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Cheney's Role Deepens
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Former NBC News investigative producer Robert Windrem reports that the vice president’s office suggested waterboarding an Iraqi prisoner who was suspected of knowing about a relationship between al Qaeda and Saddam.
Robert Windrem, who covered terrorism for NBC, reports exclusively in The Daily Beast that:
*Two U.S. intelligence officers confirm that Vice President Cheney’s office suggested waterboarding an Iraqi prisoner, a former intelligence official for Saddam Hussein, who was suspected to have knowledge of a Saddam-al Qaeda connection.
*The former chief of the Iraq Survey Group, Charles Duelfer, in charge of interrogations, tells The Daily Beast that he considered the request reprehensible.
*Much of the information in the report of the 9/11 Commission was provided through more than 30 sessions of torture of detainees.
At the end of April 2003, not long after the fall of Baghdad, U.S. forces captured an Iraqi who Bush White House officials suspected might provide information of a relationship between al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein’s regime. Muhammed Khudayr al-Dulaymi was the head of the M-14 section of Mukhabarat, one of Saddam’s secret police organizations. His responsibilities included chemical weapons and contacts with terrorist groups.
Two senior U.S. intelligence officials at the time tell The Daily Beast that the suggestion to waterboard an Iraqi prisoner came from the Office of Vice President Cheney.
“To those who wanted or suspected a relationship, he would have been a guy who would know, so [White House officials] had particular interest,” Charles Duelfer, head of the Iraqi Survey Group and the man in charge of interrogations of Iraqi officials, told me. So much so that the officials, according to Duelfer, inquired how the interrogation was proceeding.
In his new book, Hide and Seek: The Search for Truth in Iraq, and in an interview with The Daily Beast, Duelfer says he heard from “some in Washington at very senior levels (not in the CIA),” who thought Khudayr’s interrogation had been “too gentle” and suggested another route, one that they believed has proven effective elsewhere. “They asked if enhanced measures, such as waterboarding, should be used,” Duelfer writes. “The executive authorities addressing those measures made clear that such techniques could legally be applied only to terrorism cases, and our debriefings were not as yet terrorism-related. The debriefings were just debriefings, even for this creature.”
Duelfer will not disclose who in Washington had proposed the use of waterboarding, saying only: “The language I can use is what has been cleared.” In fact, two senior U.S. intelligence officials at the time tell The Daily Beast that the suggestion to waterboard came from the Office of Vice President Cheney. Cheney, of course, has vehemently defended waterboarding and other harsh techniques, insisting they elicited valuable intelligence and saved lives. He has also asked that several memoranda be declassified to prove his case. (The Daily Beast placed a call to Cheney’s office and will post a response if we get one.)
Without admitting where the suggestion came from, Duelfer revealed that he considered it reprehensible and understood the rationale as political—and ultimately counterproductive to the overall mission of the Iraq Survey Group, which was assigned the mission of finding Saddam Hussein’s WMD after the invasion.
“Everyone knew there would be more smiles in Washington if WMD stocks were found,” Duelfer said in the interview. “My only obligation was to find the truth. It would be interesting if there was WMD in May 2003, but what was more interesting to me was looking at the entire regime through the slice of WMD.”
But, Duelfer says, Khudayr in fact repeatedly denied knowing the location of WMD or links between Saddam’s regime and al Qaeda and was not subjected to any enhanced interrogation. Duelfer says the idea that he would have known of such links was “ludicrous".
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Paul Schrodt is a writer living in New York City. He has contributed to New York magazine, Radar, and Esquire.com.
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As vice chairman of Public Strategies and president of Maverick Media, Mark McKinnon has helped meet strategic challenges for candidates, corporations and causes, including George W. Bush, John McCain, Governor Ann Richards, Charlie Wilson, Lance Armstrong, and Bono. McKinnon is co-chair of Arts & Labs, a collaboration between technology and creative communities that have embraced today's rich Internet environment to deliver innovative and creative digital products to consumers.
The CIA's Interrogation "Menu"
Robert Windrem is a Senior Reserach Fellow at the NYU Center on Law and Security. For three decades, he worked as a producer for NBC News. During that time, he focused on issues of international security, strategic policy, intelligence and terrorism. He is the winner of more than 40 national journalism awards for his work in print, television, and online journalism, including a Columbia-duPont Award, mostly for his work on international security issues.
Bottled Waterboarding
Robert Windrem is a Senior Reserach Fellow at the NYU Center on Law and Security. For three decades, he worked as a producer for NBC News. During that time, he focused on issues of international security, strategic policy, intelligence and terrorism. He is the winner of more than 40 national journalism awards for his work in print, television, and online journalism, including a Columbia-duPont Award, mostly for his work on international security issues.
al-nafs
If this is true, then 'enhanced techniques' were not used only in emergencies to protect the American public. It was used to justify the political position of the previous administration.
Cruel. Inhuman. Despicable. Cheney.
BrawkSamson
Well said.
I think that should be a new adjective! "Cheney"
i.e. "Our boss said that we weren't getting our year-end bonus this year."
"Man, that's so Cheney."
Hawnzz
The irony is... I say that already. "How cheney"... refers to anything vicious, self-centered and unforgiving. "How bush"... refers to dumb as a stump and all the class of a trailor park.
mari2JJ
While former President Bush just allowed Cheney to push these despicable things, that does not lessen either his and Cheney's culpability for this gruesome behavior that is the shame of our country. If this torture was so very successful, we must then conclude that their bumbling conduct of the war is responsible for the fact that Iraq has still not assumed responsibility for its own future and Afghanistan is still in the throes of insurgency. On both war fronts, failure after failure in spite of these claims that this torture helped the war effort so much. Cheney and Bush remind me of what my mom used to accuse all 5 of the kids in our family who always stuck together ie "One lies and gthe other sticks to it". But these chilling lies by the Cheney-Bush regime are coming unravelled and soon they will all be out in the open for all Americans and the world to reject. And then, God help these two criminals.
oliverckerr
The fascist confuses reality.
The poem "Feature / Benefit " comes to mind.
Wear this gold star, Jew
So we can see who you are,
Board this rail road car,
Your campaign for president
is going to Babi Yar.
The poem was inspired by FCC attorneys.
During World War II the NAzis tortured people, looking for confessions. The Stalinists, (read "Darkness At Noon") did the same thing.
Book him Dano!
I look forward to his daughter, screaming in Court Bush made him do it!
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PoeCohen
Exactly!
Cheney is a sneaky, creeepy, secretive, Geneva Convention-breaking manipulator.
So glad he & Bush are not in positions of power anymore.
Dangerous and destructive ..
kevinom
Cheney and Bush were living in a fantasy world for 8 years; Part of that fantasy was a connection between Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden. But Saddam Hussein was considered an infidel by Osama bin Laden,
for maitaining a secular Muslim state. For that sin, had bin Laden - or any of bin Laden's Alqaeda allies - met with Saddam, they'd have bave killed him.
So there is no way that Abu Zubdaydah - or any other of the zealots were captured - would have given the torturers such a sacrilegious idea. And religion, particularly the radical version of Islam practiced by such as Aby Zubaydah and Al Zarquawi, was at the root of their being and cause.
edouglas
Not surprising at all. Cheney's a creep and I don't put anything past him...
jessieabby
What a surprise. I only fear the further evil that will be revealed in time. And Dick Cheney will be at the center of it.
leslie1
The sad reality of all this is that the United States is no different than all the other countries who torture human beings. The ends do not justify the means and never will. Even sadder is that those responsible will not be held accountable - adding an even darker layer to the last eight years.
norsever
We don't know that "those responsible will not be held accountable". This falls under the Department of Justice, and they are not finished with the investigation yet.
sparaxis
Get serious. Obama is a Bush sycophant. The way he sounds now on torture, he could have been a Bush staffer. Nothing is going to happen to the Bush era war criminals. The Bushies must have obtained a huge amount of dirt with their illegal wiretaps on ALL Americans because the Democrats are STILL afraid to challenge them. The Democrats are now complicit in the Bush crimes because they are refusing to act. With Obama, we got a pig in a poke.
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n--Y--wantingsbvpav
cheney's response on the sunday talk show makes it pretty clear who was really running the country and who was just rubber stamping decisions if that. more and more is coming out to confirm what already has been suggested; mainly, we tortured to gain "useful intelligence" to gin up the war cheney et. al had planned all along, regardless of 9/11. let the good ol' "we pander to your fears, prejudice and ignorance" gop continue to defend torture to their peril!
lmpublications
I agree w/ you. That "Face The Nation" moment told volumes in a few awkward stutters. I guess all of the "Cheney is really running the country" jokes were true after all. Read Paul Begala's post on Huffington Post yesterday for an "in your face" response to "Chicken hawk" Cheney. By the way, if history is any guide, and God forbid there is another attack early in this Administration, it will have certainly been PLANNED during Bush/Cheney (or I guess Cheney/Bush)
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n--Y--monet767This comment has been removed by The Daily Beast's editors.
This comment has been removed by The Daily Beast's editors.
troublemonkey
No one is going to take you seriously until you turn off that caps lock key, my friend.
namedujour
I agree with Impublications that the Huffington Post article by Paul Begala was a MUST READ. I bookmarked it yesterday because it was so good. Here's the link: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-begala/mr-cheney-you-did-not-kee_b_20301 3.html
JackJack
It's important that the CIA release their reports of "whom" on the Dem side was in attendance of so-called "enhanced interrogation" - give up Dems.
You're caught. You too voted for such activity and stop the "smoke."
Munodi
Jack the bill to ban torture was VETO'd by Bush.
http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSN11636309
Bush had the opportunity to ban torture instead he chose to add his name
to the worlds worst sadists Stalin and Hitler.
JohnnyAces
Interesting partisan response JackJack. Sounds awefully defensive. Are you not open to the possibilty that Cheney did something wrong without taking it personally?? Is this really a right vs. Left issue or wrong vs right?? It's the latter JackJack, the latter!!
connie47
Jack,
You STILL don't get it, do you? Nobody cares what party a criminal belongs to. When the police arrest someone suspected of murder, they don't ask for their voter registration card. Guilty people should be prosecuted and punished regardless of party affiliation.
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n--Y--monet767troublemonkey
"Nobody cares what party a criminal belongs to..." Um, unless the crime is in the *name* of the party and *becomes* an issue the party *defends*, and is performed with an eye toward *justifying* *other* party crimes. Then, the party issue becomes part of it.
Konchster
Even if they where told which is up to conjecture they where held accountably under the "States Secrecy Act" and it certainly wasn't put to a vote. As it was pointed out when put to a vote Bush vetoed it.
troublemonkey
And if they knew and are denying it at least they're ashamed of it.
CorporateRobot
So, given Cheney's top-down order to find some intel to justify the invasion of a patsy nation, and considering his very public re-emergence now, concerning the issue of "okay kids, let's define 'torture', and have a roundtable discussion about its effectiveness" , this all begs a question.
Why?
As in why is he sooo interested in the issue?
He is too arrogant to ever consider that he could be imprisoned for his involvement. He is too confident in his innate brilliance, and ability to keep people looking in the wrong places, to ever seriously consider that he may be vulnerable in this area. Afterall, a former Vice President always has that Ace In the Hole - acting in the interests of national security. Bulletproof!!!
I think he is throwing up flak. Just as his public "feud" with Colin Powell; nothing but flak. So, again, the question is why is the man dispensing so much flak? And what could be his motivation?
Perhaps it is as simple as "follow the money".
We know, without a doubt that Haliburton was one of, if not the chief beneficiary of the Iraq invasion. We know that Cheney ran that show before becoming a V.P. for Poppy Bush, and it is not too big a stretch to suspect that he has been rewarded handsomely by Haliburton for his steering of lucrative government contracts to them.
If I were a betting robot, I would put some money that many of those "unaccounted for" billions from the Iraq wars (plural), have somehow made their way into Mr. Cheney's pockets.
But, where could he hide such numbers?
We are not speculating about millions here, I am suggesting big bucks! There are just a few places in the world where these types of dollars can be hidden; Switzerland, Cayman Islands, Bermuda come to mind.
Perhaps the most powerful country in history should figure out a way to pry open the secrecy of these nations.
In any event, Mr. Sneer, is hiding mucho moola, and he is delighted that everybody seems to be focusing on everything else, except that mucho moola!
irsslex
Well done. He's laughing all the way to the bank... in Dubai.
hockeydog
Well done, indeed Robot. By the way, while we are in there, let's look into the hidden holdings of the Goldman boys. I bet there is a virtual conduit of funds slipping directly into those Swiss bank accounts of Henry Paulson and his ilk.
In fact, since the only reason for the existence of these private, and offshore bank accounts is to hide money from the tax-man, there is more of a justification for an invasion than phantom weapons of mass destruction.
But, it's just a dream, just a dream (to borrow from R.E.M.), too many dictators, and other thieves across the globe have these secret accounts for them to ever be revealed!
oliverckerr
Hockey doggy!
I see the gang is all here and we all agree.
Cheney is a fascist. On that issue there cannot be any doubt.
I would give Henry Paulson the benefit of the doubt, though, and before seizing all of his assets and freezing his bank accounts, ask, 'What did you do to earn six hundred million dollars?' (You may safely assume his answer would be insufficient).
Josh-Narins
I'm skeptical.
But anyway, for tax purposes, America doesn't have to "pry open" these other countries. We just need to state that tax havens, for tax purposes, do not exist. Declaring you earned a billion in the Grand Cayman this year? Fine, we'll count that as America for tax purposes.
ibisko
Punxsutawny dick: comes out to save own butt.
this great patriot-
( see http://tinyurl.com/oymce7 ),
privatized the government, to make tens of millions $ in personal gain.
for those still deluded in the Heartland, just Google:
Bohemian Grove, for annual shenanigans.
arrested development at the frat house.
Kirbonicus
So... who is going to step up and defend this douche?
Can anyone?
As has been said all along, it was Cheney wagging the dog all along.
lindad
I don't know why this is surprising anyone. Read Tyler Drumheller's book, On the Brink. He stood up to Cheney and the Bush administration when it took real guts to do so. Why didn't Duelfer stand-up when it was unpopular to do so? The administration and top leadership in the U.S. government knew from the beginning that they weren't going to find WMDs and torture was the interrogation method of choice condoned by the Cheney/Bush team.
TavernWench
Apparently, only people who are related to Cheney, The Sith Lord, are willing to defend him (his daughter, Liz). Real credible, huh?
It was a horrible idea to cross Colin Powell... Powell knows EVERYTHING and the drip, drip is about to turn into a full-blown broken pipe. Good. It's about time this country learned the truth about what the Bush-Cheney Administration did.
Kirbonicus
I am right with you on this, Wench.
This comment has been removed by The Daily Beast's editors.
This comment has been removed by The Daily Beast's editors.
jrewing78
OOOOOOH, the Vice President who was a former Secretary of Defense is involved in national security decisions? Are you kidding me? Slap me with a giant fish, NOW he MUST be as evil as my ignorant preconceived notions of him have told me all along! I never suspected that the Vice President was actually doing his job! This is terrible! Scandal! Impeach! Stone the bastard! Haliburton! Covert Agent! Bush lied, Cheny got rich! AAAAAIIIIIYYYYYEEEEE!
SteveStephens
remeber, the Vice Presidency is not a part of the Executive Branch, according to Darth Vader.
JohnnyAces
Funny how your sarcasm is almost dead on. Cheney is indeed a soulless man and has quite a history of malfeasance. Why is everything you mockingly mention acceptable to you?
dcbooknurse
The Vice-President has three jobs: Preside over the Senate, vote ONLY to break a tie, and take over if the President is unable to serve. That's it. Period. Anything else is at the direction of the President. So, no, the Vice-President was not just 'doing his job' if he was directing that a certain prisoner be waterboarded to get specific information.
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n--Y--monet767Josh-Narins
It's not that he was involved in nationals security decisions. It was that he was advocating a practice long outlawed not to save Americans from attacks, or protect Americans in Iraq or Afghanistan, but to gin up a justification for his earlier national security decision, invading Iraq.
I think Ventura was being too kind when he said if he could waterboard Cheney for an hour he could get him to admit the Sharon Tate murders. We could get him to admit being a serial rapist of the corpses of five year old he has killed just for that purpose.
byline
Anyone who has read Jane Mayer on this subject knows the truth and weeps for America.
ezspdr
Why am I not surprised by this?? Cheney is and was a loser from the word go. Only Bush would pick this despicable person to be 2nd in charge.....or was he?? Hope he gets everything he deserves.
Konchster
I'd love to be a fly on the wall when Dickhead shows up at his pearly gates
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n--Y--monet767Banjo1
It seems the Daily Kos loons have migrated here en mass knowing what Marx, Lenin and Stalin knew -- that a lie repeated enough becomes the truth. Everybody -- meaning all of the intelligence services everywhere -- thought Saddam had WMDs. And so did most of his generals. Even a left-wing journalist with an array of left-wing sources writes, "His responsibilities included chemical weapons and contacts with terrorist groups." Wouldn't you ask him about WMDs on the off chance he might know? Sure you would, and so would Nancy Pelosi. I might even consider
dropping a caterpillar in his cell to make him talk.
CitizenX
Ignorant twit
socialworklady
Banjo,
In DKos speak, you would be known as a Chucklefuck.
Chucklefuck, n. A wingnut whose political views are primarily shaped by fundamental errors in fact.
Fuckchuckle, v. To articulate political views as a chucklefuck.
"Did you see those fucking chucklefucks chuckfuckling at the Teabagger protest?"
Just tryin' to keep it real, dude.
socialworklady
Amend to read:
"Did you see those fucking chucklefucks FUCKCHUCKLING at the Teabagger protest?" :)
connie47
LMAO. You are so right.
TavernWench
Chucklefuck, indeed. Banjo is a prime example!
Hawnzz
I'm so thankful it isn't just me. If you listen to certain people enough... eventually you start to think you're crazy. It's the same reason I can't watch Fox News. There is such a large distance between reality and their perception of it... that you cannot be rational and agree.
Munodi
Banjo how apt that you include Bush/Cheney in the same league as some of the worlds worst Sadists
Lenin
Hitler
Pol Pott
And what's up with your obsession with Pelosi?
At the time when Bush started his torture policy Pelosi was NOT in charge.
Repulicans controlled the House the Senate and the White House.
The fact that you keep trying to tie Pelosi to torture tells me how
afraid you are that Buch Co. really did commit crimes against humanity.
chabuka
For the last time..there never was a connection on any sort between Hussien and Al Queda..you twit..it was made up to justify the illegal invasion of Iraq (for oil, Halliburton..and to extend "W'"s pecker)..justification for Iraq is also the reason they were torturing...trying to torture out a "confession" for a link between Hussein and Al Qaeda that WAS NOT THERE!...
"The persistent inability to change one's views when confronted with solid proofs that those views are in error is one of the key, defining characteristics of mental illness and/or personality disorder".(.if the shoe fits..wear it)
Josh-Narins
I couldn't know that Saddam didn't have WMD. But I did know that every single claim Bush was making about Saddam's WMD was false.
I had read about how the aluminum tubes couldn't possibly be used to enrich uranium, according to the American scientists at Oak Ridge, our government run nuclear lab. But Bush kept bringing it up.
I knew how those "unaccounted for stockpiles" were actually just hypothesized to exist based on professional laboratory practices, and even _that_ didn't matter since they would have turned to useless sludge years before America invaded. But Bush kept bringing that up.
And I had read the leaked testimony of Saddam's son-in-law, the former head of Iraq's WMD program, who defected in 1995 to tell the truth. I knew that Bush was regularly revealing half of what that testimony said.
I quite my job the day we invaded Iraq. Certainly among the all-time worst days in American history.
claudespiese
Everybody knew? Except me, maybe. I knew there were no WMDs in Iraq at the time of the invasion.
Simple logic and intuition, free from any vested interest, can figure this stuff out.
Thank you.
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