Source: Despite Claim, Cheney Didn’t Really Ask CIA To Release Torture Intelligence
Did Dick Cheney really “formally” ask the CIA to release reams of intelligence allegedly showing that the torture program worked, as Cheney claimed last night on Fox News?
An intelligence source familiar with the situation says the answer is No.
“The agency has received no request from the former Vice President to release this information,” the source told me a few moments ago.
Last night, Cheney said he’d asked the CIA to release memos he had read containing all the intelligence that had been collected via torture. “I’ve now formally asked the CIA to take steps to declassify those memos so we can lay them out there and the American people have a chance to see what we obtained and what we learned and how good the intelligence was, as well as to see this debate over the legal opinions,” Cheney said.
According to the source, there are several ways this could happen: Cheney could lodge a Freedom of Information Request (which is hard to imagine a former Veep doing); he could contact CIA officials; or he could submit the request via the White House. Cheney said he’d made the request to the CIA.
The source, however, tells me that the CIA didn’t get any such request from Cheney. So barring the unlikely possibility that Cheney submitted his request to the Obama White House, it seems fair to assume for now that the only target of this request was the Fox News television audience.
Update: A Cheney spokesperson is refusing to say what he meant when he claimed to have made a “formal” request for this info.
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Prediction
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You are going to get a lot of links from wingnuts and possibly some wingnut commenters coming over here to bash you in the name of Cheney and FoxNews because both of course are misunderstood. Imma watch memeorandum to see how long it takes lol.
Greg, can you call someone at the White House and verify this?
How does one go about debunking a story like this one?
P.T. Barnum was a genious compared to Cheney the Black-hearted One! -Kevo
Maybe he filed his request with the Culinary Institute of America.
Jane Harman is on MSNBC
Cheney is desperate to stay in the public eye and thus relevant, because he feels that if he stays out of sight and thus out of mind that he’ll lose his power over individuals he had during his eight years. Now that power might be unofficial, but the message he sends is “I still have connections”.
Also if he is out of the public eye, it might be easier to eventually prosecute him because the 23%ers will move on and there would be no political pressure to block any investigation.
Does the “New GOP” really want to defend the Bush/Cheney Torture White House?
Shockingly, the guy who failed to release information proving torture saved lives during the 8 years of his vice-presidency also failed to ask his successors to release it.
It’s almost like there is no secret memo showing how torture saved lives.
It could lead you to believe that the Administration which let Osama bin laden get away, and which failed to stop massive terrorist attacks in London and Spain, and which invaded a country to crack down on non-existent weapons of mass destruction…you can almost believe they just got lucky that there were no further attacks in the US.
Harman just did a pretty good job of pushback. She said she was outraged by the story and first learned she might have been wiretapped last week when contacted about the story. She said she contacted Eric Holder and asked him to release any wiretap info on her totally unredacted so the whole story can get told. Obviously she might have just been blowing smoke but she did come off as genuine and credible.
I imagine cheney has a lot of like-minded CIA spooks who would happily leak whatever vice wanted. One of bush’s old speech writers was on the Diane Rehm show recently bloviating about how torture works giving the example of some Indonesian/east Asian plot he claimed was foiled. Plus, if they don’t really have the evidence, they’re not above making it up.
Harman’s letter.
People are missing the point.
There were numerous false confessions, by people desperate for the torture to stop. Reported previously, With Bush and Cheney even having claimed credit for averting attacks. Many have been disproved. Cheney is referring to such confessions and is playing his usual games with the truth.
oops
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http://attackerman.firedoglake.com/2009/04/21/the-phones-off-the-hook-but-youre-not-2/
I understand how Cheney could file an FOIA request, as any citizen could, but how does he have standing to contact the CIA directly with ANY request or demand, or even request through the White House? He’s a private citizen just like the rest of us now, right?
JD Davidson
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Not really. Ex Presidents and VPs aren’t just any old Joes and for instance they still can get security briefings and SS detail.
When Cheney speaks all should jump. Just by his saying he’s asked the CIA means that they should all jump up and down and do whatever he says. NOT!
Q. How can you tell when Dickwad Cheney is lying?
A. His lips are moving.
I am betting he never requested it because all hey have are false confessions.
My understanding is that Cheney is not entitled to SS protection and that he asked Bush to give it to him anyway. I think he might have gotten it for 6 months.
Greg, this is a great scoop!
Well if you can’t believe Dick “Dick” Cheney…..
nice reporting Greg, but it’s kind of “dog bites man.” The real story would be “Dick “Dick” Cheney tells Truth!” Now, that would have legs….
The Bush administration did such a good job of covering their butts on this, any memo released would be suspect as a plant by Cheney. I just can’t believe my country is justifying the use of torture, and saying the memos shouldn’t have been released because we might need to use torture again in the future.
Danp’s explanation is the most plausible
So many things to say about TheCheney….
but wouldn’t it behoove, even a fox reporter, to say “you know, there is hardly a public utterance you have made in the last 9 years (and probably longer) that wasn’t a blatant lie. Why should anyone in America believe a word you say?”
i don’t understand. cheney was vp for eight years. any time during those years, he could have ORDERED the cia to release that supposed evidence that proves that torture works. it isn’t as though this is a new controversy. but apparently, he never did so. now he’s saying that he’s somehow made a request as a private citizen. if you believe that, i have a bridge i’d like to sell you.
Who was your source?
Just askin’.
That the man who still maintains that Saddam had links with al Qaeda and WMD and was implicated in 9/11 would lie about contacting the CIA is not particularly surprising. I am fairly sure that he is spending more and more time in a fantasy world of his own creation and can’t always tell the difference.
Oliver North was also a serial liar about things he did and his involvement in different episodes. It came out that he really believed the things he was saying although records show that his stories were impossible. Cheney probably is suffering from the same psychological disease.
So this story is based on “someone” who will not be “identified” from a “spokesperson”
Greg, Nice catch. I love it when we can get thease guys on thier foul ups! Cheney could have been more specific. He requested the declasification through the National Archives, not the CIA. The Archivist has the power to declassify the documents. They usuall check with the CIA first to make sure certain criteria are met. If Cheney is the original authority of the classification, it may increase his chances of getting what he wants. I hope he doesn’t get them declassified. If the documents show waterbording worked, it is harder for us to use the ammo against the wingnuts. Truth or not, everytime these guys misspeak we need to be on them! Great job!
samg | April 21st, 2009 at 03:49 pm
i don’t understand. cheney was vp for eight years. any time during those years, he could have ORDERED the cia to release that supposed evidence that proves that torture works. it isn’t as though this is a new controversy. but apparently, he never did so. now he’s saying that he’s somehow made a request as a private citizen. if you believe that, i have a bridge i’d like to sell you.
………………………………
Please, you say why didn’t Dick Cheney release or ask CIA release documents that proved that torture works duing his years in office. Why would you want to prove that these harsh interrogations worked if “they are freaking working.” There is no need to prove it. So currently we just had Obama come out and release details and the specifics of what our CIA agency was doing in terms of harsh interrogations and now it is known what these were. Four different CIA Directors including President Obama’s current one that these details should not of been released. The White House said the info was bound to come out in the courts, so instead of letting the court of law continue (possible release/possible no release) to do its job, the adminstration says we will release this info although the 4 CIA directors said do not do it. So its first, release the details of what we do while claiming it is torture. (They will not when that matter Have you heard of unlawful sanctions?) And to the people who say Why, now Cheney, why do you want memos released when you did not the last 8 years. Because if you have the current President whom is so arrogant to release the actually techinuqes used by are CIA when 4 past directors said do not do it is way more controversial than Dick Cheney asking for documents that show these actual techniques did provide results. Only 3 people were waterboarded multiple times. One was Abu Zubaida. Capturedin March 2002. Waterboarded in August 2002. . He was sentenced to death in Jordon for a millin. bomb plot already whom asks our Justice Dept to be sent to Saudi Arabia (relatives/family there) instead of Jordon where the Justice Dept) want him sent. Why because he will be killed. But no we are the torturers for waterboarding. Obama will direct drones to hit homes in Pakistan (where it states other family members innocents may be killed) where innocent people might lose a arm, leg or even their lives but no protest there has there been on your side about that unless Bush was president. So when Obama does these raids there is no torture done or already been done. The second waterboarded peron was Khalid Mohammed captured in Pakistan March 2003 waterboared right after capture. He is the main mastermind of 9/11. And there was one other person too. I don’t have time for everyone. But only three individuals had this done. And you will say it does not matter. It does matter, this people were some of the most twisted minded people out to destroy our countries freedom. I am not condoning the practices nor am I saying it should not of been done. The point is that our USA gov’t was not a animal on this practice of harsh interrogations doing waterboarding to all these people. We did hold our head up and do not cross the boundaries and used harsh interrogations that were allowed to be used thru our gov’t intrepretation of the law and the UN Torture treaty thing and Geneva. The UN document does not say waterboarding in it, it could of but did not. There was a lienancy aspect to it despite all these whiners.
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