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by Charles Carreon
1:10am, November 5, 2005
Stephen Hadley, National Security Advisor, tried to turn
his Press Briefing on Bush's trip to Argentina into a simple travelogue,
but some reporter insisted on talking about Dick Cheney's
idee fixee, the
need to preserve secret CIA torture sells free from the restraints of the
Geneva Convention and US laws that make torture a crime. Hadley, a lawyer,
took the bait, and disclosed a lovely circular rationale that argues that
people will behave virtuously if you allow them to act in secret.
Certainly then Dick Cheney and Ken Lay were morally uplifted when they
secretly joined to fashion a national energy policy in secret. It's nice
when a guy like Hadley can put a high polish on a turd. Shows his
education didn't go to waste.
WhiteHouse.gov wrote:
Q Can I ask you a quick one on another subject? Why
does the administration feel it's necessary to maintain a network of
secret detention centers around the world, out of sight of the Congress
and the American people, and out of reach of American law and values?
MR. HADLEY: There have been some press
reports this morning that have touched on that subject. And as you can
appreciate, they raise some issues about possible intelligence
operations. And as you know, we don't talk about intelligence operations
from this podium.
Q Don't they also raise issue of our
values and our reputation in the world?
MR. HADLEY: Right, and I think the
President has been pretty clear on that, that while we have to do what
we — do what is necessary to defend the country against terrorists
attacks and to win the war on terror, the President has been very clear
that we're going to do that in a way that is consistent with our values.
And that is why he's been very clear that the United States will not
torture. The United States will conduct its activities in compliance
with law and international obligations.
And in some of the issues involving detainees and the
like, as you know, where there have been allegations that people have
not met the standard the President has set, there have been
investigations, and they have been of two forms. There are over a dozen
investigations that have been done in the Department of Defense to find
out what has been going on. Two things have happened as a result. There
have been revisions of procedures and practices to ensure that the
standard the President set is met; and then there have been
investigations, prosecutions, and people punished for the failure to
meet those standards. So we think that, consistent with the President's
guidance, we are both protecting the country against the terrorists and
doing it in a way that is consistent with our values and principles.
Q If I could just press you on that, how
do those self-correcting mechanisms that affirm our values and our laws,
how do they work if the sites are secret to begin with?
MR. HADLEY: Well, the fact that they are
secret, assuming there are such sites, does not mean that simply because
something is — and some people say that the test of your
principles are what you do when no one is looking. And the
President has insisted that whether it is in the public, or is in the
private, the same principles will apply, and the same principles will be
respected. And to the extent people do not meet up, measure up to those
principles, there will be accountability and responsibility.
Sen. Lott Wants End to Leaking -- Try Attends!
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12:00pm, November 10, 2005 |
The Fools on the Hill are shrieking because someone
caught them keeping secrets about the secret jails. First they fire up a
torchlight parade to "get the leakers!" Since the CIA jail news is "bad
for Republicans," they figured that if they could accuse a Democrat of
leaking the information, it might help them to Reverse-Spin Rovegate back
at their partisan opponents. But then it turns out that the Washington
Post story just tracks the information that Cheney and a bunch of
Republican Senators had gotten the day before. So that's it boys, douse
those torches, false alarm, just our guys doin' their thing.
I don't know, though, I think Trent Lott is onto
something. They've got to stop the leaks. There are trails of stinking
shit up and down the halls of Congress, in the Office of the Vice
President, and all over the West Wing, most of them heading straight into
the Oval Office. Maybe it just has to do with age. Sphincter muscles
weaken after a lifetime of clenching. A lotta folks just use Attends.
Raw Story at mediachannel.org wrote:
Senator Tells CNN He Believes Republican
Leaked Info on CIA Jails
Submitted by editor4 on November 9, 2005 - 2:55pm.
Source: Raw Story
Senator Trent Lott (R-MS) told CNN's Ed Henry Tuesday
afternoon that he believed it was a Republican senator who gave
information about secret CIA jails abroad to the Washington Post, RAW
STORY can report.
Lott said that much of the information contained in
the Post report — which stated that the U.S. was holding terrorist
suspects in secret CIA jails overseas — was discussed at a meeting of
Republican senators last Tuesday.
The revelation appears to torpedo the political gambit
of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) and House Speaker J. Dennis
Hastert (R-IL) who called on the Senate and House intelligence
committees to investigate who leaked the information to the Post.
The Post story cited as sources "U.S. and foreign
officials familiar with the arrangement."
CNN's Ed Henry: "Trent Lott stunned reporters by
declaring that this subject was actualy discussed at a Senate Republican
luncheon, Republican senators only, last tuesday the day before the
story ran in the Washington Post. Lott noted that Vice President Cheney
was also in the room for that discussion and Lott said point blank "a
lot of it came out of that room last tuesday, pointing to the room where
the lunch was held in the capitol." He added of senators "we can't keep
our mouths shut." He added about the vice president, "He was up here
last wek and talked up here in that room right there in a roomful of
nothing but senators and every word that was said in there went right to
the newspaper." He said he believes when all is said and done it may
wind up as an ethics investigation of a Republican senator, maybe a
Republican staffer as well. Senator Frist's office not commenting on
this development. The Washington Post not commenting either."
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