AS WITH "WATERGATE", THE SAD TRUTH ABOUT BUSH & CO. WILL EVENTUALLY PREVAIL
Gary Ater
July 13, 2009
"Shooter Cheney" comes up before the law
CONGRESS TO INVESTIGATE THE VICE PRESIDENTīS SECRET CIA PROGRAM:
Even though President Obama had been against an investigation of the past at this time, while having to deal with the economy and health care issues, the newly found revelations of the Bush Administration have forced those currently in command in the White House and the US Congress to say; "We need to look into these issues."
The New York Times, reported this week that Leon Panetta, Director of the CIA, has told the House Democrats that Vice President Richard B. Cheney specifically gave the order to keep top secret information from Congress. This is in regard to the recent super-secret CIA program that Director Panetta had previously stated had not been disclosed to Congress for almost eight years.
House Democrats have now said that they expect to launch a formal investigation by the House Intelligence Committee that could entangle all the senior Bush administration officials who oversaw the intelligence issues.
"This wasn't an oversight. There was an order given to not inform Congress," said US Representative Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), the current Chairwoman of the panel's oversight and investigations subcommittee.
The US lawmakers learned of the program from CIA Director Panetta in closed-door briefings last June 24, for the House and Senate Intelligence Committees. The day before, CIA officials had informed Panetta of the program and told him that Congress had not been briefed. He then immediately canceled the top-secret program.
In another interview with The Washington Post, an intelligence official said it was "generally known" from the beginning that Cheney had requested that the program be kept from Congress. The official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said, "it was still unclear whether the agency was actually obligated to brief Congress". However, according to the original 1947 law that established the CIA, even for top-secret covert actions, lawmakers on the intelligence committees must be notified.
"We never briefed the vice president, the president or the Cabinet," said a former senior intelligence official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because the program still remains highly secret. He said the program was 90% implemented, but it "officially" remained in the "planning stage". It was however, not explained how an eight year old, top-secret program was not yet considered "official" and how it had therefore, never crossed the agency's threshold for reporting to the administration and congressional overseers.
IN OTHER AREAS, THE US AG IS CONSIDERING AN INVESTIGATION ON CIA TORTURE:
Also against the presidentīs initial "wanting to look forward" comments, in another arena US Attorney General (AG), Eric H. Holder Jr. is now leaning toward appointing a criminal prosecutor to investigate whether CIA personnel tortured terrorism suspects after Sept. 11, 2001.
For the AG to name a prosecutor to probe alleged abuses during the darkest period in the Bush era would run directly counter to President Obama's oft-repeated desire to be "looking forward and not backwards." Top political aides have expressed concern that such an investigation might spawn partisan debates that could overtake Obama's ambitious legislative agenda regarding; jobs and the economy, health care, energy and education.
Criminal inquiries by the AGīs office could spawn legal defense by current and former CIA employees who could argue that attorneys in the Bush Justice Department authorized a wide range of harsh conduct.
But sources have also said an inquiry would apply only to activities by interrogators, working in bad faith, that fell outside the "four corners" of the legal memos. Some incidents might go beyond the interrogation techniques that were previously permitted that involve detainees in both Iraq and Afghanistan and are described in the secret 2004 CIA Inspector General Report, set for release on Aug. 31.
As expected, former government officials, led by former Vice President Richard B. Cheney, have publicly decried efforts to dig into the past.
In a speech to the American Enterprise Institute in May, Cheney described the harsh interrogation program as "legal, essential, justified" and Cheney said, "The intelligence officers who questioned the terrorists can be proud of their work and proud of the results." He then added: "The danger here is a loss of focus on national security and what it requires. I would advise the administration to think very carefully about the course ahead."
However, the latest evidence has now convinced President Obama that this cannot go further without the US Justice Department collecting the necessary information to see if a full-blown investigation and prosecution or indictment might be required.
Holder's decision about a special prosecutor could come within just a few weeks. About the same time the US Justice Department will be releasing an ethics report about the Bush lawyers who drafted memos supporting harsh interrogation practices. The legal documents spell out in sometimes painstaking detail how interrogators were allowed to subject detainees to simulated drowning, sleep deprivation, wall slamming and confinement in small, dark spaces.
Among the unauthorized techniques allegedly used, as described in the report and the Red Cross official accounts, were shackling, punching and beating of suspects, as well as the Waterboarding of at least two detainees using more liquid and for longer periods than the Bush Justice Department had approved. That conduct could violate ordinary criminal laws, as well as the UN Convention Against Torture, which the United States signed more than a decade ago. (Even though the detainees are not considered actual "prisoners of war", the concept of using these torture techniques is against all previous rules as stated in the US Militaryīs Official Field Handbook of Rules and Regulations.)
With all that is currently on the new administrationīs plate for both "foreign and domestic issues", the White House had resisted efforts by congressional Democrats to establish a "truth and reconciliation" panel at this time. But fresh disclosures have continued to emerge about detainee mistreatment, including a secret CIA watchdog report, recently reviewed by the AG, highlighting several episodes that could be likened to torture.
The sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the ongoing process, said Holder has been open to naming a prosecutor to investigate the allegations since he took office in February. The sources said the Inspector General Report has advanced his thinking in the direction of doing so.
CIA spokesman Paul Gimigliano said; "What the president, the attorney general and CIA Director Panetta have said consistently is that no one who followed Department of Justice guidance should be punished." But the AG is concerned about is that from the IG Report, it appears that the interrogators went beyond or "outside the corners of the allowed interrogation methods".
"As the attorney general has stated on numerous occasions, the Department of Justice will follow the facts and the law with respect to any matter," spokesman Matthew Miller said. "We have made no decisions on investigations or prosecutions, including whether to appoint a prosecutor to conduct further inquiry. As the Attorney General has made clear, it would be unfair to prosecute any official who acted in good faith based on legal guidance from the Justice Department."
The White House has properly declined to comment on the prospect of a prosecutor investigating the alleged torture.
Also, just as with Watergate, this will take time. But, the legal problems of the previous Bush Administration "appear" to have gone way beyond those of the previous Nixon Watergate Administration. Only time will tell.
Copyright G.Ater 2009
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