Zelikow advocates independent investigation into torture policies

Source: Foreign Policy

Zelikow advocates independent investigation into torture policies
Wed, 05/13/2009 - 1:34am

When Philip Zelikow, the former counselor to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, testifies before a Senate Judiciary subcommittee Wednesday about controversial legal opinions issued by the Bush-era Justice Department, he'll be wading into a political maelstrom. Former Bush administration and CIA officials have accused Congressional Democrats of hypocrisy for calling for investigations of the interrogations policies, saying that some, including now House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, were briefed on the techniques employed and approved them.

Zelikow, who revealed last month on ForeignPolicy.com that the Bush White House tried to destroy all copies of a 2006 memo he wrote opposing the policies, has generally sought to avoid the political spectacle, but describes the program as a collective failure. He is calling for an independent commission to investigate what happened.

"I think the record will show as CIA wants it to be known that quite a number of people from both parties were aware of this program, and endorsed it over a period of years," Zelikow told The Cable on the eve of his still-embargoed testimony Tuesday. "Goodness knows, this was a problem for the people inside" like himself "who objected to the program. We were constantly told, we briefed XYZ and they had no problem with that."

But Zelikow said he is not trying to point fingers. "My point of view on this is fairly straightforward," he said. "This is now a historical problem. Our country quit doing this some time ago. I think that a lot of people agree with me in judging that this program was a mistake - a pretty big mistake. It was a collective failure. A lot of people in both parties of this country convinced themselves for years that we needed a program like this to protect America.


Read more: http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2009/05/12/zelikow_advocates_independent_investigation_into_torture_policies

Otherwise, this guy is the Callisthenes of the Bush Administration.

Zelikow was deliberately placed by the Bush Administration to fix the 9/11 Commission's findings (certainly for reasons other than Bush Administration complicity in and foreknowledge of the attacks). That makes him an agent, a propagandist and a revisionist, rather than a true historian.

Just like Callisthenes. But I think that's where the similarity ends, because this guy knows what happened to Callisthenes when he broke ranks with Alexander the Great. The great-nephew of Aristotle was tortured to death in prison.

So Zelikow is going to try his best to misdirect, to wave a false path through the fog of lies and uncertainty deliberately created by his masters, to drag in the Democrats after the fact as co-conspirators. Or, he fucking dies. So expect him to be convincing, and totally full of shit.

If those techiniques were "approved" by Congress, why did Congress create a new Law saying those techniques could not be used and when Bush* signed it he inserted a "signing statement" saying he could ignore the Law if he chose. Congress as a whole, whether Democrat or Republican, did not approve of Torture...for anyone to say they did is just showing off their ignorance..