CYA Thread

Funny that Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Steven Bradbury would wait until five days before Bush left office to cover his ass (.pdf) and disavow the bulk of Cheney/Addington/Libby’s legal [Unitary Executive] reasoning for permitting torture, doing illegal warrantless surveillance, unilaterally suspending international treaties, and using the armed forces for domestic policing purposes.

6 Comments

ask on March 2, 2009 at 6:35 pm

That is one fun CYA memo!
It will come crawling out of the woodwork at increasing speed. No one wants to be stuck with the losing hand.

robertdsc on March 2, 2009 at 6:37 pm

I wonder what Seymour Hersh is up to these days.

I threw a few coins in the pot for you, Booman. It’s all I can spare for now. Thanks again for all you do.

dada on March 2, 2009 at 6:55 pm

very interesting….can you say scapegoat?…l knew you could…yoo and abu g must be sweating bullets…which l believe, are still the penalty for high treason.

Man Eegee on March 2, 2009 at 7:03 pm

speaking of Yoo…

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 had been closely held. By releasing them, President Barack Obama continued a house-cleaning of the previous administration’s most contentious policies. – linkage
- dada on March 2, 2009 at 7:56 pm
  
  also of interest, this from your link:
  
  …the CIA destroyed nearly 100 videotapes of interrogations and other treatment of terror suspects.
  
  …
  
  At the White House, press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters he hadn’t spoken to the president about the report, but he called the news about the videotapes “sad” and said Obama was committed to ending torture while also protecting American values.
  
  ACLU attorney Amrit Singh said the CIA should be held in contempt of court for holding back the information for so long.
  
  “The large number of videotapes destroyed confirms that the agency engaged in a systematic attempt to hide evidence of its illegal interrogations and to evade the court’s order,” Singh said.
  
  CIA spokesman George Little said the agency “has certainly cooperated with the Department of Justice investigation. If anyone thinks it’s agency policy to impede the enforcement of American law, they simply don’t know the facts.”
  
  my bolding
  
  “sad”?! … that’s all they have to say on the subject? …and, the unedited version of the cia’s statement: the check’s in the mail, l won’t cum in your mouth, and l’ll respect you in the morning…in other word, gfu.
  
  ¡jezeus! the hole just keeps getting deeper and the digging continues.