I’ll Huff, and I’ll Puff, and I’ll Bloowww Your House Down!
Yesterday, Dick Cheney told a Fox audience that he wanted the CIA to release all the torture memos, including the ones, Cheney said, that “proved” torturing enhanced interrogations had stopped terrorist attacks and kept Americans safe. In fact, he declared that he had already “formally asked the CIA to take steps to declassify those memos…”
Except that, um… he didn’t [Yes, he did! See Update below.]
Did Dick Cheney really “formally” ask the CIA to release reams of intelligence allegedly showing that the torture program worked, as Cheney claimed last night on Fox News?
An intelligence source familiar with the situation says the answer is No.
“The agency has received no request from the former Vice President to release this information,” the source told me a few moments ago.
Last night, Cheney said he’d asked the CIA to release memos he had read containing all the intelligence that had been collected via torture. “I’ve now formally asked the CIA to take steps to declassify those memos so we can lay them out there and the American people have a chance to see what we obtained and what we learned and how good the intelligence was, as well as to see this debate over the legal opinions,” Cheney said.
According to the source, there are several ways this could happen: Cheney could lodge a Freedom of Information Request (which is hard to imagine a former Veep doing); he could contact CIA officials; or he could submit the request via the White House. Cheney said he’d made the request to the CIA.
The source, however, tells me that the CIA didn’t get any such request from Cheney. So barring the unlikely possibility that Cheney submitted his request to the Obama White House, it seems fair to assume for now that the only target of this request was the Fox News television audience.
And now, Cheney, through a spokesperson, “is refusing to say what he meant when he claimed to have made a ‘formal’ request for this info.”
Update: He made the request on March 31 via the National Archives.
Exit question: Why did the Cheney camp not say this to begin with?
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14 Responses to “I’ll Huff, and I’ll Puff, and I’ll Bloowww Your House Down!”
Exit question: Why did the Cheney camp not say this to begin with?
I guess another question is why people were in such a hurry to believe an unnamed source.
A better question. Why were the interrogation tapes destroyed if torture is such a great means of extracting actionable intelligence? Why wouldn't Cheney and the CIA be proud of what they were doing?
Exit question: Why did the Cheney camp not say this to begin with?
Well lets see. I would reckon that the reason they are all a bit confused over this is that there are about 100 million far lefties in this country who want a pay per view execution of Cheney and Bush.
The hate mongering from the left is astounding. I had hoped that an Obama win would wipe away the hatreds but it just wont pass. The hate. The vile hatred for all things right of Bill Ayers is just unbelievable.
10 million bloggers all calling him a liar the minute he speaks.
Perhaps thats why the are confused.
I don't know. Im not saying……Im just saying.
Don't kid yourselves, that bastard still runs the country. I wonder if he [outside his authority to do so] the CIA to leak information about Obama's unscheduled landing in Iraq a couple weeks ago so that “a seemingly coordinated string of bombings” could occur the day before…giving “punch” to Cheney's urging that troops need to remain there..
He sort of let the cat out of the bag with this one…lol…
Oopsies..
Abnerdoolittle: “The hate mongering from the left is astounding. I had hoped that an Obama win would wipe away the hatreds but it just wont pass.”
I would remind you that the lefties wanted Obama to prosecute Bush/Cheney and others and Obama dis not want to… He tried to get the country to move beyond the episode.
So my FIRST question (and not an exit question) is this: Which intelligence unit put together this intelligence showing that torture works? The CIA or Cheney's own intelligence unit?
Now the exit question…. If the CIA had made the reports, would they now be in the National Archives? I wasn't aware that the cases had been resolved…. Or are the docs in the National Archives because they were part of Cheney's office? Though I wasn't aware that Cheney had maintained much in the way of a paper trail…..
The way Cheney is acting I guess he must be psychologically tortured.
I guess another question is why people were in such a hurry to believe an unnamed source.
Huh? An unnamed source? What unnamed source? Which statement was attributed to an unnamed source in Greg's article?
10 million bloggers all calling him a liar the minute he speaks.
Abner, he IS a liar. And it's not just bloggers. Are you not aware that Dick Cheney's standing with the general public is in the basement? He gets lower approval ratings than Bush. He has *no* credibility, with anyone.
Which intelligence unit put together this intelligence showing that torture works? The CIA or Cheney's own intelligence unit?
From what I understand, StockBoy, they (i.e., Cheney, Addington, and Bush) never seriously entertained any other option but torture. It's not like they went out and actually researched the alternatives and tried to find out whether torture worked or whether a conservative, traditional approach to interrogation was a better way to go. No, they were convinced from the get-go that the only way to get the information they wanted from detainees in their custody was to extract it by force.
Dick Cheney… a unsourced name.
Huh? An unnamed source? What unnamed source? Which statement was attributed to an unnamed source in Greg's article?
Did Dick Cheney really “formally” ask the CIA to release reams of intelligence allegedly showing that the torture program worked, as Cheney claimed last night on Fox News?
An intelligence source familiar with the situation says the answer is No.
“The agency has received no request from the former Vice President to release this information,” the source told me a few moments ago.
Last night, Cheney said he’d asked the CIA to release memos he had read containing all the intelligence that had been collected via torture. “I’ve now formally asked the CIA to take steps to declassify those memos so we can lay them out there and the American people have a chance to see what we obtained and what we learned and how good the intelligence was, as well as to see this debate over the legal opinions,” Cheney said.
According to the source , there are several ways this could happen: Cheney could lodge a Freedom of Information Request (which is hard to imagine a former Veep doing); he could contact CIA officials; or he could submit the request via the White House. Cheney said he’d made the request to the CIA.
The source , however, tells me that the CIA didn’t get any such request from Cheney. So barring the unlikely possibility that Cheney submitted his request to the Obama White House, it seems fair to assume for now that the only target of this request was the Fox News television audience.
DaGoat,
Um, okay, but obviously, Greg's CIA source's information was accurate, since the udated information is that Cheney didn't make the request through the CIA; he made it through the National Archives.
I don't understand your grievance here.
That's the big scoop, Kathy? That Cheney didn't go though the CIA to make his request? To me it looked like you were trying to nail Cheney for not making the request at all, in fact your line “Except that, um… he didn’t [Yes, he did! See Update below.]” confirms that.
That's the big scoop, Kathy? That Cheney didn't go though the CIA to make his request?
Actually, that was the update. Which is why I wrote “See Update below.”
The part about Cheney not making the request at all, was actually not a scoop on my part, or an attempt to “nail” Cheney. This was Greg Sargent's story — I am not a credit-grabber.
Moreover, the story was legitimate. Cheney *did* tell Sean Hannity, quote unquote, ““I’ve now formally asked the CIA to take steps to declassify those memos so we can lay them out there and the American people have a chance to see what we obtained and what we learned and how good the intelligence was, as well as to see this debate over the legal opinions.”
Greg called the CIA to find out if Cheney actually had asked the CIA to declassify those memos, and I'm guessing the reason he did that is because it is so jaw-droppingly unlike Cheney to take the initiative to declassify anything, or to stand up for transparency. He is arguably the most secretive vice-president in U.S. history. Given these realities, Greg did what a good reporter does. He followed up on what a public official claimed to have done, in a situation where the thing the public official claimed to have done was very much a departure from his usual way of operating.
After that, Cheney's spokesperson made things worse by refusing to explain, or tell Greg s/he would find out, why the CIA was saying no request from Cheney had been received. These are legitimate questions. Had s/he answered his question in the first place, telling him the truth, which was that Cheney had indeed *not* asked the CIA directly, but rather had made his request through the National Archives, Greg would not have had any reason to write that story, or would have written it differently. As it was, as soon as he found out, he updated.
I hope this lengthy spelling out of what should be stunningly obvious to a smart fifth grader helps your comprehension process.