I don't know that we can conclusively reject any of these points yet. So much is unknown and so much is classified that it is difficult to get a really solid picture. Your first possibility seems the least likely, in the sense that we can be pretty sure that not everyone in Congress knew what was going on and there was certainly no Resolution passed approving of such actions. You may mean it in a more limited sense, like "known by the relavent intelligence committees". The best picture I've seen thus far is that various people in Congress and the Whitehouse were told various amounts of "truth" at various points. What sort of truth they were told, when, and what actions they could take when are still very much in doubt.
Based on that my intuition is that 2,3, and 4 are all true to various degrees. 3 is probably closest to "the truth" but is such a qualified statement that it really isn't useful without details. Right now I think it is premature to talk about prosecutions. I don't think anything should be taken off the table categorically, nor do I think we should presuppose anyone responsible or guilty (much as I'd like to see Cheney in the Hauge tomorrow). Instead I'd like to see an actual investigation and get everything as out in the open as possible. Decisions about prosecutions, sanctions, firings, apologies, etc can all be made later but until we understand what actually happened and when we won't know what is appropriate. Judah On Thu, May 14, 2009 at 11:05 AM, Gruss Gott <[email protected]> wrote: > > Since I know that (a.) nobody here cares and, (b.) everybody here is > unbiased, I thought I'd try to ask an unbiased question about the > torture goings-on. > > So the Pelosi news conference. The Republican charge is that Pelosi > and other Dems were briefed in 2002 about waterboarding and knew it > was in use, but made no attempt to protest. The Democrat retort is > that they were lied to by the CIA and didn't know. > > So this leaves a few options: > > (1.) The "interrogation program", whatever it was, was known and > approved end-to-end by both branches of government (excl judicial). > > (2.) The program was known to the CIA and other intelligence who lied > to both branches of government. > > (3.) The program was known by some in intelligence and some in > government who lied about it to the others. > > (4.) The program was known by the President and intelligence who lied to > others. > > Given what we already know, we can eliminate #2 and #4. And we > already know waterboarding is illegal at a minimum internationally. > > So it seems the only thing left is: > > (a.) Did congress know or not (we know the administration did). > > (b.) How illegal is it and who should be prosecuted? > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Want to reach the ColdFusion community with something they want? Let them know on the House of Fusion mailing lists Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:297180 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
