Follow BeltwayBlips on Twitter
The WonkLine: April 21, 2009
Wonk Room —
... Spencer Ackerman reports at least one other memorandum on CIA interrogations remains undisclosed: a 2007 opinion from the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel on what a new interpretation of the Geneva Conventions’ Common Article 3 meant for the agency’s ‘enhanced interrogation program.’” ...
NSN Daily Update 4/21/2009
democracyarsenal.org —
See today's complete Daily Update here. What We’re Reading Pressure grows on President Obama to hold an investigation into the torture memos (even from some former Bush administration officials) and release further memos. An army takeover quells violence in Ciudad Juarez, formerly the epicenter of Mexico’s drug violence, but also prompting questions over civil liberties. South Africa goes to the polls tomorrow in what ...
Another Memo
The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan —
Spencer Ackerman reports: ...at least one other memorandum on CIA interrogations remains undisclosed: a 2007 opinion from the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel on what a new interpretation of the Geneva Conventions’ Common Article 3 meant for the agency’s “enhanced interrogation program.”
A former senior intelligence official, who would not speak for the record, said that in 2007, the head of the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, Steven Bradbury, issued a still-secret memorandum authorizing an updated ...
Identified: 2007 OLC Torture Memo Still Not Released
Firedoglake —
... when President Bush issued an executive order attempting to reconcile the CIA's "enhanced interrogation program" with the Geneva Conventions' Common Article 3? As it turns out, the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel issued guidance to the CIA about what that executive order meant they could and couldn't do to a detainee. And that guidance remains undisclosed, despite last week's release of the OLC memos that Marcy covered so well. Fresh out from the Washington Independent: ...
OLC + CIA = CYA
Firedoglake —
... I wanted to make two points about Spencer's important story at the Windy, identifying a previously unknown 2007 Bradbury torture memo. ...
Cheney Now All About the Openness: Ain’t No Half Stepping
Firedoglake —
... But that's not all! Naturally I'd like to see this Office of Legal Counsel memo from 2007. But any full account of the CIA's "enhanced interrogation" program has to include CIA Inspector General John Helgerson's 2004 internal investigation into the program. That report has never been released despite numerous congressional requests. John Conyers, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, cited its nondisclosure in ...
The torture floodgates are now open
Newshoggers.com —
... - Spencer Ackerman wrote
in the Washington Independent of a still unreleased Steven Bradbury
memo written in 2007 authorizing an "updated" CIA interrogation
regimen. That memo, according to Mr. Ackerman, followed the Supreme
Court decision (Hamdan v. Rumsfeld) that ruled Geneva Convention
covenants applied to detained "enemy combatants" and President Bush's
commitment to amend U.S. interrogation practices to conform to Article
3 of the Geneva Convention. ...
Senate Intel Committee Confirms Existence of Missing 2007 OLC Memo
Firedoglake —
... The Washington Independent -- and in particular, moi -- broke the story of the existence of that memo yesterday. Just saying. This is the first clear, declarative public acknowledgment by any government authority that the 2007 OLC memo exists. Here's an interesting omission that the Senate intelligence panel found within it: ...
Tortured Law: A Chat with Jameel Jaffer of ACLU’s National Security Project
Firedoglake —
... including ground-level FBI agents, military commanders, JAG lawyers, and other governmental officials called the legality of these decisions on torture into question under US and international laws.
The Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) report timeline corroborates something we've seen in the previously-released OLC memos: that these torture techniques were readied and, in some cases, already being used, before the OLC memos were inked. But how can we know any of this for certain without having all the facts in front of ...
Torture Memos: Are Bradbury’s Two 2006 OLC Opinions Still Active?
Firedoglake —
... Help me do the math on this for a second.
On April 15, 2009 (just one day before the release of them), OLC withdrew the August 1, 2002 Bybee Two memo, the May 10, 2005 Techniques memo, the May 10, 2005 Combined memo, and the May 30, 2005 CAT memo.
On April 21, 2009, Spencer reported on the July 20, 2007 memo authorizing dietary manipulation, sleep deprivation, and four coercive techniques; SSCI reported on it officially the next day, April 22.
That memo was withdrawn on June 11, 2009.
But ...
