Media ignore report that Cheney suggested waterboarding Iraqi detainee for evidence of Iraq-Al Qaeda link
SUMMARY: Network evening news programs on May 14, Fox News, and CNN all ignored a report that Vice President Dick Cheney's office "suggested waterboarding an Iraqi prisoner ... who was suspected to have knowledge of a Saddam-al Qaeda connection."
Despite covering questions regarding what House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) knew about the Bush administration's interrogation policies, none of the three major networks' evening news programs mentioned on May 14 that according to a May 13 report by former NBC News investigative producer Robert Windrem, "[t]wo U.S. intelligence officers confirm that Vice President Cheney's office suggested waterboarding an Iraqi prisoner ... who was suspected to have knowledge of a Saddam-al Qaeda connection." All May 14 CNN and Fox News Channel evening shows, as well as all daytime shows available on the Nexis database, also ignored Windrem's story.
On the May 14 Rachel Maddow Show, Windrem said, "I think what this -- how this differs from ... what we've known previously is, the justification for doing this in the case of the high-value detainees at the secret prisons was that they knew of imminent threats to the United States. The suggestion that an Iraqi be waterboarded when, in fact, what they were looking for were political points that would help them, that is a big difference from what ... waterboarding had previously been used for." MSNBC anchor Norah O'Donnell also hosted Windrem and discussed his report during the 1 p.m. ET hour of the May 14 broadcast of Andrea Mitchell Reports.
In a story posted on The Daily Beast blog on May 13 at 6:31 p.m., Windrem reported:
At the end of April 2003, not long after the fall of Baghdad, U.S. forces captured an Iraqi who Bush White House officials suspected might provide information of a relationship between al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein's regime. Muhammed Khudayr al-Dulaymi was the head of the M-14 section of Mukhabarat, one of Saddam's secret police organizations. His responsibilities included chemical weapons and contacts with terrorist groups.
"To those who wanted or suspected a relationship, he would have been a guy who would know, so [White House officials] had particular interest," Charles Duelfer, head of the Iraqi Survey Group and the man in charge of interrogations of Iraqi officials, told me. So much so that the officials, according to Duelfer, inquired how the interrogation was proceeding.
In his new book, Hide and Seek: The Search for Truth in Iraq, and in an interview with The Daily Beast, Duelfer says he heard from "some in Washington at very senior levels (not in the CIA)," who thought Khudayr's interrogation had been "too gentle" and suggested another route, one that they believed has proven effective elsewhere. "They asked if enhanced measures, such as waterboarding, should be used," Duelfer writes. "The executive authorities addressing those measures made clear that such techniques could legally be applied only to terrorism cases, and our debriefings were not as yet terrorism-related. The debriefings were just debriefings, even for this creature."
Duelfer will not disclose who in Washington had proposed the use of waterboarding, saying only: "The language I can use is what has been cleared." In fact, two senior U.S. intelligence officials at the time tell The Daily Beast that the suggestion to waterboard came from the Office of Vice President Cheney. Cheney, of course, has vehemently defended waterboarding and other harsh techniques, insisting they elicited valuable intelligence and saved lives. He has also asked that several memoranda be declassified to prove his case. (The Daily Beast placed a call to Cheney's office and will post a response if we get one.)
Without admitting where the suggestion came from, Duelfer revealed that he considered it reprehensible and understood the rationale as political -- and ultimately counterproductive to the overall mission of the Iraq Survey Group, which was assigned the mission of finding Saddam Hussein's WMD after the invasion.
During Andrea Mitchell Reports, O'Donnell introduced an interview with Windrem by noting "fresh reports today that former Vice President Dick Cheney was far more involved in the interrogation of terror suspects during the Bush administration than previously thought, and that his intervention reportedly included instructions to waterboard an Iraqi prisoner to help find an Al Qaeda connection."
* Media Matters reviewed all evening newscasts on ABC, CBS, NBC, and ABC's Nightline by digital video. All CNN shows were reviewed by transcript on Nexis. Fox shows available on Nexis were reviewed by transcript. Two shows on Fox, Your World with Neil Cavuto (whose transcripts are incomplete on Nexis) and The Fox Report with Shepard Smith (which airs at 7 p.m. ET but is not available on Nexis), were reviewed by digital video.
It is THE STORY that connects the dots between Cheney, invasion of Iraq and torture. I thought so the moment we saw the dates of the waterboarding torture didn't match with dates of presidential authorization.
Make ALL of f'ing Cheney's public life public and we will go on from there.
Even the country energy policy was decided by him behind closed doors for gods sake
They spent all day on that and making it into some huge deal when the facts are that even if Pelosi was informed what power did she have to do anything about it? Washington was controlled by Bushies and Tom Delay back then. And Porter Goss, running the show at CIA was hugely partisan and up to no good anyway.
But, because it's an easy gossip and shallow story, just like the ones Politico does, and the media needs to copy them for the worst in reporting, they run with this.
In the meantime, the Cheney story not only puts the bushies in a bad light, but, also again points to an absent and compliant media during those years.
I hardly doubt the torture stuff would have gone unnoticed or uninvestigated by the media in an earlier era. But, the media was too busy rolling over for the gop and refused to do any digging. This just highlights more their failures with Bush and that they want to bury.
so, the story not only requires them to do more then gossip and giggle on the air and do real work, they also have to face their own devils in their failure to call the Bush people to task on anything and allowed so many evil things to go unchallenged.
No one... not even the Evil One can have this much power... certainly now that he is out of the WH... Yes... I know... there are right-wing operatives working (or is it 'lurking'?) within the CIA, FBI, NSA, DIA, DHS,.... holy crap... I think I understand now!
This is what they used to be good at, they don't know any other way--so it's going back to that 'safe place' for them.
We're ready, keep notifying the media and don't stop! We know how to do it, I've been busy all weekend everywhere I can post I do and I send in letters!
WRITE NOW cover all the bases, we know how to do this!!!
So they tortured prisoners in an effort to get them to lie.
It is sad that our economy and military has taken such a tremendous hit for the occupation of Iraq.
I hope that the American people realize it wa a war of choice and not neccesity.
How will I explain this to Mister R? How will I explain this to Mister C? HOW WILL I EXPLAIN IT TO THE CORPORATE MOGULS THAT PULL ALL OF OUR STRINGS AND ISSUE OUR ORDERS?
I may as well kiss my drug-addicted, brow-beaten wife and sexually abused children goodbye ... When Rush hears how we have failed, millions of us will have to disappear. Still ... how were we to know that the vastly superior intellects that frequent a site like MMFA, dedicated only to revealing the unbiased truth, would see through our clever schemes? Our only consolation is that they have not yet unders__od how thorou_hly we have infil__ated the De___ra__c Pa___! If th_y kne_ __at Ob__a was __ally pla___ed amon_ _hem as a Troj__ _orse jus_ w___ing to Spr___ ___ _reat plan ... Ah,Ha,HA,ha,ha,ha,ha! AH,Ha,Ha,Ha,Ha-a-a-!
The biggest story of the week is that Cheney aADMITTED that Bush signed off on breaking the law about Waterboarding (that our country has prosecuted other for and which is againt the Army field manual) During a time that Bush lied in his 2004 campaign about it.
This is the 1st time that Bush was brought out...And since Cheney was in charge (Bush only spent about 2 weeks in the White House between May and November of 2004) his quick response to the question to avoid prosecution was one more revelation about his lowly character.
The Republican controlled Media has colaborated with those they are beholden to for Media consolidation and tax cuts to INVENT THIS STORY ABOUT PELOSI (who was in the MINORITY PARTY BUT WHICH HAD ALSO BEEN ATTACKED WITH ANTHREX) and obsess about it all week just to ONCE AGAIN.
The Bush White House spent his entire time trashing the CIA. And THEATENED any Democrat they gave PARTIAL INFORMATION TO THAT THEY WILL BE JAILED IF THEY EVEN SAY ANYTHING TO THEIR AIDS!
And after the Republicans lost in 2006 Their aids were on C-SPAN revealing that the only thing the Republicans have ahead of them is to make the Democrats look bad to their constituants. So Bush took out his rusty Veto pen and the Reps (after 12 years in the majority) threw their dirty laundry into the dish washers and fibustered eveything (ncluding a law that clarified torture as illegal in no uncertain terms as just one)
CNN is a Republican station. ABC is a Republican station (but we already saw that during the anniversary of 9/11 when they had a FICTICIOUS movie about the Clinton administration and then let W give a speach immediately after from the White House.
The Republicans (WHO THRIVE ON IGRNORANCE AND TURNED DC INTO THE HIGHEST PER CAPITA INCOME CITY IN THE NATION) are criminals, media savvy propagansists and brainwashers. They have been looting the treasury with planeloads of hundred dollar bills they sent to Iraq, and tax cuts that 30% went to 130,00 people, and ran their "Waw on Terra" (in order to take control for "the next 100 years) like a 1950s Grade B movie. Meet the Press is a Republican program. MSNBC and the rest of them gave the Swiftboat Liars for the War in Vietnam tens of billions in free aid time.
We had Nixon and company that broke into Democratic Party headquarers, Reagan slept every afternoon and confused movie plots with history while over 20 of his appointees were indicted. Then a bunch of Republican adulterers impeached Clinton for dishonesty about his betrayel of Hillary. And as if that was not enought they stopped the vote count and declared themselves the winners. Yet despite all of this they 7 of the last 10 administrations were Republican THANKS TO THE Media Air and cable they control. All this despite the fact that 80% of the debt we are in was wracked up by them...
We have has one constitutional crisis after another these few years yet you wouldn't know it from Republican program...Washington Week is a Republican program.
Thank you for reporting the FACTS.
Is this REALLY the best you can do? I know you're not well educated, but that should not necessarily mean that you are incapable of something more than attempting to substitute insult for reasoning.
Seriously. Are you capable of more than this?
WWWWAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH is not a credible argument
We all know that Cheaney had ridiculous powers and authority that he shouldn't have possessed.
The CIA didn't technically lie. They were just doing their jobs..Darth Cheaney gave them a mission and like us all they love their jobs and do them well. Also if my notes were proven to be shaky I wouldn't flaunt them as truth. Also they meeting was just a set up....come on think about it. A meeting where you can't tell anything that is discussed....you can't take notes...and history has to rely on the notes that the agency took itself essentially regulating itself which never works
And I have a serious question I'd like answered by one of you MMFA kool-aid drinkers: Why do you not care about the safety of fellow Americans - including your own loved ones? How can you sleep at night knowing you want our enemies to become more powerful and dangerous?
I have a serious question for you brainwashed Limborg hiveminders. Why dont you care about American values? How can you sleep at night knowing that you want to destroy this country and everything it is supposed to stand for?
I believe that information gained through torture also saved LA from a gigantic swarm of Yetis who were going to run through the city chasing Bigfoot and the aliens from Area 51. How about that? Torture must work, because no one saw any Yetis.
http://mediamatters.org/print/research/200904220036
Some in the media have interpreted the memo's statement that the use of harsh interrogation techniques on Mohammed "led to the discovery" of the Library Tower plot as evidence that the use of these tactics was necessary for intelligence officials to thwart the plot. But as Slate.com's Timothy Noah noted on April 21, that claim conflicts with the "chronology" of events put forth on multiple occasions by the Bush administration. For instance, in a February 9, 2006, White House press briefing that Noah cited, Bush homeland security adviser Frances Fragos Townsend noted that Mohammed was not captured until more than a year after the individuals planning the Library Tower attacks had concluded that the plot had been "canceled." Noah also noted that a May 23, 2007, Bush administration fact sheet stated that the administration "broke up" the Library Tower plot "in 2002" -- before Mohammed was captured. Noah concluded:
Several American counterterrorism officials have reportedly expressed doubts that the Library Tower plot ever advanced beyond the initial planning stages and that it ever posed a serious threat, as Media Matters for America documented in February 2006.
Got any evidence that this is not true? Dont waste my time with rightwingnutbag sites