Major Media Outlets Ignore News That CIA Documents Fail To Back-Up Cheney’s Torture Claims
Major Media Outlets Ignore News That CIA Documents Fail To Back-Up Cheney’s Torture Claims
In April, Vice President Cheney received extensive media coverage when he called on the Obama administration to release two CIA memos allegedly showing evidence that the Bush-era interrogation policies saved lives. His request came in response to critics who lambasted the Bush administration’s program and said it actually hurt U.S. efforts. From Cheney’s interview with Sean Hannity on April 20:
HANNITY: And secondly, why is it important that those interrogations took place? I mean, the ones they were talking about were sleep deprivation, waterboarding, putting insects into small, confined areas and telling them they were deadly insects. [...]
CHENEY: It worked. It’s been enormously valuable in terms of saving lives, preventing another mass casualty attack against the United States. … And there are reports that show specifically what we gained as a result of this activity. They have not been declassified.
Yesterday, the CIA released two of those memos from 2004 and 2005, which had been secret until now. As Spencer Ackerman notes, these memos do nothing to back up Cheney’s claims:
Strikingly, they provide little evidence for Cheney’s claims that the “enhanced interrogation” program run by the CIA provided valuable information. In fact, throughout both documents, many passages — though several are incomplete and circumstantial, actually suggest the opposite of Cheney’s contention: that non-abusive techniques actually helped elicit some of the most important information the documents cite in defending the value of the CIA’s interrogations.
This finding is big news. You’d think that since the media reported so much on Cheney’s claims about the documents, they would also rush to report that Cheney was wrong. Not so. Greg Sargent notes that in the major newspapers, this fact was “either not covered at all, buried deep in stories, or described in highly hedged language.”
ThinkProgress went through the coverage on Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC and found that television outlets are performing as poorly as their print counterparts. Most of the networks’ reports omitted the Cheney angle. When they did address it, they tended to give Cheney the benefit of the doubt by saying that it was “not clear” from the heavily-redacted documents. The only individuals to note Cheney’s lie were guest commentators. Watch a few of the segments here:
Cheney has since put out a carefully worded statement saying that “individuals subjected to Enhanced Interrogation Techniques provided the bulk of intelligence we gained about al Qaeda.” However, the fact remains that there is still no public evidence that those techniques actually saved lives.
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August 25th, 2009 at 2:49 pmMajor Media Outlets Ignore News That CIA Documents Fail To Back-Up Cheney’s Torture Claims
– - All you need know: “The fact that we are not really bothered any more by taking helpless detainees in our custody and (a) threatening to blow their brains out, torture them with drills, rape their mothers, and murder their children; (b) choking them until they pass out; (c) pouring water down their throats to drown them; (d) hanging them by their arms until their shoulders are dislocated; (e) blowing smoke in their face until they vomit; (f) putting them in diapers, dousing them with cold water, and leaving them on a concrete floor to induce hypothermia; and (g) beating them with the butt of a rifle — all things that we have always condemend as “torture” and which our laws explicitly criminalize as felonies (”torture means. . . the threat of imminent death; or the threat that another person will imminently be subjected to death, severe physical pain or suffering . . .”) — reveals better than all the words in the world could how degraded, barbaric and depraved a society becomes when it lifts the taboo on torturing captives,” – Glenn Greenwald, Salon.
August 25th, 2009 at 2:50 pmOur so called news media is becoming a “if we don’t tell you, then you don’t need to know” entity.
August 25th, 2009 at 2:50 pmThat’s obviously impossible. Terrorist networks change their plans and structures immediately whenever a real member gets captured. Nobody in detention could possibly know anything useful.
August 25th, 2009 at 2:51 pmAll I can say about Cheney is…give him enough rope
August 25th, 2009 at 2:59 pmFor 8 years we never got any news and when someone asked a question the White House would shut them down. Now why would the Media who is supported by Cheney ever tell the real news. Look to the Foreign Press for any news in America.
August 25th, 2009 at 2:59 pmNor do they connect the threats to pictures documenting actual behavior, i.e. the one’s not being released. If they document the execution of threats, something far more systematic went on.
August 25th, 2009 at 3:00 pm.
LIKE THIS???
Cheney criticizes ‘political’ CIA probe plan
25 Aug 2009 16:05:21 GMT
Source: Reuters
Yep, still giving deference to the criminal. Nothing new here.
The modern journalist opining for the lawless.
.
August 25th, 2009 at 3:01 pm…and Cheney just what bulk of intelligence did you gain about Al Qaeda that you had to break US laws, international treaties and had to lie to Congress about?
MSM knows that Cheney is lying and their afraid to admit that Cheney broke the laws after giving him the benefit of doubt. Besides this wouldn’t help the incredible shrinking repugs in 2010 or 2012.
August 25th, 2009 at 3:01 pmNo ticking time bomb, no hostages being beheaded, no imminent attack, just TORTURE for FALSE information.
The FACT remains that the Cheney/Bush maladministration committed WAR CRIMES! Torture is illegal, inhumane and ineffective.
DISGUSTING!
August 25th, 2009 at 3:02 pmMajor Media Outlets Ignore News That CIA Documents Fail To Back-Up Cheney’s Torture Claims
– - Look at the photos again. Forced nudity: approved by Cheney. Hooding: approved by Cheney. Stress positions: approved by Cheney. Use of dogs: approved by Cheney.
Power drills and mock executions: not approved by Cheney. Right?
August 25th, 2009 at 3:03 pmand the MSM wonders why people are turning more and more to bloggers and people like John Stewart.
August 25th, 2009 at 3:03 pmBadmoodman,
August 25th, 2009 at 3:03 pmh/t Greenwald?
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/08/24/ig_report/index.html
A Patriotic Anopheles Acting says;
Give me that damn rope!
I KNOW just what to do with it.
Have Rope, Will Travel
snark
August 25th, 2009 at 3:04 pmIt’s pretty funny to see cheney trying to “wag the dog”
without KKKarl’s help.
Maybe it’s dick’s turn to be the sacrificial lamb.
August 25th, 2009 at 3:04 pmSituations such as this one amply demonstrate the preference for on-line news sources over the big cable news networks.
They are simply more high-calorie slop for those with obese, unhealthy intellects.
The “FoxNews” effect on the competition has been stunning in its success.
All the cable news channels prefer the viewpoints of the ruling oligarchy over those of anyone else.
Hopefully, sites like this one will eventually have interactive video and the like, rendering the cable news channels utterly irrelevant.
I look forward to that day quite soon.
August 25th, 2009 at 3:04 pmor maybe that should be
Have Noose, Will Travel
snark II
August 25th, 2009 at 3:05 pm.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxnegxNEDAc
.
August 25th, 2009 at 3:08 pmIt might be too soon to jump to this conclusion but the lack of reporting on this by corporate media could be the strongest evidence of their abject fear of alienation of persons who give them their power. It did not used to be the case that the press derived its power from its efficacy to speaking truth to power; unfortunately our consolidated, profit-centered media now place a higher priority on the relationships they have cultivated with those on whom they were supposed to be reporting to the rest of us. The decades-long attack (primarily by movement conservatives) have cowed much of the media into something akin to battered spouses. That it won’t even report negatively on a former office holder with low public approval ratings illustrates the depth of the problem.
That a satirist tops the surveys of trusted news sources is highly indicative of the crisis in print and broadcast journalism today.
August 25th, 2009 at 3:09 pmThis is off the subject but check this out this is just insane.
Pro-Birther Movie Steals Media Matters Content (VIDEO)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqesXlCcUKI&eurl=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/25/pro-birther-movie-steals_n_268449.html&feature=player_embedded#t=21
August 25th, 2009 at 3:11 pmNot much of a surprise, is it? The media, in general, doesn’t know what’s important when it happens, unless it’s a fracking major disaster. Some of the journalists and reporters are probably quite capable of holding Cheney’s nuts to the flame, as it were, but their editors and managers may have a completely different sense of whether trying to tie any of this to Cheney is a worthwhile story. Will it sell newspapers or advertising time?
Of course, in a sense it isn’t important. It doesn’t matter whether torture is effective or not. The point is that it is unethical, immoral, and by our own law, illegal; ergo, it is not to be indulged in, regardless of any perceived utility. Effectiveness might be a mitigating factor in the number of years Cheney or his seconds should spend in the slammer, but it is not an issue in whether he promoted its use or not.
That he was involved in pushing for torture seems to be reasonably well established, anyway; he wouldn’t be yelping about how wonderfully effective it was if he hadn’t or if he didn’t know he’d stepped over the fracking line.
August 25th, 2009 at 3:18 pmI’m right there with you Uncle Ho. I have a sturdy oak tree in my backyard. Actualy though, he’s got more than enough rope allready. He has openly admitted that it was he who authorized waterboarding, a war crime and punishable by death. He is smug and proud of the fact that he approved torture for the sole purpose of gaining false confessions to be used for political purposes. All I hope is that this souless mutherfocker lives long enough to see justice done.
August 25th, 2009 at 3:19 pmthe media is just covering it’s own posterior. They just don’t want to admit that they were duped, through an almost laughable appeal to their patriotism and through fear, by a corrupt administration and became complicit in the disintergration of what this country supposedly stood for.
August 25th, 2009 at 3:20 pmCheney has never made a claim that was backed up by anything factual.
Ever.
August 25th, 2009 at 3:21 pm“Major Media Outlets Ignore News That CIA Documents Fail To Back-Up Cheney’s Torture Claims”
This is not a surprise. The world of journalism has completely changed and real news is tarnished. Take note that the major media is not questioning why the former clown President, George W. Gump, is not speaking out on this issue since he is the one who was propped up as President for 8 years and signed the Executive Order and bills on terrorism. We never heard former Veeps such as Walter Mondale, Daddy Bush, Quayle, Gore and so on take the circuit to defend certain issues in the WH. Why? Because these former Veeps never were given equal powers as the President like Cheney.
And since the major media is now giving Supreme Leader Dick more airtime and ignoring the real news on the CIA documents that fail to back Dick’s claim, look for another black eye in journalism from these major media outlets.
August 25th, 2009 at 3:26 pmSeeing as how Cheney was having raw CIA-gathered information “pipelined” past the CIA analysts directly to his office, it’s possible he may know something about the CIA’s operations that they don’t. But of course the fact that he pipelined intel for political reasons (in order to tell the CIA what he wanted them to tell him) demonstrates that he’d be the liar in any dispute.
August 25th, 2009 at 3:31 pmCheney has since put out a carefully worded statement saying that “individuals subjected to Enhanced Interrogation Techniques provided the bulk of intelligence we gained about al Qaeda.” However, the fact remains that there is still no public evidence that those techniques actually saved lives.
There is no need for the however. The IG report does not claim that torture resulted in the bulk of intelligence; it merely claimed that those who were tortured provided intelligence.
August 25th, 2009 at 3:50 pmIf you’ve ever been part of a news story or even witnessed it,
you know how careless the journalists and the reporters are about accuracy. They often lack the curiosity that I assumed would be the motivation of entering this field of work.
Ted Baxter is still the industry standard, even for network news.
I guess investigative journalism became too much of a career risk under bush/cheney homeland security. Most of the whistle-blowing and expose’s these days are announcements by someone’s attorney.
August 25th, 2009 at 3:51 pmCorporations own major media outlets and are using them as propaganda agents to try to take over control of our government. They are just trying to protect one of their own. If Cheney gets busted for this, their carefully laid plans could be disrupted.
If Cheney is named in this investigation, they will probably attempt to assassinate him before he talks.
August 25th, 2009 at 3:53 pmMyGodAreWeMoronsOrWhat says:
Sure however was it intelligence they couldnt have gotten WITHOUT torture? The FBI says they got better intelligence from Zubaydah BEFORE they began torturing him and got crap AFTER they began. Also is it torture WORTH trashing American values for? Do we HAVE values? If we do then we have them when it is inconvienient, when it comes at a cost. IF you only have values when it suits you, when its easy, then in fact you have no values at all
August 25th, 2009 at 4:04 pmI am so sick of the media continuing to play into the Bush/Cheney lying lexicon– “enhanced interrogation techniques” equals TORTURE. Start calling it that. Never did an administration use dishonest euphemisms to hide criminality the way Bush/Cheney did, and the media just lets them get away with it.
August 25th, 2009 at 4:24 pmCol. Lawrence Wilkerson, chief of staff to Colin Powell when he was Secretary of State, went on Keith & called not just wrong but Cheney “medieval.” David Shuster on MSNBC said as much today, too.
Foon Rhee in the Boston Globe reported Cheney’s assertions but (a) refuted them & (b) cited people who refuted them.
Mark Scherer, who’s a righty, points out that Cheney says we should all express our “gratitude” to a guy who beat a detainee to death with a flashlight.
To name a few.
The Constant Weader at http://www.RealityChex.com
August 25th, 2009 at 4:24 pmHeadline: Major Media Outlets Ignore News…
Cite: Fox News.
Conclusion: Think Progress has bought into the idea that the Fox Propaganda Channel is a news network.
Lincoln was right, “You can fool some of the bloggers all of the time.”
August 25th, 2009 at 4:43 pmcheney. The cruelty of this man cannot be over estimated.
August 25th, 2009 at 4:49 pmMajor Media Outlets Ignore News That CIA Documents Fail To Back-Up Cheney’s Torture Claims
as a matter of fact… from the googlenews page:
CIA Probe Fires Up Debate Over Whether Harsh Interrogations Were …
FOXNews – ?2 hours ago?
Former Vice President Dick Cheney, the biggest proponent of enhanced interrogation tactics and the release of CIA documents about them, called the newly declassified information proof that interrogators gained valuable intelligence and saved lives.
huh…
August 25th, 2009 at 5:22 pmQue Sera………….
August 25th, 2009 at 6:51 pmI agree that waterboarding is a form of torture. I am also totally ok with it being used on KNOWN terrorists, in order to protect innocent lives.
August 25th, 2009 at 7:06 pmtiminfl says:
Then first of all you have no integrity and second you havent thought that through. Exactly how would that work? How much life saving information would they still have AFTER a trial? Before a trial we are NOT talking about known terrorists just suspected and accused terrorists. I expect more from my country than cowards saying its ok for the US to join the evil doers club as long as it makes me feel safer.
August 25th, 2009 at 8:02 pmMuch of the (false) justification given for the authorization to torture stems from the observation that these people are not really “military” combatants. By this measure, it would be perfectly okay for police or anyone else to torture suspects. Wrong!!!!
August 25th, 2009 at 8:30 pmtiminfl says:
I agree that waterboarding is a form of torture. I am also totally ok with it being used on KNOWN terrorists, in order to protect innocent lives.
By “KNOWN,” I take it you mean someone who has been convicted of “terrorism” by a legitimate court of law? Who would determine in advance whether doing it would protect anybody? Another court of law? Under what guidelines?
You don’t know, you don’t care, and you’ve never given it a moment’s thought.
The fact that “you are totally ok with it” says nothing about the procedure itself, and everything about your utter lack of any ethical standards whatsoever.
Flee, scum.
August 26th, 2009 at 12:44 amWhat did America expect? MSM has not been reporting ‘real news or truthful news’ since gwb was elected, did you really think they would start doing it now?
August 26th, 2009 at 10:24 am40. ElBruce sez:…
Good point. There’s something a little twisted in timinfl’s thinking.
Hypothetically, timinfl, if we were going to go out and torture someone, we’d want to start at the point of intake, when the “terrorist” first comes into the system. However, at that point, we may have no idea whether the person is a terrorist; interrogation might yield some insight, but probably not an interrogation with physical duress included.
If we do know who the person is and have some sort of resume built up from intel about the person and his or her associates, then I suppose we could say we know whether or not the person is, in fact, a terrorist, but I suspect it’s still presumptive, in legal terms. But in that case, since we already know the person is a terrorist, what’s the point of torture, or physical duress? Do we really need a pack of lies or whatever the person thinks we want to know? Of course, that obtains with the person mentioned first, the one whose status we don’t know. In both cases, we need factual verifiable information, not some sort of spew that the person blows out to stop the pain.
And once either person has passed through adjudication and becomes a known terrorist, there’s no particularly good reason for torture and it does fall under the Constitutional mandate that outlaws ‘cruel and unusual punishment’. Of course, this is hypothetical because it’s illegal anyway. Too bad Cheney and company couldn’t figure that out before they went out and retarnished our reputation.
August 26th, 2009 at 2:43 pmif we are talking bout war crimes than we need to fry clitton also for bombing a asperin factory– oh sorry we can’t do that because it was ok , he is a dem. talk bout a double standard
August 28th, 2009 at 2:50 pmvery thanks for article!
August 29th, 2009 at 9:41 am