Karen Hughes ‘worried’ that torture would harm U.S. image, was ‘very vocal’ in internal debate.
Karen Hughes ‘worried’ that torture would harm U.S. image, was ‘very vocal’ in internal debate.
Last month, Phillip Zelikow disclosed that while serving as a top-aide to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in 2005, he had written and circulated a memo expressing grave concerns about the Bush administration’s torture regime. Another memo Zelikow co-authored at around the same time even offered a legal alternative to the program. Now, it turns out that strong opposition to President Bush’s interrogation policies came from within his tight-knit inner circle. Karen Hughes, counselor to the president, told the Houston Chronicle this week that she was “very vocal in the internal debate”:
She acknowledged the current uproar over interrogation tactics and allegations of prisoner torture during the Bush years.
“I was very vocal in the internal debate,” she said. “I worried about how that would make us look in the eyes of the world. But I had left the White House when a lot of that was taking place.”
Then she paused, worried for the first time in 90 minutes that she’d made a gaffe. Whatever Sen. John McCain says about interrogation techniques, she added quickly, she has similar views.
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Whatever Sen. John McCain says about interrogation techniques, she added quickly, she has similar views.
Coward.
May 19th, 2009 at 1:37 pmI get it…
Sasquatch is worried we’ll look bad by torturing, but doesn’t seem worried that’s it’s WRONG and ILLEGAL.
Way to throw your Georgie under the bus!
May 19th, 2009 at 1:38 pmKaren Hughes worried about that torture would harm US image.
The rest of the world calls the Bush/Cheney administration what they are correctly: WAR CRIMINALS
May 19th, 2009 at 1:39 pmYes, Karen, that’s what’s wrong with torture…it might make us look bad.
just…wow.
May 19th, 2009 at 1:40 pm“Karen Hughes ‘worried’ that torture would harm U.S. image, was ‘very vocal’ in internal debate.”
( ghost voice) “Dont you believe it!”
RIP
May 19th, 2009 at 1:41 pmSGT Stephen R. Sherman
C CO 1-5 IN (STRYKER)
KIA 3 Feb 2005
Mosul, Iraq
Yes, Karen, we understand. It’s all about the appearance of wrong doing, not the wrong doing itself.
PEACE
May 19th, 2009 at 1:42 pmShe has always been Bush’s spin doctor. She’s part of the “legacy project”.
If her mouth is moving…..she’s lying. Period. Next!
May 19th, 2009 at 1:47 pmHer days of loyalty to Little George may be done . . .
May 19th, 2009 at 1:48 pmHer days of loyalty to Little George may be done . . .
May 19th, 2009 at 1:48 pm. . . unless, of course he ponies up for the services of Burson-Marsteller.
May 19th, 2009 at 1:49 pmNow if they had just kept it secret, then it would be alright.
Fcuk the Republic Fascist Party
May 19th, 2009 at 1:49 pm.
CONSPIRACY TO COERCE A FALSE CONFESSION THROUGH TORTURE!
… Yep, the birds sure do sing when the sh!t hits the fan.
.
May 19th, 2009 at 1:49 pm“Then she paused, worried for the first time in 90 minutes that she’d made a gaffe.”
We won’t need a Truth Commission if these people keep on confessing.
May 19th, 2009 at 1:51 pm.
Q U E S T I O N:
I wonder if John McCain thinks that a conspiracy to coerce a false confession through the use of torture is justified?
.
May 19th, 2009 at 1:51 pmI wonder if coward and torture supporter CFP will drop by to provide his insight on this latest thread.
May 19th, 2009 at 1:55 pmIt’s funny, in a sick sort of way, how the Republicans in the Bush crime family, the Republican Senators and Representatives all happily goose-stepped along with the three tyrants, Cheney, Bush and Rumsfeld for eight long years. Now a few of these profiles in cowardice, complicity and cronyism are now claiming, that no, no, no, they were really standing up against torture, treason and tyranny… Too little and much too late, Miss Karen Hughes.
May 19th, 2009 at 1:55 pmJust another rat jumping off the SS Bush-tanic. Unfortunately for her, the ship has already sunk…
May 19th, 2009 at 1:57 pmI think some of our posters here are missing the point. As more and more pressure is applied, former stooges are starting to see they might go down with the ship. So they start protecting themselves and pointing fingers.
May 19th, 2009 at 1:59 pmThose Iraqi boys were “INTEROGATED” in far contrast to the way the Insurgents “interogated” our soldiers they’ve captured who are all dead by the way!!!! We’ve prosecuted any of our soldiers who’ve acted criminally as well. What more could you want?
Tired of Fighting: Who was SGT Sherman
May 19th, 2009 at 1:59 pmHer stance on this will be as well received as her trying to ‘educate’ Muslim women on the nuances of Western culture.
May 19th, 2009 at 1:59 pmEven just a decade ago, a debate about torture would have been as unthinkable in this country as a debate about slavery or a debate about domestic ethnic cleansing.
And now we have Karen Hughes acknowledging the debate as calmly as if she was talking about the weather.
What has happened to us?
May 19th, 2009 at 2:01 pm.
Of course Karen Hughes protested against this policy…
… Just like Nancy Pelosi and the other’s beiefed did?
.
May 19th, 2009 at 2:01 pmHitler was a bad man because he made Germany look bad in the rest of the world
May 19th, 2009 at 2:02 pmWho tortures?
May 19th, 2009 at 2:02 pmFanatics, sadists, criminals, psychopaths, dictators, tyrants, kings, mercenaries, CIA agents and Republicans.
Sad she is only worried about torture if chimpy et al were caught.
The club of compassion.
May 19th, 2009 at 2:06 pmLike all women in the bush circle they just sing along while the decider plays his gut.
May 19th, 2009 at 2:07 pmWhy women like her or christene todd whitman or condi or others ever signed on to the bush wagon is puzzling. Women just don’t make the grade in bushland. Ask laura or barbra.
I’ve heard it said that Pelosi theoretically could have tussled with the Bush administration in the background after getting her classified briefings, but, really, if they didn’t listen to their own people does anyone REALLY think they would have cared one bit for what Pelosi thought about their new ‘enhanced’ interrogation techniques?
May 19th, 2009 at 2:08 pmI was wondering when Pelosi’s name would be brought up. All I have to say is that when I’m mad about the prices at WalMart, I don’t yell at the person at the Cash Register, I go to the Manager…..
May 19th, 2009 at 2:10 pmStand by your swagger, girls.
May 19th, 2009 at 2:10 pmTo borrow…
Pol Pot, Stalin, Saddam, Bush/Cheney…
… They all had enablers, too.
.
May 19th, 2009 at 2:11 pmLook at this little nugget I found:
Here is an interesting take from some in the White House press corps.
“Look at Karen,” I said, nudging a colleague.
“Oh, my God. You’ve got to be kidding me.”
As Gov. Bush read the text of his speech from a teleprompter, his communications director was silently mouthing the words along with him. The synchronized delivery suggested a parent sitting in the audience of an elementary school pageant while mouthing forgotten lines as her child stood dumbstruck onstage.
“Do you suppose she has any idea how odd that looks?” my friend asked.
“If she does, I don’t think she cares.
May 19th, 2009 at 2:11 pmraynman,
May 19th, 2009 at 2:14 pmWhen that person at the Register is the Department Manager of the House and they brake the refund button, I’m surely gonna say something to them and let others know about their incompetence and lack of managerial skills. I would write the CEO and suggest sending her back to the stock room for a few more sessions, at least!
Hughes was sworn in as Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs on September 9, 2005. She quit in December 2007.
That seems late in the whole Bush/Cheney torture machine timeline.
May 19th, 2009 at 2:14 pmmary lacewing,
And here these G(no)Pee-er’s are upset that Obama reads from a teleprompter…
… At least he doesn’t require someone else reading along, mouthing the words.
.
May 19th, 2009 at 2:16 pmAs Gov. Bush read the text of his speech from a teleprompter, his communications director was silently mouthing the words along with him
Didn’t you see the little teeny Bluetooth in her ear and the little teeny receiver in Dubya’s ear? Since Georgie isn’t so good with the written word, she wasn’t taking any chances.
May 19th, 2009 at 2:19 pmFrom December 2005:
HANNITY: How hard is it on him to have the daily non-stop barrage of criticism, which has been particularly harsh of late?
HUGHES: Well, nobody likes it, obviously.
HANNITY: That he (Bush) lied, that he lied, that he hyped, that he misled?
HUGHES: Well, nobody likes that. He has had a remarkable ability to sort of let it roll off. And as I said, he knows in his heart he is doing the right thing. I have to say, as a friend of his, that what gets me the most are the questions about integrity, because this is a man of enormous integrity.
And I was there during much of this time. I left in the summer of 2002, but I was still involved in the lead-up to the Iraq decision, and no one there misled anybody. The president made the decision based on the best information, the best intelligence that he had at the time.
May 19th, 2009 at 2:30 pmFrom December 2007:
Hughes, who played a key role in crafting the pre-Iraq invasion “message” to US voters, was a Texas television reporter before becoming one of Bush’s most trusted advisors.
She’s one of the people who got us into Iraq.
May 19th, 2009 at 2:33 pmAs many pointed out, Karen Hughes worked with George W. from 2001-2002. That means she was there at the beginning of Bush’s torture strategizing.
I suggest she go under oath in front of a special prosecutor.
http://www.harrywalker.com/speaker/Karen-Hughes.cfm?Spea_ID=606
May 19th, 2009 at 2:42 pmKaren Hughes was so ill-prepared for life in Washington that she crawled back to Texas just a year after Bush was inaugurated. Remind me: how is she credible?
May 19th, 2009 at 2:43 pmWe should all press for the day when everyone in the Bush White House is ordered to testify under oath about what they knew, when they knew, what they saw and what they did.
Hughes was opposed to torture, but not because it is morally wrong and illegal, but because it would make us look bad. Her reasoning is faulty at best, but she says she objected, and that means she was privy to those discussions: who, when, where etc. She needs to go under oath.
May 19th, 2009 at 2:51 pmWe need a truth commission, yes, but we also need a special prosecutor.
Karen Hughes currently makes big money in Washington:
Ambassador Karen Hughes is currently Global Vice Chair of Burson-Marsteller. As a Senior Strategist she helps business leaders strengthen their corporate/CEO reputations, achieve business goals through effective communications and shape positive public and stakeholder perceptions. Since joining Burson-Marsteller in 2008, she has brought to the business world her unique expertise honed over more than 30 years of public policy, communications and political experience, from helping lead winning presidential and gubernatorial campaigns to serving at the highest levels of federal and state government.
May 19th, 2009 at 2:53 pmHughes worked for Bush when he was Gov. of Texas from 1995 to 2000. She was then with the Bush administration from 2001-July of 2002 as Counselor to the Pres. She was in contact with Bush directly several times a week, however. after that. In August. of 2004, she came back on board full-time with the Bush reelection campaign. In March of 2005, Bush nominated Hughes for the undersecretary of state for public diplomacy with the rank of ambassador, and she was confirmed in July of 2005. She remained within the Bush administration until Oct. of 2007. SO…just what period of time is she speaking about?
In addition, after she supposedly left the formal employ of the White House, she was a member of the Iraq Study Group, which was the marketing arm of the White House. It was set up on AUGUST of 2002, specifically to sell the 2003 Iraq invasion.
The truth is, Hughes never really did leave the White House, though her more formal role ended for a short period of time.
May 19th, 2009 at 3:01 pmBurson Marsteller – isn’t that Mark Penn’s PR firm?
Burson-Marsteller represented Blackwater USA following a September 16 incident in which the company killed 17 Iraqi civilians.
Burson-Marsteller (B-M) is one of the largest public relations (PR) agencies in the world and also the most reviled due to its mercenary attitude in choosing clients and contracts, and its frequent run ins with activists for environmental and other progressive causes. When helping its industry clients to escape environmental legislation or sprucing up the image of some of the most repressive governments on Earth, B-M brings to bear state of the art techniques in manipulating the mass media, legislators and public opinion.
May 19th, 2009 at 3:03 pmI’m sure she had a very vocal debate inside her head.
May 19th, 2009 at 3:06 pmSheepledog We know you are a moron. Your comment was of course stupid just like YOU. By that logic since the white Americans Ted Bundy was a serial killer and Timothy McViegh was a terrorist we can just torture white males at random to stop them from killing and blowing up buildings. Why dont YOU volunteer to be the first. After all you arent using your brain anyway
May 19th, 2009 at 5:29 pmeveryone bailing out.
at least cheney is not bailing out.
he is standing his ground.
he knows the demos the very best.
they are too spineless to do anything about it
give him credit for that
he knows the demos he had his way with them the entire time he ran this country.
even hillary fell to her knees for him and it lost her the primary.
May 19th, 2009 at 6:52 pmYes, that’s Mark Penn’s firm and now the home of Dana Perino.
http://www.bizjournals.com/washington/stories/2009/04/13/daily16.html
May 19th, 2009 at 8:47 pmIt’s nice that Zelikow is now mouthing the right lines, but let’s not forget his role in stealing from us our sovereignty in the form of the truth of our time.
Zelikow’s 9/11 report was a whitewash. As the Executive Director, he strangely failed to keep phone logs for the commission. It’s impossible to know if anyone, Karl Rove for example, had improper contacts and influence.
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/2/7/the_9_11_commission_torture_how
PZ keeps pointing to Democratic Party-vetted people to bolster his argument with “bipartisanship,” even though Lee Hamilton still has the stench of our Central American massacres. We’re expected to have forgotten that like Zelikow seems to have.
Isn’t this an estoppel argument? The Mysterious Dr.Z: What do you mean, my farts stink? I have reports from CIA that say they don’t, and now CIA is under criminal investigation, so even if I do stink, which of course I suspected, why didn’t CIA tell me?
DEMOCRACY NOW!: Did you ask them?
Philip Zelikow: “Um, I did not, but that wasn’t uh, I wasn’t the person who was pushing the issue directly with Tenet. That was more the job of my bosses on the commission, Tom Kean and Lee Hamilton and other commissioners. Um, it was….”
He’s XO of the BushCo damage control team, so what’s he do about being stonewalled by CIA? He complains vociferously in writing, but not a peep in person?
No, he says, that was the duty of his bosses, Kean&Hamilton, the two-headed bipartisan hydra. Look, he asked CIA lots of questions. In writing. The Bush Justice Department was supposedly investigating CIA, presumably for being such poor correspondents. And besides, they told him not to look, what could he do?
Zelikow himself said, one “can only assume that they had something they wished to UH something they didn’t want the commission to know.”
How could poor Zelikow know that his shit stinks? You don’t seriously expect him to trust his own senses, do you? That would be madness!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
AMY GOODMAN: Did you know that these questions were obtained under duress, under torture?
PHILIP ZELIKOW: We did not know that. We could see that they were extremely reluctant to tell us about the circumstances, and therefore we could only assume that they felt they had something that they wished—they didn’t want the Commission to know about.
AMY GOODMAN: Did you ask if they were obtained through torture?
PHILIP ZELIKOW: We asked how they were obtained.
AMY GOODMAN: And what were you told?
PHILIP ZELIKOW: It was—we were told we can’t go in—we can’t tell you that. And we asked those questions—that’s why when the disclosure came out about the CIA tape recordings, people immediately said, “Well, did the Commission asked for information of this kind?” And we immediately prepared a report, which I did, actually, for Tom Kean and Lee Hamilton, which has been leaked to the New York Times and is available on the internet, that details exactly how thoroughly we questioned CIA about the information surrounding these interrogations. And CIA’s alleged withholding of information from us is currently one of the subjects of the federal criminal investigation that’s now underway.
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Zelikow later repeats that bit about the leak, as if citing a reference. Is that how they do things at UVirginia, where he’s supposedly a professor of history?
And here’s his fig leaf for torture: the infamous text box of page 146, in which he tried to bury his report’s reliance on evidence manufactured to order by torture:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Detainee Interrogation Reports
Chapters 5 and 7 rely heavily on information obtained from captured al Qaeda members. A number of these “detainees” have firsthand knowledge of the 9/11 plot.
Assessing the truth of statements by these witnesses–sworn enemies of the United States–is challenging. Our access to them has been limited to the review of intelligence reports based on communications received from the locations where the actual interrogations take place. We submitted questions for use in the interrogations, but had no control over whether, when, or how questions of particular interest would be asked. Nor were we allowed to talk to the interrogators so that we could better judge the credibility of the detainees and clarify ambiguities in the reporting. We were told that our requests might disrupt the sensitive interrogation process.
We have nonetheless decided to include information from captured 9/11 conspirators and al Qaeda members in our report. We have evaluated their statements carefully and have attempted to corroborate them with documents statements of others. In this report, we indicate where such statements provide the foundation for our narrative. We have been authorized to identify by name only ten detainees whose custody has been confirmed officially by the U.S. government.*
____________
*Those detainees are Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Abu Zubaydah, Riduan Isamuddin (also known as Hambali), Abd Rahim al Nashiri, Tawfiq bin Attash (also known as Khallad), Ramzi Binalshibh, Mohamed al Kahtani, Ahmad Khalil Ibrahim Samir al Ani, Ali Abd al Rahman al Faqasi (also known as Abu Bakr al Azdi), and Hassan Ghul.
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It’s now known that we waterboarded KSM and AZ. SO, all of a sudden, PZ favors finding out what he covered up before? BS.
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See also http://rawstory.com/08/news/2009/05/13/report-much-of-911-commissions-findings-cite-intelligence-garnered-by-torture/
“Much of the material cited in the 9/11 Commission’s findings was derived from terror war detainees during brutal CIA interrogations authorized by the Bush administration, according to a Wednesday report.
“More than one-quarter of all footnotes in the 9/11 Report refer to CIA interrogations of al Qaeda operatives subjected to the now-controversial interrogation techniques,” writes former NBC producer Robert Windrem in The Daily Beast. “In fact, information derived from the interrogations was central to the 9/11 Report’s most critical chapters, those on the planning and execution of the attacks.”
“… [Information] derived from the interrogations is central to the Report’s most critical chapters, those on the planning and execution of the attacks,” reported NBC. “The analysis also shows – and agency and commission staffers concur – there was a separate, second round of interrogations in early 2004, done specifically to answer new questions from the Commission….”
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In other words, Zelikow used evidence manufactured to order by torture.
May 20th, 2009 at 12:00 amSInce when was Karen opposed to ANYTHING that her little jesus, George w. Bush did. She backed him every step of the way. What does she think we don’t have memories?
May 20th, 2009 at 12:53 am