Richard Tafoya
Apr 20th, 2009, 07:42 PM
Politico:
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0409/21487.html
Former Vice President Cheney last month formally asked the Central Intelligence Agency to de-classify top secret documents he believes show harsh interrogation techniques such as waterboarding helped prevent terrorist attacks against U.S. targets, according to a source familiar with the effort.
Cheney Monday night disclosed the request but did not point out it was made before President Barack Obama unsealed the top-secret “torture memos.”
Cheney's decision sets up an potentially dramatic showdown between the president who believes the techniques amounted to unwise and immoral torture and the former vice president who believes the interrogations saved lives.
Cheney, starting with an interview with POLITICO two months ago, has been on a campaign to warn Obama is making the country more vulnerable to attack by pulling back on Bush's policies. Now, the vice president wants to make public documents he argues will prove the efficacy of tactics critics call torture.
Top White House officials described the decision to release the torture memos Thursday as among the toughest of Obama's young presidency. There was a vigorous debate internally about which documents to release and how much detail to redact. In the end, Obama himself was described as carefully editing his final statement to make sure he hit just the right note.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0409/21487.html
Former Vice President Cheney last month formally asked the Central Intelligence Agency to de-classify top secret documents he believes show harsh interrogation techniques such as waterboarding helped prevent terrorist attacks against U.S. targets, according to a source familiar with the effort.
Cheney Monday night disclosed the request but did not point out it was made before President Barack Obama unsealed the top-secret “torture memos.”
Cheney's decision sets up an potentially dramatic showdown between the president who believes the techniques amounted to unwise and immoral torture and the former vice president who believes the interrogations saved lives.
Cheney, starting with an interview with POLITICO two months ago, has been on a campaign to warn Obama is making the country more vulnerable to attack by pulling back on Bush's policies. Now, the vice president wants to make public documents he argues will prove the efficacy of tactics critics call torture.
Top White House officials described the decision to release the torture memos Thursday as among the toughest of Obama's young presidency. There was a vigorous debate internally about which documents to release and how much detail to redact. In the end, Obama himself was described as carefully editing his final statement to make sure he hit just the right note.