Finally, we have a full throated rebuke of Dick Cheney from a Democrat! And it comes from the usually soft spoken mild mannered Senator from Michigan, who also is the Chairman of the Armed Services Committee, Carl Levin. I don't know about the rest of you, but I was outraged last week that the media gave such a big platform to the former Vice President when Bush never had to share the stage with the opposition outside of his re-election campaign. But in the aftermath of this hoopla, it felt like few Democrats had President Obama's back, what with the 90- 6 Gitmo vote, and the fact that it was Colin Powell and Tom Ridge who proved to defend the President's changes in policy with more rigeur and clarity than any Democrat. Well, that changed last night, when Senator Levin gave a speech in front of the Foreign Policy Association.
In his speech, Sen. Levin first praised President Obama's new approach to foreign policy, that included ending torture, closing Guantanamo, and to really pursue diplomacy in a way that Bush never would. Then Levin brought up Cheney:
But then last week, a voice from the recent past reemerged, claiming that America can do what we please, preaching unilateralism again, and embracing the arrogance that for too many years alienated our friends and set back efforts to achieve common goals. Former Vice President Cheney’s world view, which so dominated the Bush years and which so dishonored our nation, gained a little traction last week – enough to persuade me to address it head on here tonight.
As you recall, Levin released a report on the treatment of detainees which was signed off on by the Republicans on the Armed Services Committee as well, which was quite damning of the Bush Administration and the regime Dick Cheney created. In short, Levin has done the research and knows what he is talking about.
When former Vice President Cheney said last week that what happened at Abu Ghraib was the work of "a few sadistic prison guards" acting on their own, he bore false witness. And when he said last week there was no link between the techniques used at Abu Ghraib and those approved for use in the CIA’s secret prisons, he again strayed from the truth. The seeds of Abu Ghraib’s rotten fruit were sown by civilians at the highest levels of our government.
On September 16, 2001, Vice President Cheney suggested that the United States turn to the "dark side," his words, in our response to 9/11. Not long after that, White House Counsel Gonzales called provisions of the Geneva Conventions "quaint," and President Bush determined that provisions of the Conventions did not apply to detainees captured in the Afghanistan war. Senior administration officials followed the President and Vice President’s lead. Our recent bipartisan Senate Armed Services Committee report determined the following: "Senior officials in the United States government solicited information on how to use aggressive [interrogation] techniques, redefined the law to create the appearance of legality, and authorized their use against detainees."
Eric Kleefeld at TPMDC put Levin's remarks more succinctly:
Levin Calls Cheney A Liar On Torture
After detailing what the Bush Administration did by employing SERE tactics, Levin addresses the next line of bullshit Cheney has been trying to sell:
Mr. Cheney has also claimed that the release of classified documents would prove his view that the techniques worked. But those classified documents say nothing about numbers of lives saved, nor do the documents connect acquisition of valuable intelligence to the use of the abusive techniques. I hope that the documents are declassified so that people can judge for themselves what is fact and what is fiction. Mr. Cheney has made other false statements. For instance, his claim that the techniques used on detainees were the "same exact procedures" used on our own people in the SERE training regime. That could not be farther from the truth.
Levin closes his biting speech by ripping into Cheney and his scapegoating of military personnel at Abu Ghraib:
Finally, the assertion by Mr. Cheney that the abuse of detainees in U.S. custody at Abu Ghraib were the actions of "a few sadistic prison guards" acting on their own is not only false, it is a shameful attempt to avoid accountability for those who were the most responsible – those senior civilian officials who, in the words of our bipartisan Armed Services Committee report "solicited information on how to use aggressive techniques, redefined the law to create the appearance of legality, and authorized their use against detainees." Until now, mainly lower ranking military personnel have been left to take the rap for the abuses at Abu Ghraib and elsewhere. I believe it is dishonorable and a failure of leadership to lay the sins of Abu Ghraib solely at their doorstep. The buck, to date, has stopped far below where it belongs.
Ouch. This is the kind of pushback we need from Democrats. Good for Carl Levin to speak the truth loudly and in no uncertain terms. You can watch video excerpts over at TPM.
To close, I just want to say that Carl Levin deserves more respect around here. After all, he actually voted against the Iraq War Resolution in 2002, and most recently, in case you were wondering who the brave six were who voted to fund the closing of Guantanamo Bay:
Durbin (D-IL)
Harkin (D-IA)
Leahy (D-VT)
Levin (D-MI)
Reed (D-RI)
Whitehouse (D-RI)
Brave Democrats deserve kudos, and I think on this issue, Carl Levin is one of them.
Update 1
Greg Sargent is also on the case and flags what he views as the real breaking news in Levin's speech. I quoted it above, but it bears repeating:
Mr. Cheney has also claimed that the release of classified documents would prove his view that the techniques worked. But those classified documents say nothing about numbers of lives saved, nor do the documents connect acquisition of valuable intelligence to the use of the abusive techniques. I hope that the documents are declassified so that people can judge for themselves what is fact and what is fiction.
Greg notes:
If this is true, it’s big. A Senator who has seen the documents Cheney claims will prove that torture saved lives says that those docs contain absolutely nothing about whether the torture techniques were actually responsible for yielding any valuable intelligence.
Networks such as MSNBC have given literally hours of airtime to Cheney and his daughter Liz to claim endlessly that these docs will prove Cheney’s torture assertions. These claims have gone almost entirely unchallenged, due to the classified nature of the documents. You’d think that a contrary claim from a well-respected Senator who has also seen the docs would merit a few passing mentions, too.
I quite agree. And, it seems, a TV guy has noticed. David Schuster just twittered an hour ago that Greg's article was a "Must read on torture/Cheney". Then in the comments on the Plum Line, Greg made the following comment:
Greg Sargent | May 29th, 2009 at 08:28 am
SG — I think MSNBC will pick up on this. Stay tuned...
Hmmm ...
(BarbinMD doesn't think it will happen. I think maybe at night, but not elsewhere in MSMland, unfortunately)
OT Update 2
Since I have the floor, I hope you all don't mind if I point to a story off topic that just hit the wire. It seems that John Kerry has decided he is going to full scale return to his old role in the Senate during the Reagan/Bush I years, as a major investigator. This could be big:
John Kerry has never run for sheriff. As chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee he is starting to act like one, and the world is his jurisdiction.
The Massachusetts Democrat is wielding his gavel with an investigative zeal, and plans to take on Iran’s nuclear program, gun-running on the Mexican border, terrorism, narcotics and human trafficking, all through the prism of money laundering. ....
"There are lots of big pieces out there that depend on money moving," he said in an interview in his office in the Senate, where he is serving his 24th year.
Kerry, who was a prosecutor and attorney in Massachusetts before starting his political career in 1982, said the lack of congressional oversight during the Bush administration left behind a target-rich environment for his panel. The Treasury Department "has its hands full" and is "inadequately resourced" to pursue these inquiries, he said.
"For the last eight years we’ve had an administration that has done its utmost to protect, hide, obfuscate, neglect, void, simply not even care about these issues," said Kerry, 65.
...
His new role will be similar to one he played in an earlier era of his Senate career, when he led investigations into the Iran-Contra scandal, and former Panamanian President Manuel Noriega’s ties to drug trafficking and the 1991 collapse of Bank of Credit and Commerce International
I suggest everyone tuck this piece of information in the back of their minds. These sorts of investigations take time, but I have a feeling, given the fact that the same crowd ran the show in the last 8 years who ran it during the Reagan/Bush I years ... well, who knows what Kerry is going to turn up.
Update 3
Thank you JRandomPoster for pointing out that CNN has picked up the story:
Levin calls Cheney's CIA document claims a lie
Posted: 01:40 PM ET
From CNN's Ed Hornick
WASHINGTON (CNN) — Sen. Carl Levin, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, told a Washington audience this week that claims by former Vice President Dick Cheney that classified CIA memos showed that enhanced interrogation techniques like waterboarding worked were lies.
Levin, speaking at the Foreign Policy Association's annual dinner on Wednesday, said an investigation by his committee into detainee abuse charges over the use of the techniques — now deemed torture by the Obama administration — "gives the lie to Mr. Cheney's claims."
The Michigan Democrat told the crowd that the two CIA documents that Cheney wants released "say nothing about numbers of lives saved, nor do the documents connect acquisition of valuable intelligence to the use of abusive techniques."
"I hope that the documents are declassified, so that people can judge for themselves what is fact, and what is fiction," he added.
More at the link