Bush apparently relishes in the ghoulish details of CIA covert operations.
WaPo will soon have this:
WASHINGTON--The effort President Bush authorized shortly after Sept. 11, 2001, to fight al-Qaida has grown into the largest CIA covert action program since the height of the Cold War, expanding in size and ambition despite a growing outcry at home and abroad over its clandestine tactics, according to former and current intelligence officials and congressional and administration sources.
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The administration's decisions to rely on a small circle of lawyers for legal interpretations that justify the CIA's covert programs and not to consult widely with Congress on them have also helped insulate the efforts from the growing furor, said several sources who have been involved.
Story is now online here
This is going on Washington Post Page One, above the fold.
The scope of the CIA operations is rather breathtaking. And frightening.
And the administration won't let mere legalities and outrage stop it!
The story notes how the administration even manipulated the definition of "assassination" to get around prohibitions.
More from WaPo:
``Everything is done in the name of self-defense, so they can do anything because nothing is forbidden in the war powers act,'' said one official who was briefed on the CIA's original cover program and who is skeptical of its legal underpinnings. ``It's an amazing legal justification that allows them to do anything,'' said the official, who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issues.
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The interpretation undergirds the administration's determination not to waver under public protest or the threat of legislative action. For example, after The Washington Post disclosed the existence of secret prisons in several Eastern European democracies, the CIA closed them down because of an uproar in Europe. But the detainees were moved elsewhere to similar CIA prisons, referred to as ``black sites'' in classified documents.
The CIA has stuck with its overall approaches, defending and in some cases refining them. The agency is working to establish procedures in the event a prisoner dies in custody. One proposal circulating among mid-level officers calls for rushing in a CIA pathologist to perform an autopsy and then quickly burning the body, according to two sources.
In June, the CIA temporarily suspended its interrogation program after a controversy over disclosure of an Aug. 1, 2002, memorandum from the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel that defined torture in an unconventional way. The White House withdrew and replaced the memo. But the hold on the CIA's interrogation activities was eventually removed, several intelligence officials said.
The authorized techniques include ``waterboarding'' and ``water dousing,'' both meant to make prisoners think they are drowning; hard slapping; isolation; sleep deprivation; liquid diets; and stress positions--often used, intelligence officials say, in combination to enhance the effect.
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``The executive branch will not pull back unless it has to,'' said a former Justice Department lawyer involved in the initial discussions on executive power. ``Because if it pulls back unilaterally and another attack occurs, it will get blamed.''