Perhaps some new facts may yet emerge if Dick Cheney succeeds in his unexpected and welcome crusade to declassify documents that he says will exonerate administration interrogation policies. Meanwhile, we do have evidence for an alternative explanation of what motivated Bybee to write his memo that August, thanks to the comprehensive Senate Armed Services Committee report on detainees released last week.

The report found that Maj. Paul Burney, a United States Army psychiatrist assigned to interrogations in Guantánamo Bay that summer of 2002, told Army investigators of another White House imperative: “A large part of the time we were focused on trying to establish a link between Al Qaeda and Iraq and we were not being successful.” As higher-ups got more “frustrated” at the inability to prove this connection, the major said, “there was more and more pressure to resort to measures” that might produce that intelligence.

Read the article here.

Department of Defense: Sens. Richard Shelby (R-AL) and Jeff Sessions (R-AL) announced today that “they are blocking President Barack Obama’s nomination of Ashton Carter as Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics.” The senators want assurances that Carter will not “change the criteria” on which the Pentagon considers a refueling tanker contract that could benefit defense contractors in their state.

Department of Veterans Affairs: Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC) asked the Senate Veterans Affairs committee to delay voting on the “nomination of Tammy Duckworth, an injured Iraq war helicopter pilot, to be an assistant secretary at the Department of Veterans Affairs.” Contacted by ThinkProgress, Burr’s Press Secretary, David Ward said that Burr is waiting for the answers to several questions he’s put to the White House and Duckworth, but would not disclose what those questions were.

White House Office of Legal Council: Dawn Johnsen’s nomination as head of the OLC has been delayed in part because Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) has ideological differences with her. As the Legal Times explained, “citing Johnsen’s criticisms of Bush national security policies, [Cornyn] accused her of lacking ‘the seriousness and necessary resolve’ to fight terrorism,” while “other Republicans have targeted her work as legal director for NARAL Pro-Choice America from 1988 to 1993.”

Department of State: Right wing commentators are working to block the appointment of Harold Koh to the State Department’s top legal adviser, smearing him as a “threat to democracy” for his being an international law expert. As the Century Foundation notes, “The fervent opponents of Harold Koh turn out to be enthusiastic defenders of John Yoo.”
From Think Progress

Dear Friend,

On February 23, Karl Rove was supposed to testify before the House Judiciary Committee in accordance with a Congressional subpoena. But Rove didn’t show up. Again.

Rove didn’t show up last year when he was ordered to testify, because his old friend President Bush said that Rove’s testimony was protected by executive privilege. Now that Bush is no longer in office, we may finally have an opportunity to learn the truth about his alleged misdeeds, from authorizing voter suppression tactics to orchestrating the arrest of Alabama Governor Don Siegelman.

But even though we have a new president, Karl Rove is still acting like he’s entitled to all the privileges that came with his old job.

I just took action to tell Attorney General Eric Holder to compel Karl Rove to comply with the subpoena. I hope you will, too.

Please have a look and take action.

I have plenty to say, responding to Monica Crowley’s despicable statement blaming the people that were duped by the sub-prime mortgage industry. Also blaming the Clinton administration for Urban renewal policies supposedly forced on the lending institutions Blaming everyone but those responsible. The Republicans they were the party that had control of the legislative branch of government. They were the people that wrote the laws deregulating wall street , the banking industry, Fanny and Freddie. Clarence Page said it all everyone was happy as long as they were making money. Back to Monica, granted not all of the people losing their homes are innocent there are people that intentionally misrepresented their financial standing while applying for a mortgage. It is just like you nasty republicans to characterize a group of people by the few bad apples that are abusing the system just to justify denying help to those less forunate. And don’t bother with your standard bleeding heart liberal smear you need new chops Monica.

So here they go trying to rewrite history and shifting blame. It is our job this time to remind everyone of their tactics and the consquences of not paying attention. We must not allow these traitors to ever gain control of our government again!

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