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Senate Democrats have mapped a political battle plan for the March congressional recess that calls on lawmakers to stage press events with active duty military personnel, veterans and emergency responders to bash President Bush on virtually every one of his national security policies. The game plan, devised by the office of Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, Nevada Democrat, is contained in a six-page memo distributed to Democratic senators on Thursday at a closed-door meeting at the Capitol and provided to The Washington Times by a congressional staffer. Titled "Real Security," the political document calls for staged town hall events at...

Could Nancy Pelosi eventually lose her job as Speaker of the House over her incendiary allegation that the CIA lied to her and misled Congress? It's possible and here's why: 1. Her shifting explanations about what she knew about water-boarding and when she knew it indicate at the very least inconsistency and economy with the truth. Check out some of her differing statements here. 2. CIA briefers are professionals - being a briefer is a specialism for fast-track career analysts within the Agency's Directorate of Intelligence. A CIA briefing given to two senior members of Congress without their staffs present...

If there is an independent truth commission into the use of alleged torture, Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House of Representatives, could find herself in the dock. After a series of incomplete, belated and apparently contradictory Pelosi accounts of CIA briefings to her and her staff, the big question in Washington today is: What did she know about waterboarding and when did she know it? Former Bush consigliere Karl Rove lays out the charges against her here. Fighting fire with fire today, Pelosi accused the CIA of lying to Congress as a diversionary tactic to cover up lies about Iraq...

The US House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, has accused the Bush-era CIA of misleading her about alleged torture of suspected terrorists and denied her failure to object to such tactics made her complicit. "At every step of the way, the administration was misleading the Congress. And that is the issue. And that is why we need a 'truth commission,'" to look into controversial "war on terror" tactics, said the top Democrat. Ms Pelosi, a key ally of President Barack Obama, has drawn fierce Republican charges that she knew years ago about harsh techniques such as the controlled drowning known as waterboarding...

The CIA has released a devastating document detailing the dates and explicit details of secret Congressional briefings in which members of Congress were told of the Bush administration’s torture techniques and when they had been used. The document is explicit (PDF here). Most damning, perhaps, is its description of a meeting held between CIA staff and then-House Intelligence Committee Chairman Porter Goss and now-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, which shows that Pelosi was briefed on the Bush Administration’s torture techniques in 2002 — even though she’s publicly said she was never told about the use of waterboarding. Equally striking, however, is...

Since leaving my post as CIA director almost three years ago, I have remained largely silent on the public stage. I am speaking out now because I feel our government has crossed the red line between properly protecting our national security and trying to gain partisan political advantage. We can't have a secret intelligence service if we keep giving away all the secrets. Americans have to decide now. A disturbing epidemic of amnesia seems to be plaguing my former colleagues on Capitol Hill. After the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, members of the committees charged with overseeing our nation's intelligence services...

IF President Obama were as crafty as, say, Osama bin Laden, you might wonder if his decision last week to release new "torture" photos this month was part of some clever psych-ops scheme. After all, the decision came only a week after Obama & Co. let loose key memos on "brutal" US interrogation techniques. CIA operatives, the memos showed, had "tortured" prisoners and used sinister tactics designed to exploit fears. Now the Obama folks will hand out scores of new photos from investigations at US prisons in Iraq and Afghanistan. So is this some new publicity campaign meant to deter...

Why draw the line at Spain - why not have Republican officials tried in Cuba for maintaining a blockade? Even if the worst that happens is that former President Bush, Vice President Cheney, and all those who served in their administrations find it advisable not to visit Spain or take international flights that stop off there, it is intolerable that persecution more appropriate to Robert Mugabe should be visited upon former public servants of the most powerful democracy on earth. If such infamy has already been achieved by President Pantywaist in his first 100 days, what further disasters can the...

When Barack Obama released Jay Bybee’s 2002 memos on enhanced interrogations, the Washington Post reported that Bybee recently expressed regret for his work. The New York Times today says that the Post got it wrong. Bybee stands by his work, even though it has cost him friends and prompted credential investigations:

WALL STREET JOURNAL * OPINION * APRIL 26, 2009, 10:35 P.M. ET Misconceptions About the Interrogation Memos Their goal was to allow the CIA and military to stay within the parameters of a murky area of the law. By WILLIAM M. MCSWAIN President Barack Obama has reinvigorated the critics of George W. Bush's antiterror policies by opening the door to prosecuting or sanctioning those who crafted interrogation policy in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. These critics -- including the president -- are laboring under numerous misconceptions. Many of them have no experience with or understanding of...

White House says Holder will decide on prosecutions; Obama opposes special commission on Bush-era policies. BY WILL DUNHAM WASHINGTON, April 26 (Reuters) - Releasing classified memos showing whether harsh Bush-era interrogation methods yielded useful information from terrorism suspects is not necessary, Republican Senator John McCain said on Sunday in a public disagreement with former Vice President Dick Cheney. After President Barack Obama released four memos this month revealing the Bush administration's legal justification for methods such as waterboarding -- a form of simulated drowning -- Cheney called for declassifying any memos showing that these techniques succeeded in producing valuable information....

Those Interrogation Memos Show Bush Cared If the Bush Administration didn't care about the legality of those so-called harsh interrogation techniques, we wouldn't have those memos giving legal opinion about their application and limitations. Instead, the "Administration" would have just gone ahead and done the interrogations. But, the fact that memos were being floated between the CIA, the Administration, and the Justice Department shows that there was an intent to stay within the legal boundaries of what is defined or not defined as torture.

Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair got it right last week when he noted how easy it is to condemn the enhanced interrogation program "on a bright sunny day in April 2009." Reactions to this former CIA program, which was used against senior al Qaeda suspects in 2002 and 2003, are demonstrating how little President Barack Obama and some Democratic members of Congress understand the dire threats to our nation. George Tenet, who served as CIA director under Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, believes the enhanced interrogations program saved lives. He told CBS's "60 Minutes" in April 2007:...

Hillary Avoids Torture Memo Question By Mocking Cheney -- Rohrabacher

The Obama grandstanding tour took a domestic turn with his release of four highly classified Justice Department legal opinions about interrogation. The political point of their release was to signal the end of “a dark and painful chapter in our history,” as President Obama put it — See, we’re not like those lawless Bushies. There’s a cost to this preening. Foreign intelligence services will rethink cooperating with us, knowing how bad we are at keeping secrets. Obama’s relationship with the intelligence community will be strained. And al-Qaeda now knows important details of the CIA’s controversial enhanced-interrogation program and will doubtless...

President Obama today left the door open to prosecuting lawyers from the Bush Administration who drafted memos authorising the use of harsh interrogation methods on terror suspects. Although he once again stressed that it would be inappropriate to take action against CIA personnel - provided they had followed guidance issued by the White House - Mr Obama added that those responsible for writing the rules could yet be pursued through the courts. "I would say that that is going to be more of a decision for the Attorney General within the perimeters of various laws, and I don't want to...

President Obama visited the CIA headquarters yesterday to placate officials dismayed by his decision to release top secret “torture” memos, a move that has provoked accusations that he is willing to compromise America’s safety out of political correctness. Mr Obama’s first visit to the CIA, to boost morale there and shore up his own reputation, came as his decision to release the memos detailing brutal interrogation sessions of terror suspects continued to attract criticism. There were claims from inside the agency’s ranks that the move had undermined its ability to extract vital intelligence from America’s enemies, and could even blow...

THE debate over the just-released Jus tice Department memorandums on interrogation techniques ended as soon as they were dubbed the "torture memos." Forevermore, they will be remembered as the legal lowlights of a "dark and painful chapter in our history," as President Obama put it. Rightly considered, the memos should be a source of pride. They represent a nation of laws struggling to defend itself against a savage, lawless enemy while adhering to its legal commitments and norms. Most societies throughout human history wouldn't have bothered. The memos cite conduct that is indisputably torture from a court case involving Serbs...

President Obama on Monday will visit CIA headquarters amid criticism from an ex-CIA chief that he compromised national security last week by releasing Bush-era memos on interrogation tactics. The president will meet with CIA Director Leon Panetta, Deputy Director Stephen Kappes and other officials and also will talk to employees about the importance of the agency's mission to national security. Obama's visit comes a day after former CIA Director Michael Hayden said the decision to release the four memos undermined the work the agency is doing. Hayden, President Bush's CIA director from 2006 to 2009, said the release of the...

President Barack Obama is to make his first visit to the Central Intelligence Agency in an attempt to calm an uproar among America's spies over his release of secret memos about interrogation techniques. The White House said he would address staff at the agency's headquarters in Langley, Virginia about the "importance of the CIA's mission". His visit came as it emerged that the highly controversial technique of "waterboarding", a type of simulated drowning, was used 266 times on Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and Abu Zubaydah, two senior al-Qaeda prisoners. Last week, Mr Obama released four memos, running to 126 pages, written...

All it is going to take is a massive terror attack to teach President Obama that there is a world of difference between the politics of the campaign trail and those of high office. You have only to look at his stunning success in last year's election race to see that Mr Obama is the consummate campaign performer. Early in the contest I watched the then Democratic candidate in action in Kansas, where he had managed to persuade thousands of Americans who would not normally involve themselves in politics – cowhands, students and disillusioned pensioners – to turn up on...

Four former CIA directors opposed releasing classified Bush-era interrogation memos, officials say, describing objections that went all the way to the White House and slowed release of the records. Former CIA chiefs Michael Hayden, Porter Goss, George Tenet and John Deutch all called the White House in March warning that release of the so-called "torture memos" would compromise intelligence operations, current and former officials say. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity in order to detail internal government discussions. President Barack Obama ultimately overruled those concerns after internal discussions that intensified in the weeks after the former directors intervened. The...

The White House has insisted that President Obama was reluctant to release documents detailing harsh CIA interrogation techniques that were kept secret by the Bush Administration. Four memos published last night showed that terror suspects had been subjected to tactics that included being slammed against walls while wearing a special plastic neck collar, kept awake for up to 11 straight days, simulation drowning known as "waterboarding" and being placed in a dark, cramped box. Senior officials explained that the President felt compelled to release the information because of a court case under the Freedom of Information act which ordered the...

President Barack Obama was attacked from all sides on Friday over his decision to declassify four memos detailing harsh CIA interrogation methods approved by the George W Bush administration for use against terror suspects. Former senior Bush officials criticised the president for giving away secrets to terrorists, and claimed that the tactics had worked. Meanwhile, human rights groups took issue with Mr Obama's declaration – issued alongside the memos – that agents who had used methods regarded as torture would not be prosecuted. Amnesty International said: "The US Department of Justice appears to have offered a get-out-of-jail-free card to people...

White House senior adviser David Axelrod says President Barack Obama spent about a month pondering whether to release Bush-era memos about CIA interrogation techniques, and considered it “a weighty decision.” SNIP - A former top official in the administration of President George W. Bush called the publication of the memos “unbelievable.” “It's damaging because these are techniques that work, and by Obama's action today, we are telling the terrorists what they are,” the official said. “We have laid it all out for our enemies. This is totally unnecessary. … Publicizing the techniques does grave damage to our national security by...

WASHINGTON – The Obama administration threw open the curtain on years of Bush-era secrets Monday, revealing anti-terror memos that claimed exceptional search-and-seizure powers and divulging that the CIA destroyed nearly 100 videotapes of interrogations and other treatment of terror suspects. The Justice Department released nine legal opinions showing that, following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the Bush administration determined that certain constitutional rights would not apply during the coming fight. Within two weeks, government lawyers were already discussing ways to wiretap U.S. conversations without warrants. The Bush administration eventually abandoned many of the legal conclusions, but the documents themselves...

<p>Secret anti-terror Bush memos made public by Obama Mar 2 04:11 PM US/Eastern By DEVLIN BARRETT Associated Press Writer Share on Facebook Bookmark and Share WASHINGTON (AP) - The Justice Department on Monday released a long-secret legal document from 2001 in which the Bush administration claimed the military could search and seize terror suspects in the United States without warrants.</p>

WASHINGTON – The Obama administration threw open the curtain on years of Bush-era secrets Monday, revealing anti-terror memos that claimed exceptional search-and-seizure powers and divulging that the CIA destroyed nearly 100 videotapes of interrogations and other treatment of terror suspects. The Justice Department released nine legal opinions showing that, following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks...

Two minutes after that, the campaign issued a memo with pointed questions for Mr. Obama on national security, including: "As voters evaluate you as a potential Commander-in-Chief, do you think it's legitimate for people to be concerned that you have traveled to only one NATO country, on a brief stopover trip in 2005, and have never traveled to Latin America?"

FIRST THREAD by BLUE TURTLE : Rush Limbaugh to auction off Harry Reid's letter to CLEAR CHANNEL on EBAY Earlier on Drudge: FLASH: Rush Limbaugh to auction off Harry Reid's letter to CLEAR CHANNEL on EBAY; Money goes to Marine Charity.... Developing... And.... http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1910874/posts Rush Limbaugh Auctions Off Harry Reid Letter On E Bay By SKIMASK....Hey FReepers Rush is auctioning off the letter Dingy Harry sent to Clear Channel denouncing Rush's "Phony Soldier" remark

President Bush met with his economic team today in the Oval Office. August 2007 marked the 49th consecutive month of job growth since 2003. “And that's the longest uninterrupted job growth on record for our country.” (Transcript) The president also took this opportunity to speak about terrorism and to defend US interrogation policy since some people, like Senator Jay Rockefeller (Democrat-W.Va.) and the good folks at the New York Times, apparently have nothing better to do than worry about terrorists’ rights. (Source) By the way, according to a recent FOX News poll, “1 in 5 Democrats thinks the world will...

In the high-profile case of two U.S. Border Patrol officers imprisoned after shooting and wounding a Mexican drug smuggler, two Department of Homeland Security documents apparently contradict the version of events put forth by the U.S. attorney who successfully prosecuted the case. The internal Department of Homeland Security memoranda – which have been denied Congress despite repeated requests by two House members – show that within one month of the shooting incident involving Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean, government investigators had identified the smuggler as Osbaldo Aldrete-Davila. But this seems to contradict U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton's claim...

In response to the outrageous and undercovered national security scandal involving Sandy Berger, Bill Bennett is holding a song contest to shine the light on this. Having created a few political parodies, I thought I would give it a try. I'll bring the 34 songs I did this week into this thread either one at a time or in small groups. I hope you will find something you like. Sandy Berger Lies Contest Rules 1. Write lyrics to an already existing song, or song you write yourself, that tells the story of the Sandy Berger archives scandal. E.g., "Sandy Berger...

" Bush Adviser’s Memo Cites Doubts About Iraqi Leader " WASHINGTON, Nov. 28 — " A classified memorandum .... by President Bush’s national security adviser expressed serious doubts about whether Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki had the capacity to control the sectarian violence in Iraq and recommended that the United States take new steps to strengthen the Iraqi leader’s position. The Nov. 8 memo was prepared for Mr. Bush and his top deputies by Stephen J. Hadley, the national security adviser, and senior aides on the staff of the National Security Council after a trip by Mr. Hadley to Baghdad....

Nigeria: The Tell-It-All Letters And Memos Vanguard (Lagos) DOCUMENT September 16, 2006 Posted to the web September 18, 2006 Office of the Vice President GOVERNMENT OF THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA ASO ROCK/'ILLA. AHUJA MR. PRESIDENT MEMORANDUM From:VICE-PRESIDENT Reference: Subject:RE: REQUEST .. FOR.ASSISTANCE .. IN THE..INVESTIGATION OF US CONGRESSMAN WILLIAM JEFFERSON: REQUEST FOR EFCC REPORT On Tuesday, September 5, 2006, I was questioned by a five-man Committee led by the Attorney-General of the Federation on matters relating to the Investigation of US congressman William Jefferson. This was the culmination of a series of inquiries in writing by the Chairman of...

NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) - Former CBS News anchor Dan Rather says he has considered filing a lawsuit against the network where he had worked for 44 years. Appearing Wednesday night on CNN's "Larry King Live," Rather paused after a question from King and then said he wouldn't talk about whether he would file a lawsuit against CBS. But he acknowledged, "I can't say that I've never thought about it." It wasn't clear from the interview what Rather considered to be possible grounds for a lawsuit. A CBS spokesman commented late Wednesday after the interview, saying, "CBS believes that it...

(NOTE TO FReaders. I would not normally alter the basic article, but it so full of delusional thoughts and outright lines that direct attribution is needed so FReader will see what is being references, much like DUmmie Funnies from PJ Comix) STORY FOLLOWS By Mary Mapes My first thought when I read the NY Post's latest Page Six item on Dan Rather was that Dan must have missed a hush money payment or something. Reading on, I realized this was actually an opening publicity volley for a new book, one that is probably guaranteed a small but ready readership. (IT...

A former member of the Clinton administration is being linked to a bombshell Senate Intelligence Committee memo outlining a strategy to use information gathered by the committee to help drive President Bush from office in 2004. In an editorial Friday, the Wall Street Journal reports: "[Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-WV] refuses to denounce the memo, which he says was unauthorized and written by staffers. If that's the case, at the very least, some heads ought to roll. A good place to start would be minority staffer Christopher Mellon, who serves as deputy assistant secretary of defense for...

Conservative strategists are drafting a letter to Democratic members of the Senate Judiciary Committee demanding the release of hundreds of internal memos detailing contacts between the lawmakers and liberal interest groups opposing John Roberts’s nomination to the Supreme Court. By planning to press Democrats on the sensitive subject, conservatives seem to be pulling a page from the Democrats’ own political playbook. In the weeks leading up to the confirmation hearings, Senate Democrats have repeatedly called on the White House to give them memos Roberts penned while he was deputy solicitor general in President George H.W. Bush’s administration. Sen. Patrick Leahy...

Howard Dean has decried Ruth Bader Ginsberg as a right winger. John Kerry is demanding that the White House release Supreme Court nominee John Roberts’ records in total. And Teddy Kennedy, well, Teddy continues to talk out of both sides of his mouth. If it were possible to hear “eyes roll” the sound would have thundered across the country with each one of these statements. Whether it is their manipulation of our nation’s sitcom attention span or the elite media’s bent agenda is irrelevant. The Democratic “sideshow barkers” are getting away with it. Recently, at one of his many anger-fests...

WASHINGTON - Thousands of pages of newly released documents from John Roberts' first government job show a highly intelligent, politically savvy young man, wrestling with charged legal and political issues on behalf of the deeply conservative Reagan administration. As a special assistant to Attorney General William French Smith in 1981 and 1982, Roberts advocated positions and drafted memos on issues from judicial restraint to voting rights to affirmative action, which were as controversial then as they are now that Roberts is no longer a twenty-something aide but a nominee for a seat on the Supreme Court. Roberts generally took strongly...

America is suffering from a bunch of P.E.S.T.’s. Victims of Post Election Selection Trauma, or more commonly know as crazy liberals who have decided to hate democracy because George Bush beat them twice. Shortly after the November election, the American Health Association identified this affliction in Boca Raton, Florida, with some of its symptoms being: “feelings of withdrawal, feelings of isolation, loss of appetite, sleeplessness, nightmares, and pervasive moodiness, including endless sulking.” How Rob Gordon, Executive Director of the AHA, was able to differentiate these symptoms from the normal behavior of most liberals I have no clue, but none the...

Democrats said yesterday they will demand that the Bush administration hand over internal legal memorandums written by Supreme Court nominee John G. Roberts Jr. while he was a government lawyer -- something the White House has refused to do in the past. Sen. Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat, said he broached the topic during a meeting yesterday with Judge Roberts, who replied that any decision about his writings as deputy solicitor general would be made by the White House. Republicans on Capitol Hill said the request is not likely to be granted. Demands for those same documents -- deemed...

LONDON (AP) - British Prime Minister Tony Blair on Wednesday defended the war in Iraq, and brushed off a new question about a government memo that suggested Washington had been determined to justify the invasion. "I was glad that we took the action we did," Blair told the House of Commons when asked about the so-called Downing Street memo. His comments came a day after President Bush rejected suggestions that Washington set a timetable for a U.S. withdrawal from Iraq and urged patience. According to the leaked minutes of a July 23, 2002, meeting between Blair and top government officials...

Gina and Bob Fesmire come across as the average couple next door, taking care of the home front in jeans and sweatpants, struggling to stay one step ahead of a hectic Silicon Valley life. But they didn't realize how crazy life could be until last month, when Gina Fesmire launched the site www. downingstreetmemo.com on a whim. The site, which has become a bona fide phenomenon, features secret British documents on the lead-up to the Iraq war, first leaked to the press in England. The site has drawn 700,000 visits since the site went up May 11 with the goal...

WASHINGTON -- The British government, in sharp disagreement with the United States' ultimate position, believed that post-invasion Iraq should be run by a Sunni-led government and not one controlled by the majority Shias. One of the so-called Downing Street documents, secret internal British memos stirring controversy on both sides of the Atlantic, drafted March 8, 2002, recommended two possibilities for a post-Saddam Hussein government -- one run by a benevolent "Sunni military strongman," and the second, which it clearly preferred, for a "representative, broadly democratic government ... Sunni-led but within a federal structure." The election process dictated by the United...

Can nothing spare us from the arrogance of liberal media figures, still parading around as Guardians of the Facts and Solely Anointed Professional Disseminators of the Truth? Washington Post reporter Dana Milbank, in what reads like an early April Fools’ prank, has written an article for the Post’s Sunday "Outlook" section presenting himself as an objective reporter. The headline was "My Bias for Mainstream News." In it, he complains that the "cottage industry" of watchdog groups on the right and left "are devoted almost entirely to attacking the press." The most priceless sentence is this: "Regardless of the merits, the...

SENATE MAJORITY LEADER BILL FRIST never saw it. Neither did the Senate Republican whip, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. The number three Republican in the Senate, Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, didn't get a copy. Nor did the senator with the closest relationship with President Bush, Judd Gregg of New Hampshire. And the senator with the familiar Republican last name, Elizabeth Dole of North Carolina, didn't see it or read it. The same is true of Senator Mel Martinez, the rookie Republican from Florida.Yet the infamous memo that argued Republicans stood to gain politically by saving the life of Terri Schiavo was...

The governor's office knew California could not afford to finish the Bay Bridge reconstruction at least one month before Caltrans opened bids on the remaining tower. Newly released Caltrans documents, obtained by the Oakland Tribune after a protracted public records request, show for the first time that top state officials were briefed in April 2004 that the bridge would cost more than expected. The memos throw the official line into question. Until now, the Schwarzenegger team had insisted — through heated state Senate investigative hearings earlier this year — that Caltrans sat on a secret April report that showed California...

WASHINGTON (Talon News) -- As a vote draws near for the confirmation of White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales to succeed Attorney General John Ashcroft, Democrats in the Senate floated the idea of mounting a filibuster to the nomination. Talk of a possible filibuster drew quick rebuke from Gonzales supporters. RNC Deputy Communications Director Danny Diaz commented on a potential Democrat filibuster of Judge Alberto Gonzales' nomination. Gonzales would succeed Attorney General John Ashcroft. "Democrats should understand that filibustering America's first Hispanic nominee for attorney general is neither good policy nor good politics." Diaz said. "Numerous Senators on both sides of...