Watching Rachel Maddow interview Philip Zelikow, a top State Department lawyer under Condoleezza Rice, about his recent decision to go public about his 2005 memo showing that he seriously questioned the Bush adminstration's legal arguments for the use of torture, I couldn't help but think that was nothing more, and nothing less, than an attempt to cover his ass and that of former boss Rice, now that it looks like loyal Bushies might, um, go to jail over this matter. And tonight we find out why Condi has decided that she needs to go into serious CYA mode. The Washington Post has a new story up on its website showing that Rice played a key early role, much more so than previously known, in Bushco's approval of torture.
The Post presents a new timeline, based on a detailed timeline declassified by Attorney General Eric Holder at the request of the Senate Intelligence Committee, showing that Rice's fingerprints are all over the early decisions to approve the CIA's use of torture on detainees at secret prisons.
Rice gave a key early approval, when, as President George W. Bush's national security adviser, she met on July 17, 2002, with the CIA's then-director, George J. Tenet, and "advised that the CIA could proceed with its proposed interrogation of Abu Zubaida," subject to approval by the Justice Department, according to the timeline. Abu Zubaida, the nom de guerre of Saudi-born Palestinian Zayn al-Abidin Muhammed Hussein, was captured in Pakistan in March 2002. He was the first high-value detainee in CIA custody, and the agency believed the al-Qaeda associate was "withholding imminent threat information," according to the timeline.
Of course, we all know now that Abu Zubaida was nothing more than a low-level operative who was brain-damaged but was waterboarded 83 times in one month anyway, but I digress. Speaking of waterboarding, though, the Post reveals that Rice was one of the first Bush officials to be briefed about the use of waterboarding:
Rice and four other administration officials were first briefed in May 2002 on "alternative interrogation methods, including waterboarding," according to the timeline. Waterboarding is a technique that simulates drowning.
So Rice was well aware of exactly which harsh techniques torture the CIA planned to use when she gave the go-ahead three months after this briefing. A year later, Rice was still gung-ho about waterboarding:
...in July 2003, the CIA briefed Rice, Vice President Richard B. Cheney, Attorney General Ashcroft, White House counsel Alberto R. Gonzales and National Security Council legal adviser John Bellinger on the use of waterboarding and other techniques, it states. They "reaffirmed that the CIA program was lawful and reflected administration policy."
When giving this approval, Rice and her cronies already knew that they were talking about methods like waterboarding that are considered torture. This timeline shows that Rice can't claim that she didn't know about the specific interrogation techniques she was reaffirming.
"This was not an abstract discussion. These were very detailed and specific conversations," said Jameel Jaffer, director of the National Security Project at the American Civil Liberties Union."
Several years later, Condi was still out there lying to the country -- and the world -- about her administration's use of torture, along with Cheney and all the rest of the rotted lot.
After the leak in 2005 of a Justice Department memo that narrowly defined the type of activity that would constitute torture, Rice traveled to Europe in an effort to quell the international uproar. As her trip was getting underway, she said, "The United States government does not authorize or condone torture of detainees. Torture, and conspiracy to commit torture, are crimes under U.S. law, wherever they may occur in the world."
What a big fat liar. I hope that Condi will be investigated seriously for her role in the Bush administration's unlawful use of torture. Despite her Letterman appearances, Ferragamo shoes and attempts to dispatch her former lackeys to help cover her ass, she's got blood all over her hands just like the rest of the Bushco lot.
UPDATE:
The AP points out that these latest revelations show that Rice apparently lied to the Senate Armed Services Committee, or withheld the truth, as they say in DCspeak:
Last fall, Rice acknowledged to the Senate Armed Services Committee only that she had attended meetings where the CIA interrogation request was discussed. She said she did not recall details. Rice omitted her direct role in approving the program in her written statement to the committee.
Oops.
(H/T: jhutson)