WASHINGTON (AP) — The State Department has endorsed the broad conclusions of a harshly critical Senate report on the CIA’s interrogation and detention practices after the 9/11 attacks, a report that accuses the agency of brutally treating terror suspects and misleading Congress, according to a White House document.
“This report tells a story of which no American is proud,” says the four-page White House document, which contains the State Department’s preliminary proposed talking points in response to the classified Senate report, a summary of which is expected to be released in the coming weeks.
“But it is also part of another story of which we can be proud,” adds the document, which was circulating this week among White House officials and which the White House accidentally emailed to an Associated Press reporter. “America’s democratic system worked just as it was designed to work in bringing an end to actions inconsistent with our democratic values.”
Someone at the White House “accidentally emailed” this document to the AP reporter? Really? Is it possible the Obama administration is gearing up to hold some people accountable at last? We’ll see, but I doubt it. They are forward-looking to a fault.
Also, the CIA has admitted it acted improperly in 2009 when operatives screwed around with the data in computers the Senate Intelligence Committee was using to research possible CIA misconduct during the Bush administration.
But no worries: CIA Director John Brennan has appointed former Senator Evan Bayh to chair an accountability board. I’m sure he’ll handle the role with the same levels of integrity and judgment he displayed throughout his political career. Oh wait.
[H/T: Valued commenter Mandalay]
schrodinger's cat
In other news, Ted Cruz has managed to kill the House Border Bill.
dmsilev
@schrodinger’s cat: And Boehner’s getting a slightly earlier than usual start on his regular drinking/tanning binge I assume?
beth
@schrodinger’s cat: They also put out a statement urging the President to take actions on his own to deal with the immigration mess. I can’t wait to hear the White House response to that – wait maybe if I listen hard enough I can hear the laughter all the way here in South Carolina.
Belafon
@beth: “But if you take any action, we’ll sue you for refusing to take action fast enough.” (No, he didn’t actually say that, but it’s really hard to tell any more).
I laughed out loud when I read Boehner’s statement.
scav
@beth: encouraging the unjust and unprecedented authoritatianism they’re taking him to task and court over!? Pulsars are getting a run for their money on spin and emissions in this brave new Wingularity.
schrodinger's cat
@dmsilev: That sickly hue the Speaker has may be entirely explained by his drinking habits. What does the grapevine say, is JB a drunk?
Major Major Major Major (formerly J.Ty)
@scav: What an excellent metaphor!
El Caganer
If the Senate has nothing to hide, it shouldn’t complain about the CIA spying on it.
schrodinger's cat
All this spying business with the CIA and NSA is bad, but what did people expect after giving the spying agencies a carte blanche after 9/11.
different-church-lady
You mean like send W and Cheney to The Hague? Because that’s the only thing that’s going to get me to vote for him in ’16.
Mnemosyne
@beth:
I’m betting that the White House lawyers are inserting that into their defense brief as Exhibit A right now.
Iowa Old Lady
Also, the House appears to have screwed the Senate by rejecting the Transportation bill (the funding method of which was preposterous to start with) and sending the upper house one of their own just as all the rats are fleeing town.
I am agog.
Villago Delenda Est
The Dark Lord needs to be arrested and extradited to Den Haag for his war crimes trial.
End of discussion.
KG
@different-church-lady: i see what you did there.
Mnemosyne
I’m getting ads that say “Stop Reckless Government!” I have a feeling that the House’s actions are not what they’re talking about.
KG
@Mnemosyne: nah, they’d go with a motion under Rule 12(b)(6) first. evidence doesn’t matter in that case, it’s just the fact that the plaintiff has failed to plead sufficient facts to maintain a cause of action. evidence doesn’t come in until the file a motion for summary judgment… which would likely come after they depose every Republican member of Congress on this case. And really, just for the spectacle of seeing the craziest of the GOPers under oath in a deposition it is almost worth rooting for this to survive. I don’t think it will, because every federal judge in the country would look at this, no matter how wingnutty they are, and say “nope.”
BGinCHI
I like how it says “of which no American is proud.” Surely right, but infuriating.
How could we be proud or not proud or anything when what was being done in our name was not known to us? And then when it was suspected the government ignored it and covered it up. This is bigger than the two parties I think. Yes the GOP started this but the Dems have to push back harder. I’m afraid they are protecting the bad actors whether they like it or not.
Betty Cracker
@different-church-lady: Prosecuting Jose Rodriguez would be a good start. Never gonna happen though. Water under the bridge, it is.
BGinCHI
@Betty Cracker: Well, at least the Republicans are for amnesty for one Hispanic male.
Calouste
@BGinCHI:
I don’t think that’s right. I’m sure Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, John Yoo et. al. are pretty proud of what they have done.
Villago Delenda Est
@Mnemosyne: I share your suspicion that it’s more along the lines of people bitching that government is preventing them from fucking over consumers or beating up on poors or daring to hold them responsible for leaving their AK-47s lying around where anyone can pick them up and use them to shoot the neighbor’s cat. Or the neighbor.
Villago Delenda Est
@KG: In my fantasy concerning this, some federal judge looks at this, decides it’s frivolous in the extreme, and orders the summary execution of every congresscritter who voted for it.
Then he regrets it because 75 million people immediately ask to be involved in carrying out his order.
scav
@BGinCHI: Infuriating, and I’m a bit worried that they’ll go for a both sides were right sort of post-civil war reconciliation BS. Still, rhetorically, it may pre-emptively cut a little ledge out from under all those that really do seem to be proud of unfettered US military actions. Getting that it wasn’t a proud action in official print.
catclub
@El Caganer:
My understanding was that the Senate computers for the initial review were set up in a room controlled by the CIA – for security dontchaknow – so I would have expected them to be bugged by the CIA. And they were.
Then the senate staffers were able to track what the CIA folks were doing.
SatanicPanic
@schrodinger’s cat: To be greeted as liberators?
scav
@catclub: So, (eta some /eta) Senate staffers are apparently not only smarter than most Senators, they can also outdo the CIA? Golly.
Splitting Image
It has occurred to me once or twice that the enduring popularity of bipartisan centrists in certain circles is that no one else is nearly as reliable when it comes to talking a lot about something, and doing exactly jack shit about it when they are handed the portfolio.
See McCain, John and Hacker, Jim.
Liquid
There’s an amusing line from “Conspiracy” – “They believe laws are like ice cream, easily melted.” Of course that’s referring to the SS…
Mnemosyne
@Liquid:
Apparently they didn’t buy their ice cream from Wal-Mart.
(Well, ice cream sandwiches, anyway.)
muddy
@BGinCHI: Can’t we at least be proud that the CIA is so thorough? USAUSA!!
@SatanicPanic: Nice.
Cervantes
Torture? Spying? Leaks? All nothingburgers.
The real scandal here is two-fold: using “email” as a verb and spelling it without a hyphen.
Jay C
@BGinCHI:
Sorry, I’ve got to call BS on that “…when what was being done in our name was not known to us? claim. “We” certainly did fucking know: “We” had plenty of information on what was going on – and the sad fact is that most Americans just didn’t goddamn care what abuses were being visited on “terrorists”, in our name or not. And for a farrago of reasons: none of which was particularly reasoned or compelling, but all of which fed into each other in a sick helix of self-righteous justification. And wreaking bloody vengeance* for the 9/11 attacks – a “rationale” nobody in this country questioned at the time, or has questioned much since – lies at the bottom of it all.
*On whom was relatively unimportant: just so the vengeance was violent, righteous and just well-publicized enough.
WaterGirl
@Cervantes: A hyphen? Get thee gone, I say!
Mike G
The “Constitution Uber Alles” crowd will rush to the defense of the torturers, invoking the “People I don’t like don’t have any rights” secret clause in their copy of the constitution they downloaded from Conservapedia.
Cervantes
@Jay C:
Can you be more specific about “most” and “nobody”?
On a more serious note:
I agree.
MattF
We can all name a half-dozen people who ought to be arrested right away for war crimes– but Obama clearly isn’t going anywhere near that, and that’s too bad. I’d love to see, e.g., Marc Theissen do some hard time.
But it ain’t gonna happen. I do note fwiw, that the little flurry of media embarrassment over Cheney/Kristol warmongering faded pretty quickly.
muddy
@Mike G: One of them told me that needing 60 of 100 to make a majority in the Senate was in the Constitution.
Cervantes
@WaterGirl: Soon enough.
Heliopause
Oh yes. The founders certainly designed this system with a vast bureaucracy of torturers and extrajudicial murderers in mind. Rightee-oh.
Until something more than a “sorry we got caught” is the consequence I think I’ll save those “democratic values” for a rainy day.
Corner Stone
Yawn. Known. Burger.
Corner Stone
Ahh, the classics never die!
Bill Arnold
@Cervantes:
:-).
BTW, I have been unable to find a difference between Labor/notLabor so far in Israeli settlement population level increases. Next step is to, as you suggest, to create a graph of new-housing-unit-approvals vs time, marked up with who is in control of the housing ministry.
WaterGirl
@Cervantes: What does that mean???
Cervantes
Somewhat off topic, Rick Perry’s talking points:
MattF
@Cervantes: And it’s good to see that the Senator from Texas has been actively working on this issue. Oh, wait.
Jay C
@Cervantes:
Unless my memories of the post-9/11 Great American Terror Freakout are utterly warped with age (doubtful, but always possible) I recall that right up until the Abu Ghraib revelations (and even for a while afterwards) complaints about American mistreatment of “War On Terror” prisoners/suspects were generally dismissed as the disloyal whining of hippie-liberal bleeding-hearts by all but the leftmost media outlets: and even as time went on, there was very little public agitation about the issue, I recall that even after he Abu Ghraib photos were made public, there was a nontrivial segment of the “conservative” media that was as outraged (if not more) at the fact of them being publicized, not for the actions they exposed.
Roger Moore
@Villago Delenda Est:
FTFY.
Dog On Porch
“This report tells a story of which no American is proud..”. Except Dick Cheney and the entire congressional delegation of the republican party.
What an insultingly preposterous statement to make. It could be the motto on the flag that waves from the peak of Mt. Bullshit. Who is the author addressing again? White House staff? Or a 3rd grade social studies class?
Unfuckingbelievable.
In contrast, the author’s “system worked” spin merely rises to the level of being a simple minded delusion .
schrodinger's cat
@SatanicPanic: With candy and flowers, right?
Cervantes
@Dog On Porch:
You’ll appreciate this:
HeartlandLiberal
Sen. Evan Bayh? As a Hoosier, let me say I have to pause for a moment to overcome the sick dry heaves after reading this.
There. That’s better.
Well, all I want to know is how they manage to lure Bay away from the lobbyists trough, or from the slop trough provided by his wife and her drug company lobbying, in order to pretend to do something that looks like work.
Evan Bayh is one of the most pathetic failures in the history of Indiana politics.
He is a rich white dude who betrayed the principles of the Democratic party, and whose sole purpose in life seems to be to see how reach he can make himself and his wife through their immoral activities.
And I don’t like him, either.
WaterGirl
@HeartlandLiberal:
I just wanted to see that one more time! I could have written that myself, but I think I would have added “so there!” at the end. :-)