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
On August 1, 2002, on assignment as a branch chief in the Counterterrorist Center’s Osama bin Laden unit, CIA Agent John Kiriakou was told by an unidentified director, after signing multiple secrecy agreements: ” ‘We’re going to invade Iraq next spring. We’re going to overthrow Saddam Hussein. We’re going to establish the largest air force […]
8/1/2002
From an August 1, 2002, article in The Washington Post, regarding the possibility of international involvement in Iraq, “Jordan’s King Abdullah says, ‘In all the years I have seen in the international community, everybody is saying this is a bad idea.’ ” – Lawrence F. Kaplan and William Kristol, The War Over Iraq, Page 89 […]
8/1/2002
Presidential advisor Karl Rove wrote, regarding President Bush’s fight against terrorism: “Of all the steps the Bush administration took…no issue became as controversial as when the president–unbeknownst to me at the time–authorized the use of enhanced interrogation techniques (EITs) on high-value terrorist detainees. These tough, coercive techniques included stress positions, cramped confinement, ‘insult slaps,’ dietary […]
8/1/2002
Deputy Chief in the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) John Yoo’s ‘torture memo‘ of August 1, 2002, “identified torture with acts that cause the amount of pain ‘associated with a sufficiently serious physical condition or injury such as death, organ failure, or serious impairment of bodily functions.’ Any action that fell short of these extreme […]
8/1/2002
“[T]he infamous ‘torture memo‘ of August 1, 2002… formed part of the legal basis for what President Bush later confirmed were ‘alternative’ interrogation procedures used at secret locations on Abu Zubaydah, a top al Qaeda operative; Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the al Qaeda mastermind behind the 9/11 attacks; and other ‘key architects of the September 11th’ […]
8/1/2002
“On August 1 [2002], the CIA issued a classified paper that was distributed to senior Bush administration officials. It concluded that a shipment of high-strength aluminum tubes from China to Iraq was a sign that Iraq was reviving its uranium enrichment program in order to build an atomic bomb.” – James Risen, State of War, […]
8/1/2002
A Washington Post article on June 8, 2004, mentioned “the existence of the so-called Torture Memo, a secret document drafted for the president [Bush] by his Office of Legal Counsel. Written in August [1] 2002, the memo reassessed the executive’s prerogatives and responsibilities under U.S. law and under the Geneva Convention Against Torture and Other […]
8/1/2002
“On August 1, 2002, in an infamous memo written largely by [Deputy Chief of the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC), John] Yoo but signed by Assistant Attorney General Jay S. Bybee, the OLC redefined the crime of torture to make it all but impossible to commit. …If all else failed, Yoo and Bybee advised, the […]
8/1/2002
On August 1, 2002, in a meeting of top U.S. military commanders, Central Command leader General Tommy Franks said: ” ‘The end state for this operation [in Iraq] is regime change. …Success is defined as regime leadership and power base destroyed; WMD capability destroyed or controlled; territorial integrity intact; ability to threaten neighbors eliminated; an […]