Torturers love loopholes Needlenose: “A secretive military Special Operations group in Iraq used several unauthorized interrogation tactics on detainees in early 2004 after it erroneously received an outdated policy from commanders in Baghdad, according to a high-level military investigative report released yesterday at the Pentagon.

. . . Army Brig. Gen. Richard P. Formica found that members of the Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force-Arabian Peninsula used official guidance that had been developed in September 2003 to create its own set of rules for interrogations, unknowingly including the forbidden tactics.

. . . The September 2003 guidance — from the office of Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez, then the top U.S. commander in Iraq — was rescinded and reissued the following month, with fewer tactics allowed. But the September memo has been at the center of the debate about the U.S. interrogation policy in Iraq because its broad approval of controversial methods served as the baseline for interrogations at the Abu Ghraib prison and elsewhere.

. . . But Formica concluded that the soldiers using the tactics were not responsible for violating policy or the law from February to May 2004 because they believed what they were doing had been approved. . . . ‘I didn’t find cruel and malicious criminals that are out there looking for detainees to abuse,’ Formica said in an interview with reporters at the Pentagon yesterday. He said it was ‘regrettable’ that the soldiers were given the wrong policy”

FRONTLINE: the dark side PBS
After 9/11, Vice President Richard Cheney seized the initiative. He pushed to expand executive power, transform America’s intelligence agencies and bring the war on terror to Iraq. But first he had to take on George Tenet’s CIA for control over intelligence.

CIA officials, analysts and operators … State Department and DoD … national security experts
Richard Cheney and ‘the dark side’ … George Tenet and the CIA … The flawed ’02 National Intelligence Estimate … Office politics … the war in Afghanistan

Crooks and Liars:: “Ava Lowery on CNN

Ava Lowery on CNN
The fifteen year old girl from Alabama that has received almost as many death threats as I have for making ‘this video’ was on CNN last night. (Here’s some information about Ava.)
Video-WMP Video-QT”

Crooks and Liars::Glenn Greenwald on Al Franken

Glenn Greenwald on Al Franken
Here’s Franken’s Home Page…
Audio-MP3
Glenn joined Al to talk about his new book, ‘How Would a Patriot Act?'”

Crooks and Liars#a8782: “A Cheney Reminder

A Cheney Reminder
Meet the Press: 03/16/03
Russert: If your analysis is not correct, and we’re not treated as liberators, but as conquerors, and the Iraqis begin to resist, particularly in Baghdad, do you think the American people are prepared for a long, costly, and bloody battle with significant American casualties?
Cheney: Well, I don’t think it’s likely to unfold that way, Tim, because I really do believe that we will be greeted as liberators.
I’ve talked with a lot of Iraqis in the last several months myself, had them to the White House. The president and I have met with them, various groups and individuals, people who have devoted their lives from the outside to trying to change things inside Iraq. And like Kanan Makiya who’s a professor at Brandeis, but an Iraqi, he’s written great books about the subject, knows the country intimately, and is a part of the democratic opposition and resistance. The read we get on the people of Iraq is there is no question but what they want to the get rid of Saddam Hussein and they will welcome as liberators the United States when we come to do that.’

comments permalink3:17:17 PM”

Bush: Commanders say Iraq troop level OK – Yahoo! News

Google Groups: alt.politics.economics: “‘pleased with the progress we’re
making’ “

icWales – Saddam given death sentence

Missed Extra Point From 1979 Comes Back To Haunt Jets The Onion – America’s Finest News Source

NEWS2U Worldwide News: November 2006: “Where is Nancy Pelosi?
A ‘How To’ Guide for Advancing
Conservative Misinformation

Summary:
How a Bogus Claim from a GOP Organization Ended Up on MSNBC

Media Matters
Nov. 3, 2006
Washington, DC

The Republican noise machine is at it again. In a last-ditch effort to distract voters, Republicans are playing pickup game of ‘Where is Nancy Pelosi?’ It began with a widely distributed email, obtained by Media Matters for America (see below), claiming that House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (CA) is almost entirely absent from the campaign trail. The email landed on the Internet gossip site Drudge Report, and the story reached a peak today when MSNBC’s Norah O’Donnell asked NBC correspondent Mike Viqueira where Pelosi has ‘been in the last week.’

In fact as the blog ThinkProgress.org noted, on November 1, ‘Pelosi appeared at a sold-out rally at the Warfield Theater with former President Clinton. Portions of the rally were broadcast on television.’ On the same day CNN aired a feature interview with Pelosi.

Jamison Foser, Managing Director of Media Matters for America, called the media out for participating in the GOP’s election-year stunt.

‘This is a textbook example of a journalist mindlessly repeating false Republican spin designed to muddy the waters and distract the public. The media have a responsibility to check the facts instead of simply parroting GOP operatives,’ Foser said. ‘Better yet, they should focus on substantive issues that matter to real people instead of these increasingly absurd efforts to change the subject.’

The Freedom Project sent out the email, titled ‘Where is Nancy Pelosi?’ on October 31, claiming that Pelos”