38 online
 
Most Popular Choices
Share on Facebook 11 Printer Friendly Page More Sharing
General News    H2'ed 4/22/09

Dissenter on Torture w/in Bush Admin speaks out!

By       (Page 1 of 1 pages)   5 comments
Message the web

crossposted from Dailykos.com by SeaTurtle

In an Exclusive Interview and Breaking Story on Rachel Maddow tonight, she interviewed Philip Zelikow, counselor to Condoleezza Rice, who has now released that he strongly differed within the Bush Administration on the torture memoranda and set his opinions in writing.  

The response from the Bush Administration was to try to round up all copies of his memo and destroy it.

Now that the Torture Memoranda have been declassified he is free to speak about his dissent.

Rachel opened her show tonight with a blockbuster exclusive interview, saying:
"The decision to release Office of Legal Counsel Memos re. torture has had one other ramification so far and it is this:  Govt. officials who knew about torture but who were sworn to secrecy are now free to talk about it."

She said that new major news to report:  Condoleezza Rices's counselor at the State Dept, Philip Zelikow, wrote a memo to the Bush Administration in which he argued that the legal opinions on torture were wrong.  He gave competing advice to the Bush Administration, which responded by trying to destroy his memo.

The Zelikow Memo

The underlying absurdity of the administration's position can be summarized this way. Once you get to a substantive compliance analysis for "cruel, inhuman, and degrading" you get the position that the substantive standard is the same as it is in analogous U.S. constitutional law. So the OLC must argue, in effect, that the methods and the conditions of confinement in the CIA program could constitutionally be inflicted on American citizens in a county jail.  

In other words, Americans in any town of this country could constitutionally be hung from the ceiling naked, sleep deprived, water-boarded, and all the rest -- if the alleged national security justification was compelling. I did not believe our federal courts could reasonably be expected to agree with such a reading of the Constitution.

In My Opinion, this is a blockbuster revelation and may signal to others, with continuing declassification of documents by the Obama Administration, that it is time to come out with their dissent.  

Clearly, the Bush Administration thought that there was something to hide if they tried to destroy his memo.

I am rushing to put this up so the community can follow this.  Perhaps someone with better capabilities than me can embed the interview from RM's show tonight.

Let the Games Begin................................

UPDATE:

The interview is just fantastic.  To me, it raises so many more questions.

Someone PLEASE embed it in this diary and I will copy the url up here.  I am working on dial-up so can't do it myself.

Must Read 2   Valuable 2   News 1  
Rate It | View Ratings

The Web Social Media Pages: Facebook page url on login Profile not filled in       Twitter page url on login Profile not filled in       Linkedin page url on login Profile not filled in       Instagram page url on login Profile not filled in

anonymously sourced from either the web or a forwarded email.
Go To Commenting
The views expressed herein are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this website or its editors.
Writers Guidelines

 
Contact AuthorContact Author Contact EditorContact Editor Author PageView Authors' Articles
Support OpEdNews

OpEdNews depends upon can't survive without your help.

If you value this article and the work of OpEdNews, please either Donate or Purchase a premium membership.

STAY IN THE KNOW
If you've enjoyed this, sign up for our daily or weekly newsletter to get lots of great progressive content.
Daily Weekly     OpEd News Newsletter
Name
Email
   (Opens new browser window)
 

Most Popular Articles by this Author:     (View All Most Popular Articles by this Author)

Jim Cramer Uses CNBC to Manipulate Stocks

Video: Is Bristol Palin Baby Trig's Mother? Evidence & Pictures

BabyGate: Explosive New Details and the Smoking Gun Photo

Romney's Storm Tips

Feeding The Homeless BANNED In Major Cities All Over America

Most Massive Natural Disaster in US History-- and you don't know what caused it.

To View Comments or Join the Conversation:

Tell A Friend