Cheney Led Secret Meetings To Promote Torture

Paul Kane and Joby Warrick of the Washington Post reveal previously unknown efforts by former Vice President Cheney to lead the charge for torturing detainees.  Don’t bother me with terms like “enhanced interrogation techniques.”  There were at least four secret briefings in 2005 at times when congressional support for these methods were wavering.  And there was a concerted effort to keep Cheney’s role secret.

The CIA made no mention of his role in documents delivered to Capitol Hill last month that listed every lawmaker who had been briefed on “enhanced interrogation techniques” since 2002. For meetings that were overseen by Cheney, the agency told the intelligence committees that information about who oversaw those briefings was “not available.”

Cheney used his chief counsel at the time, David Addington, to promote his support of torture.  When Senator Lindsey Graham suggested legislation to make sure what we were doing was legal, Addington didn’t like the idea.

“I’ve got all the authority I need right here,” Addington said, pulling from his coat a pocket-size copy of the Constitution, according to the senator, suggesting there was no doubt about the system’s legal footing.

By: Alan

Alan Colmes is the publisher of Liberaland.