Sunday, June 13, 2004

Bush Knew

The Washington Post has posted a pdf of the Interrogation Memo

In addition, Newsweek reports:

NEW YORK, June 13 /PRNewswire/ -- Last week the White House dismissed news accounts of an explosive August 2002 brief from the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel which has been widely criticized for seeming to flout conventions against torture. The memo, drafted by former OLC lawyer John Yoo, defends most interrogation methods short of severe, intentionally inflicted pain and permanent damage.

Although White House officials said that such legal reasoning was insignificant and did not reflect the president’s orders, Newsweek has learned that Yoo’s memo was prompted by CIA questions about what to do with a top Qaeda captive, Abu Zubaydah, who had turned uncooperative. And it was drafted after White House meetings convened by George W. Bush’s chief counsel, Alberto Gonzales, along with Defense Department general counsel William Haynes and David Addington, Vice President Dick Cheney’s counsel, who discussed specific interrogation techniques, says a source familiar with the discussions.
And an FBI source states:

... in a series of covert directives, (Bush) had authorized the CIA
to set up secret interrogation facilities and to use new, harsher methods. The CIA, says the FBI source, was "fighting with us tooth and nail," Newsweek reports.
It would seem that this report further reinforces the link Richard Cranium provided to The Telegraph article.

Apparently, someone has leaked more abuse evidence to an American television station, as well.

Stay tuned.