The National Archives confirms that Cheney formally requested the release of classified CIA documents to prove that the intelligence gathering ends justified the torture means.
Hmmm, Cheney using classified documents to buttress his political and rhetorical positions … haven’t we been here before? (see: Miller, Judy).
Not sure what hang-time we’re looking at here. But is Rep. John Shadegg yet another GOP rep. moth to the Rush flame, with this comment today in an interview with the Arizona Republic …
Shadegg disagrees with radio commentator Rush Limbaugh, who has said he hopes Obama and his liberal policies fail.
“I sincerely hope he creates the strongest recovery possible,” Shadegg said. “It is petty to worry about who gets the credit when people are losing their jobs and their homes.”
As for Limbaugh, Shadegg said, “I think he is an entertainment personality who is an interesting factor in American politics. I agree with much of what he says on some issues, but not on other issues.”
We do have the always perilous ‘entertainment personality’ description and the suggestion that Rush is “petty”. On the other hand you have to thin gruel walk-back of saying Rush is an “interesting factor” and an expression of agreement on some issues. Really close to the line.
What say you? Do we have another self-criticism session coming?
The Senate Armed Services Committee’s “Inquiry Into the Treatment of Detainees in U.S. Custody” has now been posted on the Committee’s website.
WUSA: David Kellerman, Acting CFO of Freddie Mac, found dead in apparent suicide.
It still rankles me two decades after the fact that Bill Casey died before he could be held to account in the Iran-contra scandal. Here’s hoping that Rummy and Cheney live long enough for the wheels of justice to finish grinding.
Interrogators were under intense pressure from the Bush Administration to use harsh interrogation tactics to prove the fictional al Qaeda-Saddam connection, Jonathan Landay reports for McClatchy, relying on a combination of the Levin report (pdf.) and a former senior intelligence official.
The New Yorker‘s Jane Mayer notes that the Levin report also sheds new light on that crucial period between the capture of Abu Zubayda in March 2002 and the Bybee torture memo in August 2002 that sought to legally bless torture.
NRSC chairman John Cornyn admits it’s “going to be real hard” to keep the Democrats from claiming 60 Senate seats in 2010. That and the day’s other political news in the TPMDC Morning Roundup.
From the Post …
The new Israeli government will not move ahead on the core issues of peace talks with the Palestinians until it sees progress in U.S. efforts to stop Iran’s suspected pursuit of a nuclear weapon and limit Tehran’s rising influence in the region, according to top government officials familiar with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s developing policy on the issue.
Also of note, Laura Rozen flags the fact that Netanyahu is considering appointing Michael Oren as Israel’s new ambassador to Washington, notwithstanding the fact that Oren was a critic of Obama and booster of McCain during the last election. Also in contention for the post, it seems, is the odious Dore Gold.