While discussing the threat of Saddam and Iraq in an August 4, 2002, appearance on Meet the Press, Senator Joe Biden (D-DE) said: ” ‘We have no choice but to eliminate the threat… This is a guy who is an extreme danger to the world.’ ” – Donald Rumsfeld, Known and Unknown, Page 436 […]
Category: quotes
8/3/2002
“On August 3, 2002, a CIA senior executive intelligence briefing summarized in the [Undersecretary of Defense Douglas] Feith memo [on October 27, 2003] noted that reports of al Qaeda regrouping in Iraq ‘are consistent with satellite imagery showing increased activity since last fall near a facility in Sargat, near Khurmal, at which al Qaeda associates […]
8/2/2002
According to information in a Washington Post article on July 25, 2003, former Senator Bob Graham (D-FL) wrote: “our investigators found a CIA memo dated August 2, 2002, whose author concluded that there is ‘incontrovertible evidence that there is support for these [9/11] terrorists within the Saudi Government.’ On September 11, America was not attacked […]
8/2/2002
On August 2, 2002, “Iraq surprised the international community by inviting the chief UN weapons inspector [Hans Blix] to Baghdad ‘to establish a solid basis for…monitoring and inspection activities.’ ” – Ricardo S. Sanchez with Donald T. Phillips, Wiser in Battle, Page 148 […]
8/1/2002
The Justice Department’s August 1, 2002, memo allowed for the use of torture against enemy combatants. “The radical legal reasoning in the document held that international laws forbidding torture did not apply to the commander in chief because Congress ‘may no more regulate the President’s ability to detain and interrogate enemy combatants than it may […]
8/1/2002
“To set parameters for permissible interrogation techniques, [Deputy Chief in the Office of Legal Counsel John] Yoo drafted a remarkable piece of legal reasoning [on August 1, 2002], now generally known as the Bybee Memo. In this legal opinion, Yoo sought to narrow interpretation of the torture statute, which prohibited U.S. personnel from engaging in […]
8/1/2002
“In August [1] 2002, the Justice Department advised the White House that torturing al Qaeda terrorists in captivity abroad ‘may be justified,’ and that international laws against torture ‘may be unconstitutional if applied to interrogations’ conducted in President Bush’s war on terrorism, according to a newly obtained memo. If a government employee were to torture […]
8/1/2002
“In the view expressed by the Justice Department memo [the Bybee memo, written on August 1, 2002], which differs from the view of the Army, physical torture ‘must be equivalent in intensity to the pain accompanying serious physical injury, such as organ failure, impairment of bodily function, or even death.’ For a cruel or inhuman […]
8/1/2002
“The August [1] 2002 [Bybee] memo from the Justice Department concluded that laws outlawing torture do not bind [President] Bush because of his constitutional authority to conduct a military campaign. ‘As Commander in Chief, the President has the constitutional authority to order interrogations of enemy combatants to gain intelligence information concerning the military plans of […]
8/1/2002
Historian Timothy Naftali wrote: “To protect [al Qaeda operations chief Abu] Zubaydah’s CIA interrogators from future prosecution on U.S. torture laws, the Justice Department issued an ‘interrogation’ opinion on August 1, 2002. The opinion defined torture as narrowly as possible–as acts that caused pain ‘associated with a sufficiently serious physical condition or injury such as […]