liberal bias in many news outlets – bias by commission and bias by omission – that results in a frequent double-standard in editorial decisions on what constitutes “news.”
LINK
Mary: I saw that, and thought how typically sleazy. Cheney never said the Obama Administration: he said the CIA. They’re not even reporting, correctly, what he said.
Mary & CT Voter–yep, Mike Allen, the guy who gave over for the Bush Admin last week to smear Obama as being weak and endangering us. Now he is at it again. I hope Greg pushes this, maybe another email to Allen asking him why they switched to Obama Admin from CIA?
So, he claims there are memos proving that torture works and he asked for them to be released. Then when they are not he blames Obama. The catch-22 is, the memos dont’ exist, so they can’t be released… no matter what happens the Dick can try to shift the blame and focus to Obama.
Greg, perhaps you can use a variation on an old reporter’s trick to nail down the story (eventually): FOIA the CIA’s “declassification” requests. Investigative reporters used to FOIA various agencies’ FOIA requests back in the days when there were competing newspapers (and competing reporters).
CHENEY=EVIL…how many ways do you dissect that one?
That CNS story is basically taken from the 4th of the memos from 2005 I think. Somebody needs to start trying to get information on this alleged “second wave” plot that will no doubt become the focal talking point of the “enhanced interrogation” defenders. Just remember that the “dirty bomb” plot never really amounted to much of anything once more information came out about Padilla, so be skeptical. It’s not impossible by any means that they really did foil something serious but if history teaches us anything, it teaches us not to trust anything Dick Cheney says.
My thought exactly. Cheney is a private citizen. He has no more right than anyone else to ask the government to release documents.
This is total nonsense.
By the way, if anyone can make this sort of statement, I would like to formally request that Cheney keep shooting his mouth off as often as possible. Dick, remind us of the last eight years as often as you can.
Cheney is full of it…he never made the formal request because the “proof” has yet to be written. If compelling proof existed, it would have been released long ago by Cheney, purely for its political value…it certainly would have gone a long way in slowing the Republican side into obscurity.
My suggestion:
The CIA should do a comprehensive search for all memos bearing Cheney’s name, and release all of those which are “no longer classified” … it should be easy to get enough stuff out there to keep him in court for the rest of his life.
If he complains, just say it’s “In response to your formal request on Faux News.”
jose FTW.
Called Cheney’s transition office ????
Why does he still have a transition office?
He still thinks he is the forth arm of the government???
DICK the LIAR stated on FOX and the HANNITY CLOWN SHOW yesterday stated Al Qaeda was ‘relatively’ unknown on September 11, 2001.
Al Qaeda was ‘relatively’ unknown on September 11, 2001? I guess he was too busy with the ENERGY policy behind his closed door! This guy is scared s…less!
I guess we can ask what he menat by ‘relatively’ unknown also?
Funny, Bill Clinton knew about Al Qaeda?
BTW
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I think I see now why politico et all are now contacting the CIA on this
.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VQxRE2LF8M
.
Look at the last part of the clip. The difference of course is Greg Sargent didn’t need the Robert Gibbs to tell him to investigate the claim. He did it all on his own!
RE: “Is it possible that maybe Cheney doesn’t really mean it when he says he wants the CIA to release this alleged info?”
Tsk, tsk, tsk…. How can you be so cynical? (LOL)
If you’d bothered to check the executive order on classification(EO 12958), you’d know that the National Archives (in particular, the Information Security Oversight Office) runs the classification program. If you bothered to check the ISOO website, you’d have found they are the go-to folks for special requests (and hence the conduit for a “formal” request).
http://www.archives.gov/isoo/about/
It’s vastly amusing to see that, because the intrepid reporter doesn’t understand the basics of classified information, Mr Cheney must be lying. Nice job.
I would like to know why anybody takes what Dick Cheney says seriously at all. He will only give interviews to those who won’t ask difficult questions. Questions which have to be clear through his PR people first. In that case the only thing you will hear is the **** he wants you to hear. Here’s one for you, I believe that politicians are the reason for most of the worlds ills, and I believe that we should start torturing politicians starting with his fat butt. I was just joking but it’s a thought.
Cheney is an axhole wrapped in a lie spouted from a turdblossom.
Wake up “AMERICA” America. the truth is there for all to see
Who Runs America, interesting question. Not Americans thats for sure.
Who is the CIA- look around the World- wherever you see supression, destabalization, destruction, demoralization and puppet governments. The who is the big question- Not who you thing they are they themselves are puppetsfor a much more sinister group. They are just one branch of the octopus.
Who Runs Government. Certainly not the President. Wake up America before its too late
Cheney isn’t on the same page as Bush, and I keep wondering if he wants to spill the beans. Maybe he’s mad at Bush.
Now that the Bush-Cheney Gang is out of power, they can no longer use “War on Terror”, “National Security” or even “Global Economy” to cover-up their graft and corruption. Nobody is Above the Law… Follow the Money… Prosecute the Criminals!
Who was Secretary of Defense in 1992, and who sighted a report on why coercive interrogation was apt to be misused in Latin American contexts and ordered that all of the CIA’s Human Resource Exploitation /torture manuals be destroyed there? Why that was Dick, so Dick can’t say that he knew that enhanced interrogation was wrong. And in opening that can of worms, we can go back and revisit the CIA’s activities in Honduras and Nicaragua, which we probably don’t want to do now that former drugs and arms dealer Ollie North is an embedded journalist lying his *** off in Afghanistan and John Negroponte has finished lying to the UN about Iraq and serving as Intelligence Czar under the Bushistas and is hiding out as a Deputy Secretary of State. So, shush ya’ll. There’s far more to lose than y’all realise in terms of ‘American greatness’.
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