Obama Tilts to CIA on Memos

[L. Coyote]

Source: Wall Street Journal

* APRIL 15, 2009
Obama Tilts to CIA on Memos
Top Officials at Odds Over Whether to Withhold Some Details on Interrogation Tactics

By EVAN PEREZ and SIOBHAN GORMAN

WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration is leaning toward keeping secret some graphic details of tactics allowed in Central Intelligence Agency interrogations, despite a push by some top officials to make the information public, according to people familiar with the discussions.

These people cautioned that President Barack Obama is still reviewing internal arguments over the release of Justice Department memorandums related to CIA interrogations, and how much information will be made public is in flux.

Among the details in the still-classified memos is approval for a technique in which a prisoner's head could be struck against a wall as long as the head was being held and the force of the blow was controlled by the interrogator, according to people familiar with the memos. Another approved tactic was waterboarding, or simulated drowning.

A decision to keep secret key parts of the three 2005 memos outlining legal guidance on CIA interrogations would anger some Obama supporters who have pushed him to unveil now-abandoned Bush-era tactics. It would also go against the views of Attorney General Eric Holder and White House Counsel Greg Craig, people familiar with the matter said.

.............



Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123975168816518691.html

---

USG faces a court deadline tomorrow the ACLU-waged lawsuit.

COMPILATION thread: CIA Has 3,000 Docs on Torture Tapes
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

[fascisthunter]

1. Nothing Like Upholding our Constitutional Rights....

constitutional gets shit on for a corrupt CIA. How speshullll...

[montanacowboy]

2. Hey, it's just an Excedrin headache

"Among the details in the still-classified memos is approval for a technique in which a prisoner's head could be struck against a wall as long as the head was being held and the force of the blow was controlled by the interrogator",..........

Can you freakin believe this shit?

Yep, let's protect those CIA monsters Obama

[ThirdWorldJohn]

3. 'Cause transparency is just so much hot air N/T

[UpInArms]

4. what? just 'cause we don't want to have it really really known

that we TORTURE people, it just didn't happen?





this shit has to stop and we have to own up to what the fu**ing criminals did

IN OUR NAME

and then - we have to stop it

NOW!

[lebkuchen]

5. This is a great way to lose constituent funding

I had thought Obama wanted an open government.

As I traveled through France last week, Europeans I met at the campgrounds think Obama is going to be another corporate shill.

It sure is looking that way. Then let the corporations fund his next campaign. I'll be pulling my chips out if he doesn't come clean with what the atrocities the US has paid for with my tax dollars.

[closeupready]

10. "going to be"???? Don't you mean, "is"?

n/t

[lebkuchen]

20. You're right

As Chomsky said, we're still waiting to see the extent of his corporate contributions from the election.

[monicamedallion]

15. Exactly

Sorry this wont be very coherent....gotta dash for an appointment. I read here that the New Deal Pres. said something to the effect "make me do my job"? well, just speculating but, if President Obama is more aware of the threat the CIA poses to him, family, etc. can he be anything less than a shill at this point, unless we make him do his job? Argument -- he knew what he was getting into -- he lied to us --. If he thought he Could be the better POTUS he made it clear enough he needed us to leave off slumbering. He woke the sleeping giant and galvanized a nation. What can I do now? One thing I can do immediately is; I am going to reply to every MOVEON.ORG email (and I save some of them for later reference) I got and get and tell them what I learned from the video on this thread today and add that to every email request I get from them from now until until I see a change in the direction he's moving. I am going to ask everyone I have a few minutes to talk to to do this also.

[lebkuchen]

19. great idea

So far I've been focusing my efforts on the ACLU.

[monicamedallion]

26. can you give some information?

I am an artist, not legal professional. What kind of efforts can I make with the ACLU?

[lebkuchen]

30. I just received a letter from them laying out their goals

with this new administration, w/ heavy emphasis on human rights, demanding an opening of the Bush files on torture, etc. I've been a member for some years, but I give them more money when they request it. I want the secrets out in the open. It's my number one goal now that Bush is gone.

[Vidar]

6. So musch for trasparency, Obama.

[Vidar]

7. So much for transparency, Obama.

[bdamomma]

8. so the CIA rules over the Constitution? wtf?

[Judi Lynn]

9. He must fear the ways they have of getting revenge on people who displease them. n/t

[Doctor_J]

17. I wonder about this too, JL

[bigjohn16]

32. Than he's not fit to be President if that's the case.

It's not about him it's about transparency and the Rule of Law.

[flyarm]

11. It’s Not the Water-Boarding, It’s the Blows to the Head

http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2009/04/14/its-not-th... /

It’s Not the Water-Boarding, It’s the Blows to the Head
By: emptywheel Tuesday April 14, 2009 8:06 pm

Just to lay out a few details based on this article explaining that Obama continues to waver on what parts of the 2005 Bradbury torture memos to reveal. (h/t Steve)

1. According to the WSJ, it's not the description of water-boarding that the CIA wants to hide. It's the description of how the CIA threw people against the wall.

Among the details in the still-classified memos is approval for a technique in which a prisoner's head could be struck against a wall as long as the head was being held and the force of the blow was controlled by the interrogator, according to people familiar with the memos.

2. We know from the ICRC report this technique had been used, three years before Bradbury wrote his OLC memos, with Abu Zubaydah.


................................................

ahhhhhhhhhh nothing to see here..look the other way..fast!!!!

Seems some things never change..too bad we need Spain or other countries to lead the way in obeying laws and treaties!!!!!!



Obama the candidate:

September 2008


Obama on the need for habeas corpus
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yl3RPSw_450&eurl=http%3A ...

Barack Obama - the Habeas Debate Sept 27 2006

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BIylNUkmvo&eurl=http%3A ...

Obama on torture, detainees and enemy rights
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjDaeyUdpJY

NOW TODAY?????????????

Obama to Appeal Detainee Ruling

By THE NEW YORK TIMES
Published: April 10, 2009
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration said Friday that it would appeal a district court ruling that granted some military prisoners in Afghanistan the right to file lawsuits seeking their release. The decision signaled that the administration was not backing down in its effort to maintain the power to imprison terrorism suspects for extended periods without judicial oversight.

In a court filing, the Justice Department also asked District Judge John D. Bates not to proceed with the habeas-corpus cases of three detainees at Bagram Air Base outside Kabul, Afghanistan. Judge Bates ruled last week that the three — each of whom says he was seized outside of Afghanistan — could challenge their detention in court.

Tina Foster, the executive director of the International Justice Network, which is representing the detainees, condemned the decision in a statement.

“Though he has made many promises regarding the need for our country to rejoin the world community of nations, by filing this appeal, President Obama has taken on the defense of one of the Bush administration’s unlawful policies founded on nothing more than the idea that might makes right,” she said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/11/world/asia/11bagram.h ...

or
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/11/world/asia/11bagram.h ...

A version of this article appeared in print on April 11, 2009, on page A6 of the New York edition.

[frylock]

12. looky!! over here!! pics of the obama's new dog, bo!!1!!!

rate it up!!! hope for change!1!!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

[L. Coyote]

13. I'll have some American Fluff pie with my tea. Thank you, waiter.

Freepers all have waiters

We must discuss our Nations recent history of torturing and kidnapping people, sooner or later. Obama must decide which side of history he will to be on by tommorrow.

[Supersedeas]

18. the Corp Media has their journalistic priorities straight....no?

[No Elephants]

14. This makes me so very sad. And ashamed.

[Doctor_J]

16. I hope he's not doing this to keep the CIA "on his side"

for whatever reason.

[XXXMADAM]

21. CIA/FBI TERRORIST PIMPS

http://www.defraudingamerica.com/robin_head.html

[EFerrari]

22. You forgot money laundering drug dealers. n/t

[XXXMADAM]

27. and serial killers

Hanging hookers has become their entire claim to fame now!

http://fbicorruption.250free.com
xxxMadMadam

[Pastiche423]

23. Change! Change! Change!

Transparency - nope
Open Government - nope
No more spying on American citizens - nope
Financing two elective wars, while citizens lose their homes, jobs and health - yep
Allowing war criminals to go free - yep
Giving billions to the theives that put us in the financial crisis we are in - yep

None of the above, plus more has changed since the * administration was in office.

When the fuck to we see CHANGE?

[Zhade]

25. That's my question, too.

I think we got suckered.

[racetoinfinity]

28. I agree.

That list of Obama falling rightward is a comprehensive one. See Glenn Greenwald at salon.com, for more on this.

I think we got suckered, too. He's better than a Rethuglican, but not by much. So disappointing!

[racetoinfinity]

29. You forgot at least two

- Continuing to deny prisoners (not of war) habeas corpus and other internationally recognized rights.

- Continuing to expand Imperial executive power

(See Glenn Greenwald at salon.com)

[Zhade]

24. Where's the change, Obama?

Oh, right -- it's in my paycheck, which goes to pay the extortionists that fucked up the economy.

[SpartanDem]

31. isn't this proof

we really don't what's going to happen? 24 hours most posters in this thread were convinced that the memos weren't going to be released and if they were they were going to be heavily blacked out.