The Gang of Four alone did not have the power to stop the Torture Program. That is why they were briefed. They were put in an extraordinarily difficult position. If they had revealed the program, they may have been putting our troops and our national security at risk. They would certainly have invoked the wrath and retribution of the Bush administration.
They were brought into the loop for no other reason than to give some cover to the perpetrators of these crimes should the truth come out. According to the Times OpEd:
It is unlawful for the executive branch to limit notification, as it did here, to the Gang of Four. There is no such entity recognized in the National Security Act.
The origins and use of the Gang of Four and Gang of Eight is explored fully in the OpEd with the following conclusion:
...there is nothing in the legislative history of the Gang of Eight exception that supports the use made of it by the Bush administration — to shield, indefinitely, a politically controversial program from Congressional scrutiny.
The NYTimes piece is a clear vindication of the Democrats who were used by the Bush administration. The game is obvious as Cheney and friends go to the media again and again trying to shift the blame or muddy the waters.
Again, from the Time OpEd:
Of course, the real reason that notifying four members of Congress was better than 40 to the Bush White House is crystal-clear — to eliminate political pushback. Check the box that Congress was informed just in case, someday, the program becomes public and things get rough. But do so in a way that the legislative branch is not in a position to cause any trouble.
We need to keep the focus on what was DONE, and who authorized it.
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