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Report: Cheney Called for the Torture of Iraqi Prisoner to Establish Link Between Al Qaeda and Iraq

225px-richard_cheney_2005_official_portraitA former high-ranking state department official has come forward with the explosive report that then Vice President Dick Cheney called for the torture of an Iraqi prisoner to establish a link between al Qaeda and Iraq in the midst of the political controversy over the misrepresentations that led to the Iraq invasion. Cheney was one of the main figures pushing this justification, which was found based on false intelligence. Lawrence Wilkerson, chief of staff for then-Secretary of State Colin Powell, adds yet another piece of evidence that the torture program was not based on a “ticking bomb” justification and was not based on the faux legal opinions of lawyers like Judge Jay Bybee and Professor John Yoo.

Wilkerson reveals that the interrogation program began in April and May of 2002 and “[i]ts principal priority for intelligence was not aimed at preempting another terrorist attack on the U.S. but discovering a smoking gun linking Iraq and al Qaeda,.” Wilkerson said that Cheney’s office asked for torture because the CIA found the prisoner to be “compliant.” This would appear to suggest that they wanted to torture the prisoner because he might be coerced into supporting the linkae — a critical necessity for the Administration in defending its prior representations on the invasion. He states that the “order” came from Cheney’s office. The prisoner, Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi, was tortured until he confirmed such contacts and these statements were promptly used by the Administration. He later recanted the statements before dying in a Libyan prison.

This report confirms the statements of an Army psychiatrist that the abuse of detainees at Gitmo was focused not only future attacks but to establish a connection between al Qaeda and Iraq.

Once again, this additional evidence only highlights the refusal of the Obama Administration to appoint a special prosecutor. The evidence is now far greater than what existed when Democrats called for the appointment of a Special Prosecutor in the firings of U.S. Attorneys. Of course, this involves war crimes.

For the full story, click here.

60 thoughts on “Report: Cheney Called for the Torture of Iraqi Prisoner to Establish Link Between Al Qaeda and Iraq”

  1. Oh COME ON! Wilkserson is COLIN POWELL’S DEMOCRAT STAFFER!

    Sheese. Turley your credibility is shot to hell!

  2. Here are the questions. Journalist should ask Dick Cheney next time on any interview . Is invading Irak has nothing to do with Halliburton company on contruction, oil forage? here is a second question , why torture prisoners to justify a war to the nation ? The more we learn , the more we find how disgusting of what Dick Cheney is capable of doing? It is beyond imagination.

  3. I commend The President for attempting to stop the release of additional Torture photos. Crimes were committed, some were punished, others, hopefully, will follow. As someone who has never been in the service, I can only speculate how much, and to what extent, the line of humanity and mores are blurred under the cover—and under the influence—of the Fog of War. And while many have been up in arms about the treatment of detainees their ire should also be directed at the actual criminal act itself that dragged us into war in the first place. Cheney should be persecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Because of his lies thousands of American Lives have been lost merely to fit his agenda. Fathers, Sons, Nephews, Mothers, Daughters, Friends and Neighbors, have died because how Cheney acted like the sick and sadistic piped piper that he is, leading this nation into the abyss of an utterly needless, senseless, War.

    Some may say that prosecuting a Vice President for Crimes is un-American. I’m not suggesting Cheney be prosecuted for war crimes. He should be prosecuted for lying to the American People, thus LEADING them into War. Pre-meditated Murder. He knew, absolutely knew, that lives would have been lost or lives would have manned, physically and emotional. He knew that the lives of American Service men and women would never, EVER, be the same again. He should be prosecuted for deceiving the American people, people who lived, loved and would die for their country.

    Micky, West Orange, NJ

  4. Thanks eniobob,

    “Much Ado About Nothing”

    I’ll be reading that. I know from experience that attorneys are like any other occupation/profession. You have some great stars and many fragments of a dying ice comet floating aimlessly in *deep* space (spaced-out).

    From what I have gathered within this blawg, there are more attorneys of the former character and very few–if any–of the latter…

  6. Mike Appleton and AnonY,

    Thanks for your replies.

    I was a principal in an Amicus brief at the district court and I learned that I missed the filing deadline for the appellate court.

    I generally what to know–since I have ‘standing’ and ‘interest’ from my previous amicus curiae that is also part of the district court record–if I try to file an untimely amicus now, what is most likely to happen.

    Will the court simply strike/bar it?

    Will they read it and perhaps think that it contains valid facts and consider a waiver given any weight, etc?

    Can I ask for a waiver to file late?

    I am trying to get a general idea before I contact an attorney and/or an NGO and I know that attorneys here have a wide range of experiences. I am not seeking legal advice just a general idea if I should even try at the risk of a $500.00+ filing fee and legal fees.

  7. FFLEO, AY is correct. Amicus briefs cannot be filed by anyone wishing to file one. It is first necessary to secure leave from the court to do so. That is only granted when a group or organization has a particular interest in the outcome or will be directly affected by the decision. As peculiar as it may appear, an ordinary citizen such as you or I would not qualify, since the decision would have no more impact on us than it would on any other ordinary citizen.

  9. FF LEO,

    First you have to be invited to submit a Brief or petition to file one. Lots of friends I am sure.

    Can we do the Cheney and march all in Goosen steps and throw our right hand up in the air, shoulder height and chant Sig Heil, Sig Heil.

  10. BigEasy,

    We need people like Cheney to know when we don’t need people like Cheney. (ever again in public office).

    I am not a violent man but I despise Cheney/Bush for trashing my GOP and the U.S. Constitution.

  11. “Incidentally, al-Libi just “committed suicide” in Libya. Interestingly, several U.S. lawyers working with tortured detainees were attempting to get the Libyan government to allow them to interview al-Libi…” – Lawrence Wilkerson

    Jeezz did the former administration reach out and have al-Libi fixed?

  12. Thanks again enibob.
    Lawrence Wilkerson has the intestinal fortitude of an Archetypal Warrior.
    BTW when does Dick Cheney get ‘fixed’?

  14. I think this book really lays out a great deal of what happened in Iraq regarding torture: It’s called “Fear Up Harsh” by Tony Lagouranis. He does describe seeing children in custody at Abu Graib. He talks about request by OGA/CIA/Contractors to have our MPs rough up our prisoners (and by rough up, I mean torture) before they are tortured again by the former. Torture was ubiquitous. People were grabbed off the street for no reason at all, taken, tortured and kept in indefinite detention, killed or if very lucky, released. It is a brutally honest account from an eye witness.

    I agree Pvt. Keepout–those pictures are said to contain even worse crimes than what we know about at this point and Sy Hirsh has good sources. Thanks for the link.

  16. “…if Seymour Hersh is right, it all gets much worse.”

    Hersh: Children sodomized at Abu Ghraib, on tape
    by Alex Koppelamn, War Room, Salon, Thursday, July 15, 2004
    http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2004/07/15/hersh/?source=refresh

    Those children were and are wards of the United States, the occupying power. America was and is bound by international law and the US Code to protect them and hold their abusers legally accountable for assaulting them.

    An authentic leader dedicated to the national interest wouldn’t have hesitated to appoint a Special Prosecutor to investigate and prosecute these barbarous crimes…on January 20, 2009.

    That Obama, Biden, Holder, Clinton, Jones, Gates, Mullen, Emanuel, Axelrod, Gibbs, Plouffe, etc. all know about this and refuse to do so speaks volumes about the quality of their character, value of their leadership and allegiance to narrow interests.

  17. The Notorious Liar Obama is guilty of War Crimes. He has voted at least 11 times to fund the Wars of Aggression in Iraq and Afghanistan. Funding a War of Aggression is complicity in the War Crimes.

    I understand Obama is also responsible for bombing murders in Pakistan.

  18. Mespo 72, Mike Appleton, David, rafflaw, AY, Seamus, et al.

    I missed the deadline for submitting an amicus curiae at the appellate level.

    Can you tell me what would most likely happen if I submitted it anyway? Would that be a wasted effort and no officer of the court would even read or consider the brief?

    Thanks.

  19. Here is another War Criminal who lied the United States into war;

    Joe Biden was a principal conspirator in selling and waging a War of Aggression in Iraq. He voted to invade Iraq and has voted many times to fund the War. Biden had a key role in making possible the congressional authorization of the 2003 U.S. illegal invasion of Iraq. The Iraq war was a violation of the United States Constitution, the United Nations Charter and the principles of the Nuremberg Tribunal and as such a War of Aggression and therefore a War Crime. Biden is a major War Criminal.

    “The very issuance of the Bush doctrine of preemptive warfare and also the threat to wage war against Iraq are, each, a violation of international law as a crime against peace, which is defined in the Nuremberg Charter as the “Planning, preparation, initiation or waging of a war of aggression or a war in violation of international treaties, agreements or assurances.” (1)
    ————-

    Excerpt from; “Biden, Iraq, and Obama’s Betrayal” by Stephen Zunes

    “Most significantly, however, Biden, who chaired the Senate Foreign Relations Committee during the lead-up to the Iraq War during the latter half of 2002, was perhaps the single most important congressional backer of the Bush administration’s decision to invade that oil-rich country.”

    More at: http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/5492
    ————-

    At the following link you will see Biden voted to invade Iraq, initiating the illegal War of Aggression and conspiring with Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld;

    http://BuenaVistaMall.com/Senators2.htm

    (1) “Why People Must Stop Bush’s “Preemptive” War of Aggression” by Carl Messineo and Mara Verheyden-Hilliard

  20. This waterboarding, which some refer to as torture (to use a favorite phrase of NPR) doesn’t even fit the “legal” definitions of when it was “legal” to commit torture according to bushco. This man was a POW, not an “enemy combatant”. So even by the made up terms of the bushies this is disallowed.

    We have so much evidence that Cheney intended to invade Iraq from his first day in office. They lied about every reason to invade and punished everyone who would not support their lies. This punishment ranged from firing analyists who didn’t “cooperate”, to exposing a CIA officer to teach her husband and others a lesson about speaking/exposing the truth to, finally, torture.

    Contained within this case are two forms of war crimes: 1. torture and 2. lying a nation into war

    I must agree that both Holder and Obama are failing to abide by their oaths to the Constititution. This is a depraved and appalling story, and it is only one of many. Our law is clear. War crimes have been openly admitted. Allowing Cheney and others to make his case on TV instead of a court of law is both wrong, illegal and destructive to our nation.

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