Docs Show Rockefeller Was Briefed On "How The Water Board Was Used" (in considerable detail)

[kpete]

Source: Talking Points Memo

Docs Show Rockefeller Was Briefed On "How The Water Board Was Used"
By Zachary Roth - May 8, 2009, 12:31PM

The hot story of the morning is the release of CIA documents appearing to show that Nancy Pelosi was briefed on "enhanced interrogation techniques" in September 2002. Things have already descended into a he-said she-said debate -- literally -- over exactly what Pelosi was told, and whether the new information contradicts what she'd said in the past.

But let's set that aside for a second, because according to the documents, it was another Democratic lawmaker who received the first briefing whose summary in the newly released document specifically mentions waterboarding -- the technique that has been at the center of the controversy, especially for Pelosi lately.

In February, 2003, Sen. Jay Rockefeller, then the ranking Democrat on the Senate intelligence committee, was briefed -- along with Intel chair Pat Roberts and a staff member for each senator -- on "enhanced interrogation techniques" (EIT's, in the bloodless bureaucratic abbreviation.) (See Late Update below.)

The document's description of the briefing reads in part:

EITs "described in considerable detail" including "how the water board was used." The process by which the techniques were approved by DoJ was also raised.

Read more: http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/docs_show_rockefeller_was_briefed_in_2003_on_how_t.php?ref=fp1

[JDPriestly]

1. Rockefeller should show that he protested or resign.

[LakeSamish706]

3. I believe (if memory serves) that he wrote a report on this and put it into his safe....

Anyone recall hearing this at the time?

[Inuca]

7. If my memory serves

he kept a copy in his safe and also sent it to... the administration, I guess, I do not remember exactly. But it was discussed quite at length a while back when the torture was first publicly acknowledged.

On edit: Oops! We are both wrong. That letter was about wiretapping (a bit of googling refreshed my fading memory).

[DURHAM D]

8. Yes - I remember that he hand wrote a protest letter about something.

I can't, however, remember if it was about torture or some other Bush shenanigans.

[madmom]

9. I remember him doing something along these lines. There was someone else who did this as well, don't

remember who.

[JDPriestly]

21. I know that he did that on the surveillance. I'm not sure he did that on this.

After all, torture was illegal the whole time. We do not know and probably never will know just what the Bushies told Rockefeller and Pelosi. If they were told that all programs obeyed the law, and Pelosi and Rockefeller knew that the law prohibited torture, then Rockefeller and Pelosi may not have known in any real sense what was going on. Enhanced interrogation techniques sounds so psychological to me. I don't see anything "enhanced" about causing people's heads to be banged against a wall or making them stand for long periods. I would have expected some sort of psychological profiling and probing the psyche -- hypnosis maybe -- not brutality.

I would like to see precisely what Rockefeller was told about waterboarding. The Bushies lied so much. I'm wondering whether they are lying about this. If Rockefeller was told precisely what it was, he should have known that it was against the law, and he should resign.

[NMDemDist2]

22. I remember that too. had to write the memo in his own hand

due to secrecy requirements

[defendandprotect]

4. I agree, wholeheartedly -- and we can get along very well without Rockefeller . . .

[zipplewrath]

5. He is on record

He tried on several occasions to get info on the EIT. Whether they ever complied or not isn't quite known yet.

[elleng]

2. Not a surprise.

That committee's badly run, imo; remember Roberts as chair?

[montanacowboy]

6. At that time Rockerfeller wrote a "letter"

of protest and promptly hid it in his safe so he could cover his ass if and when the time came

Such a brave patriot - a hidden letter of protest - such a coward

I believe any and all who knew and approved and did not dissent should be prosecuted

there is NO OTHER way to cleanse the system and being anew

[Supersedeas]

16. I do remember that one of the Congresscritters wrote a letter in protest

[florida08]

10. well I can see

the torture issue is going to be replaced by what dems knew and when did they know it. I can see seats opening up for republicans in 2010. kpete can you find anything on what republicans knew and didn't say anything..I know we expect them not to but the president has called EIT's torture..so if we're going to cast the net..make it a wide one..:)

edited to add a "d" ro replace

[florida08]

11. GOP wants names on Who Knew

So now, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Pete Hoekstra, is calling on the director of national intelligence, Dennis Blair, to release detailed notes kept by the CIA of all congressional briefings regarding enhanced interrogation. He also wants the administration to give names, dates and locations of those in Congress briefed.

http://www.politicsdaily.com/2009/04/28/gop-wants-names-on-who-knew-about-torture/

This is becoming a war of reps/against dems

[HereSince1628]

12. All that quaking about how "It'll rip this nation apart!"

It damned well should!

But it isn't. Everytime the MSM plays Cheney saying torture is good, the shock of US torture is diminished in the mind of the brainless masses.

[florida08]

14. no it isn't

but this just might. One of the combat rules in the republican playbook..divide and conquer. Dangle the bait and they'll go for it.
I knew the gopstoppers weren't gone..just regrouping.

[avaistheone1]

13. Rockefeller behaved more like a limp biscuit on the Senate

intelligence committee. He was a big disappointment.

I think someone has some goods on him because Rockefeller is just too ineffectual.

[truthisfreedom]

15. Briefing by 'thugs = " We're going to do this no matter what you say, Dems."

I don't see why anyone cares about who was briefed on this. The bush admin only briefed Dems because they wanted them to be "in cahoots", but when it all comes down to who was responsible for the decisions, it will be clear that bush/cheney were the culprits... "I AM THE DECIDER."

[snowdays]

17. Dems had a chance to go viral on this--but they zipped their lips.

[Dr.Phool]

18. He said "Aw, hell. My Grand-daddy, John D. could do beter than that"!

[AzDar]

19. IIRC, Sen. Rockefeller wrote some sort of letter of concern a few years back; I remember

it because , at the time, I was struck by the fact that it was addressed to CHENEY.

:puke:

[seafan]

20. Jello Jay wrote 2 identical protest letters after he attended a surveillance briefing July 17, 2003.

He sent one to Cheney, and put the other one in a safe.



I can't recall that he wrote any letters of this nature protesting what he allegedly heard at a torture briefing... ..this is the first I've read that he is now accused of sitting in on a comprehensive torture briefing in February, 2002. Did I miss this? Or is this new allegation a fabrication by Cheney's "stay-behinds" at the CIA?



Here's the story about his protest letters on illegal surveillance. That briefing was on July 17, 2003, right around the same time that Plame was outed.



So the story today is CIA Admits That Info About Torture Briefings For Dems May Not Be Accurate, May 8, 2009



A real can of worms here. It's going to be nauseating, but we must examine this.