Cheney oversaw briefings on interrogation methods

By GottaLaff

Paddy touched on this earlier in her linkage post. Here are a few more details:

Former Vice President Dick Cheney personally oversaw at least four briefings with senior members of Congress about controversial interrogation programs, part of a secretive and forceful defense he mounted throughout 2005 in an effort to maintain support for the harsh techniques used against detainees. [Laffy Note: Torture. It's called torture. Okay? Okay.]

The Cheney-led briefings came at some of the most crucial moments for the program, as congressional oversight committees were threatening to investigate or even terminate the techniques used in interrogations, according to lawmakers, congressional officials and current and former intelligence officials.

Cheney's role in helping handle intelligence issues in the Bush administration has been well documented, particularly his advocacy for the use of aggressive methods and warrantless wiretapping against suspected terrorists. But his hands-on role in defending the interrogation program to lawmakers has not been previously publicized. [...]

CIA records indicate another "briefing" -- for whom the briefer is "not available" -- was given to Senate GOP leaders on Nov. 1, 2005. That was the same day Cheney made his regular appearance at the weekly Tuesday luncheon for Senate Republicans.

After staffers were cleared from the room, Cheney discussed the value of the interrogation program and the information gleaned from the harsh techniques, according to contemporaneous media accounts.

Cheney's briefing on interrogations began in the winter of 2005 as the top Democrats on the Senate and House intelligence committees, Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.) and Rep. Jane Harman (D-Venice) publicly advocated a full investigation of the tactics used against top Al Qaeda terrorism suspects.

On March 8, 2005 -- two days after a detailed report in the New York Times about interrogations -- Cheney gathered Rockefeller, Harman and the chairmen of the intelligence panels, Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), and Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-Mich.), according to current and former intelligence officials.

Weeks earlier, Roberts had publicly suggested possible support for the interrogation investigation sought by Rockefeller.

But by early March 2005, Roberts announced that he opposed a separate investigation, and the matter soon died.

Please keep going on the Tee Vee Machine, Dick. Please never stop opening your big fat yap. Let's see how your words stand up to your well-documented actions. And then let's get your testimony, on the record, and see how that compares to your Tee Vee appearances and the memos.

Should be illuminating.