StephenPreston

StephenPreston https://www.dailykos.com/news/StephenPreston News Community Action Copyright 2005 - Steal what you want Sun, 26 Jan 2020 22:54:03 +0000 Sun, 26 Jan 2020 22:54:03 +0000 Daily Kos rss@dailykos.com (Daily Kos) Daily Kos rss@dailykos.com (Daily Kos) Wheeler's Debut: "The White House Has Been Covering Up the Presidency’s Role in Torture for Years" https://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/3/13/1284526/-Wheeler-s-Debut-The-White-House-Has-Been-Covering-Up-the-Presidency-s-Role-in-Torture-for-Years Absolutely brilliant and extraordinarily authoritative! I'm talking about Marcy Wheeler's debut article over at The / / Intercept, published just over an hour ago. Once again, if you have any questions as to why Newsweek refers to Ms. Wheeler as, "<a href="http://mag.newsweek.com/2013/10/04/the-woman-who-knows-the-nsa-s-secrets.html">The Woman Who Knows The N.S.A.'s Secrets</a>" (and the secrets of our entire security state, including the Central Intelligence Agency), they'll be answered in your first read of this exceptionally powerful, fact-filled, incredibly well-researched article... <blockquote><a href="https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/03/13/president-obama-covering-presidencys-role-torture-4-years/">The White House Has Been Covering Up the Presidency’s Role in Torture for Years</a> By <a href="https://firstlook.org/theintercept/staff/marcy-wheeler/">Marcy Wheeler</a> The / / Intercept Mar 13, 2014, 4:18 PM EDT The fight between the CIA and the Senate Intelligence Committee over the Committee’s Torture Report – which Dan Froomkin <a href="https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/03/11/cia-search-congressional-computer-sparks-constitutional-crisis/">covered here</a> – has now zeroed in on the White House. Did the White House order the CIA to withdraw 920 documents from a server made available to Committee staffers, as Senator Dianne Feinstein <a href="http://www.feinstein.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ID=db84e844-01bb-4eb6-b318-31486374a895">says</a> the agency claimed in 2010? Were those documents – perhaps thousands of them – pulled in deference to a White House claim of executive privilege, as Senator Mark Udall and then CIA General Counsel Stephen Preston <a href="https://s3.amazonaws.com/s3.documentcloud.org/documents/799469/qfr-udall-preston-8-09-13-responses.pdf">suggested</a> last fall? And is the White House continuing to withhold 9,000 pages of documents without invoking privilege, as McClatchy <a href="http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2014/03/12/221033/despite-vows-of-help-white-house.html">reported</a> yesterday? We can be sure about one thing: The Obama White House has covered up the Bush presidency’s role in the torture program for years. Specifically, from 2009 to 2012, the administration went to extraordinary lengths to keep a single short phrase, describing President Bush’s authorization of the torture program, secret. </blockquote> rss@dailykos.com (bobswern) AmericanCivilLibertiesUnion Barack Obama BarackObama DianneFeinstein George Bush GeorgeBush GeorgeTenet Interrogation JaneHarman JaneMayer JimJones JohnRizzo MarcyWheeler Mark Udall MarkUdall MichaelHayden nationalsecurityact Recommended StephenPreston StevenAftergood Torture _1284526 Thu, 13 Mar 2014 22:04:24 +0000 CO-Sen: Mark Udall (D) Places Hold On President Obama's Top Defense Nominee https://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/8/5/1229160/-CO-Sen-Mark-Udall-D-Places-Hold-On-President-Obama-s-Top-Defense-Nominee <div class="dkimg-c"><img src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/dk-production/images/43377/large/87932230_0.jpg?1375763964" alt="" /></div> Take a look at this story: <a href="http://www.politico.com/politico44/2013/08/mark-udall-puts-hold-on-pentagon-nomination-169970.html?hp=r5">http://www.politico.com/...</a> <blockquote> <div class="dkimg-c"><img src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/dk-production/images/43380/large/1375741518547.cached.jpg?1375764267" alt="" /></div> Sen. Mark Udall (D-Colo.), a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, is placing a hold on the man nominated to become the Defense Department's top lawyer, his office confirmed to POLITICO. President Barack Obama tapped Stephen Preston to become the Pentagon's general counsel; Preston currently serves as the CIA's top lawyer. "Sen. Udall had some questions that had not been answered yet, so he placed a hold on Mr. Preston's nomination in order to allow more time to get some answers," Udall's communications director Mike Saccone told POLITICO. - Politico, 8/5/13 </blockquote> Why is Udall doing this? <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/08/05/senator-places-hold-on-top-defense-department-nominee.html">http://www.thedailybeast.com/...</a> <blockquote> <div class="dkimg-l"><img src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/dk-production/images/43379/small/72513138-1.jpg?1375764134" alt="" /></div> His selection had generated little controversy, but last week Sen. Mark Udall (D-CO) put a hold on the nomination demanding that Preston answer questions about the Senate Intelligence Committee's report on the CIA's detention and interrogation program. At issue is whether the report should be declassified and released to the public.   Udall, a member of the committee, has been aggressively pushing for the report’s release. Now he's using the Preston nomination for leverage. "Senator Udall still has some unanswered questions that we'd like Mr. Preston to address," said Mike Saccone, Udall's communication's director.   The White House had been hoping Preston's confirmation would slip through before the Senate went out of session last Thursday, but Udall scotched those plans. After Preston's confirmation hearing, Udall sent the nominee a number of additional questions in writing. Saccone declined to describe the questions, which he said were classified. National Security Council spokesperson Caitlin Hayden declined comment on the development, as did spokesmen for the CIA and the Defense Department.   Udall's maneuver, however, was applauded by the human rights community, which has been pushing for the release of the Senate interrogation report. “Senator Udall has been a tremendous leader ... and has taken real political risk in speaking out in favor of disclosing this report against CIA torture," said Andrea Prasow, senior counterterrorism counsel for Human Rights Watch. - Daily Beast, 8/5/13 </blockquote> Udall has been calling for declassifying the torture memo for some time now: <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/02/08/1185628/-CO-Sen-Mark-Udall-D-To-John-Brennan-Declassify-The-Secret-Senate-Report-On-Torture">http://www.dailykos.com/...</a> <blockquote>The Senate intelligence committee’s nearly 6,000-page report on the CIA’s detention and interrogation program was raised multiple times. Sen. Mark Udall strongly advocated for the declassification of the report so the public could read it. <div class="dkimg-c"><img src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/dk-production/images/18501/large/87886315-senator-mark.jpg?1360363879" alt="" /></div> "….I don’t think it has to be difficult, that is the declassification, for these reasons: The identities of the most important detainees have already been declassified. The interrogation techniques themselves have been declassified. The application of the interrogation techniques to detainees has been declassified to some extent with the partial declassification of the Inspector General report. And the intelligence was declassified to a significant extent when the Bush administration described plots it claimed were thwarted as a result of the program. So long as the report does not identify any undercover officers or perhaps the names of certain countries, can you think of any reason why the report couldn’t be declassified with the appropriate number of redactions?" Brennan’s answer was the declassification request would be taken “under serious consideration,” and there were “very weighty considerations” that need to be made when deciding to declassify the report. <div class="dkimg-c"><img src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/dk-production/images/18502/large/92f231c1-a226-4724-8f01-2bff0a0e4d16_500.jpg?1360363912" alt="" /></div> When Udall asked Brennan this question, he was not just asking for Brennan’s opinion because he wanted to reveal secrets. Particularly, Udall addressed the issue of how “inaccurate information” has been shared widely on the CIA’s use of torture techniques by former and current CIA officials while “accurate information” has remained classified. “Inaccurate information” was provided by the CIA to the Justice Department, White House, Congress and the public. He wanted Brennan’s assurance that, as CIA chief, he would correct “any incorrect information.” (For what it’s worth, Brennan said yes, he would.) - Firedoglake, 2/8/13</blockquote> Here's a little background info on Preston: <a href="http://legaltimes.typepad.com/blt/2013/06/cia-general-counsel-to-be-nominated-top-pentagon-lawyer.html">http://legaltimes.typepad.com/...</a> <blockquote> <div class="dkimg-r"><img src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/dk-production/images/43378/small/Stephen_Preston.jpg?1375764040" alt="" /></div> Before he joined the CIA in 2009, Preston was a partner at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr, where he served as a co-chairman of the firm's defense and national security practice. From 1993 to 2000, he spent stints as principal deputy and acting Defense Department general counsel, as well as U.S. Navy general counsel and U.S. Justice Department deputy assistant attorney general. At the CIA, Preston has worked on some of the administration's most controversial matters, including the fallout from the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, and the U.S. drone program. Preston last year in a speech at Harvard Law School defended the spy agency, saying it is "an institution of laws and the rule of law is integral to Agency operations. In 2011, Preston, in remarks at an American Bar Association national security conference, disputed the “pernicious drumbeat” that the CIA is a “lawless rogue” agency. Preston argued that the CIA’s internal and external controls make it one of the most heavily regulated federal agencies. - The BLT, 6/11/13 </blockquote> I'll be interested to see how this plays out. rss@dailykos.com (poopdogcomedy) 2014 2014ColoradoU.SSenateRace 2014election Barack Obama BarackObama CIA DefenseDepartment Democrats Department of Defense DepartmentofDefense Election 2014 Election2014 JohnBrennan Obama Pentagon President Barack Obama President Obama Senate StephenPreston Torture U.S. Senate Vote Vote 2014 Vote2014 WarOnTerror _1229160 Tue, 06 Aug 2013 05:30:12 +0000