I would like to request an edit for the following time line entry;

April 24: WaPo releases JPRA memo–which had been circulated among the torture architects–using the word “torture” and warning that torture will beget false information and bring harm to our own soldiers

pease to add my italics, a most important point

I believe this is one of the most important memos since it clearly demonstrates the “consequences” were not “unintended” they were in fact intended consequences

Jeremy Scahill nails it

Congress was Briefed in Real Time on Bush-Era Torture Tactics. Is That Why They Prefer Whitewash Commissions and Closed Door Hearings?
Are Leading Democrats Afraid of a Special Prosecutor to Investigate Torture?

By JEREMY SCAHILL

There are not exactly throngs of Democratic Congressmembers beating down the doors of the Justice Department demanding that Attorney General Eric Holder appoint a special Independent Prosecutor to investigate torture and other crimes. And now it seems that whatever Congress does in the near term won’t even be open to the public. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) said this week that he prefers that the Senate Intelligence Committee hold private hearings. The chair of the committee, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, has asked the White House not to take any action until this private affair is concluded. She estimates that will take 6-8 months.
http://www.counterpunch.org/scahill04242009.html

Scorpions in a bottle:

“Release of Bush-era documents that shed more light on the origins of the CIA’s use of harsh interrogation tactics has ignited a backstage battle between former Bush officials over a crucial May 2002 meeting that paved the way for use of waterboarding on a suspected al-Qaida leader.”

(Hope this hasn’t already been posted.)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/200…..rture_memo

http://tinyurl.com/ddozkj

I’m still wondering about the fire which occurred inside the Office of the Vice President (specifically, Amy Whitelaw’s Political Director’s office, so they say after first declaring it to have started in “a closet”) on Dec. 19 2007 at 9:15 a.m. — the same morning in which the New York Times revealed that four White House lawyers discussed the destruction of the torture tape evidence. David Addington was the chief of staff to this office. Co-incidence? They would have been tipped off that the Times was going to be running that story. What memos do you think were possibly destroyed? Evidence destruction seems to be their modus operandi after all.

Did we know this? (I mean the part about the Greek philosophy, specifically.) From a Sunday WaPo article:

[Khalid Sheik} Mohammed continued to be a valued source of information long after the coercive interrogation ended. Indeed, he has gone on to lecture CIA agents in a classroom-like setting, on topics from Greek philosophy to the structure of al-Qaeda, and wrote essays in response to questions, according to sources familiar with his time in detention.

The other thing interesting to me is:

“The detainee-supplied data permitted us to round them up as they were being trained, rather than just before they came ashore,” said one former intelligence official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the cases are classified. “Not headline stuff, but the bread and butter of successful counterterrorism. And something that few people understand.”

Interesting because he’s saying torture worked, but not in the sense that it prevented ticking time bomb scenarios. It just worked in the sense that they could pick up other suspects more quickly.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/…..22_pf.html