26.6.07
Required reading this week is Barton Gellman and Jo Becker’s four-part series on Dick Cheney for the Washington Post, which highlights the Vice President’s role as the malevolent power behind the American imperial throne. While this is not exactly news to anyone with an inquiring mind, the authors –- in interviews with over 200 people who have worked for or against Cheney over the years –- have assembled some compelling new information to add to the already extensive list of the VP’s crimes. The first and second articles (published Sunday and Monday) recount, as the authors describe it, “Cheney’s campaign to magnify presidential war-making authority, arguably his most important legacy.”
Of particular interest are the passages which spell out, often more explicitly than previously reported, the role played by Cheney and his coterie of close advisors –- in particular, his long-time legal advisor and chief counsel David Addington, White House deputy counsel Timothy Flanigan and Justice Department lawyer John Yoo –- in the creation of five documents underpinning the administration’s response to 9/11, which, in various ways, sought to grant unfettered executive power to the President and attempted to discard international laws regarding the torture and abuse of prisoners. These were: the Authorization for Use of Military Force (18 September 2001), a secret memorandum authorizing the warrantless surveillance of communications to and from the United States (25 September 2001), Military Order No 1, authorizing the creation of “Military Commissions” to try al-Qaeda suspects and their accomplices (13 November 2001), the memorandum of 25 January 2002, referring to the Geneva Conventions as “quaint,” which surfaced in a Presidential announcement, on 6 February 2002, that the Geneva Conventions did not apply to al-Qaeda or Taliban fighters captured on the battlefield, and the notorious “Torture Memo” of 1 August 2002, which sought to redefine torture as nothing less than organ failure or death.
To set the scene for the legal coup d’etat that took place in 2001 and 2002, Gellman and Becker describe the impromptu war cabinet in the bunker beneath the White House, where, on 11 September 2001, while the President was in Florida, reading ‘The Pet Goat’ to a group of children, Cheney impassively watched the aftermath of the attacks and then –- ignoring national security adviser Condoleezza Rice and State Department officials, who were in the room with him –- summoned Addington to begin “contemplating the founding question of the legal revolution to come: What extraordinary powers will the president need for his response?” By that evening, Flanigan had also been recruited, and Yoo was soon to follow.
Gellman and Becker point out that it was Flanigan, with advice from Yoo, who drafted the Authorization for Use of Military Force, which gave the President the authority “to use all necessary and appropriate force against those nations, organizations, or persons he determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001” –- and they add a comment from Yoo (who, unlike Cheney and Addington, agreed to be interviewed), explaining that “they used the broadest possible language because ‘this war was so different, you can’t predict what might come up’.” In fact, as the authors point out, they “knew very well what would come next: the interception –- without a warrant –- of communications to and from the United States.” Although warrantless communications intercepts had been forbidden by federal law since 1978, Gellman and Becker point out that they were “justified, in secret, as ‘incident to’ the authority Congress had just granted” the President, in a memorandum that Yoo finalized on 25 September.
Completely bypassing Congress and the courts, the surveillance memo marked the first, but by no means the last occasion when Cheney and his advisors cut potential objectors out of the loop. Foremost among the first wave of the excluded was John Bellinger, the ranking national security lawyer in the White House, who reported to Condoleezza Rice. Bellinger should, in theory, have been included in all discussions about surveillance, but according to a senior government lawyer cited by Gellman and Becker, he was regarded with “open contempt” by Addington.
While Cheney had been working behind the scenes in the drafting of these documents –- fulfilling the nickname “Backseat,” which he had been given by secret service officials –- Gellman and Becker describe how, on 13 November 2001, under the cover of his regular weekly meeting with the President, he played the leading role in circulating and gaining approval for the presidential order –- Military Order No 1 –- which stripped foreign terror suspects of access to any courts, authorized their indefinite imprisonment without charge, and also authorized the creation of “Military Commissions,” before which they could be tried using secret evidence. Approved within an hour by only two other figures in the White House –- associate counsel Bradford Berenson, and deputy staff secretary Stuart Bowen, whose objections that it had to be seen by other Presidential advisors were only dropped after “rapid, urgent persuasion” that the President “was standing by to sign and that the order was too sensitive to delay” –- the order’s swift and unprecedented passage bore all the hallmarks of Cheney’s preferred modus operandi: that of an ultra-secretive control freak who, while serving the President, was actually running the show himself.
Based on an opinion written by John Yoo on 6 November –- that the President did not need approval from Congress or the federal courts for his actions –- the draft for Military Order No 1 sidelined Attorney General John Ashcroft, who, we are told, angrily confronted Cheney –- to no avail –- on November 10, after learning that the draft “gave the Justice Department no role in choosing which alleged terrorists would be tried,” and completely bypassed both Colin Powell, the Secretary of State, and Condoleezza Rice. Gellman and Becker report that Powell asked, “What the hell just happened?” after seeing news of the order announced that evening on CNN. In addition, Cheney made sure that his own role was concealed: the draft that was passed to Berenson in the White House –- previously approved by Addington and Flanigan –- made no mention whatsoever of his role in its creation.
With the President’s right to capture and imprison anyone apparently guaranteed, Cheney and his advisers turned their attention to the treatment of prisoners. Cheney’s opening gambit, the day after Bush signed Military Order No 1, was to tell the US Chamber of Commerce that terrorists do not “deserve to be treated as prisoners of war.” The authors point out, however, that this was a decision that the President had not yet made, and that it was another ten weeks before he “ratified the policy that Cheney had declared”; namely, that the Geneva Conventions did not apply to al-Qaeda or Taliban fighters captured on the battlefield.
While a struggle over the treatment of prisoners raged within the administration, Gellman and Becker reveal that, shortly after Guantánamo opened, a CIA delegation came to the White House to explain, as John Yoo put it, that they were “going to have some real difficulties getting actionable intelligence from detainees,” if interrogators were obliged to confine themselves to treatment permitted by the Geneva Conventions. It was, said Yoo, “the first time that the issue of interrogations” surfaced among high-ranking White House officials, and Gellman and Becker explain that, “From that moment, well before previous accounts have suggested, Cheney turned his attention to the practical business of crushing a captive’s will to resist.” It was, they reveal, Addington who then wrote the notorious memorandum dismissing the Geneva Conventions as “quaint” –- to which the rather less articulate Alberto Gonzales put his name –- in which the Conventions’ “strict limits on questioning of enemy prisoners” were seen as hindering attempts “to quickly obtain information from captured terrorists,” and it was Addington who, two weeks later, provided the President with the words for his deliberately vague promise, on 6 February, that detainees would be treated “humanely and, to the extent appropriate and consistent with military necessity, in a manner consistent with the principles” of the Geneva Conventions.
The pinnacle of Cheney’s revolutionary sadism was the “Torture Memo” of August 2002, and Gellman and Becker once more bring new information to bear on its development, confirming the suspicions of those who have studied this period closely that the new “no limits” policy actually came into being after the capture of Abu Zubaydah in Faisalabad on 28 March 2002. John Yoo explained that he was summoned to the White House after CIA officers asked “what the legal limits on interrogation are.” The resulting opinion –- that the definition of torture could be reinterpreted to mean suffering that was “equivalent in intensity” to the pain of organ failure or death –- was issued on 1 August, signed by assistant Attorney General Jay Bybee and widely credited to Yoo, but in conversation with Gellman and Becker, Yoo revealed that Addington, Flanigan and Gonzales had all contributed to the opinion, and that Addington was responsible for another of the memo’s radical claims: that, as Commander in Chief, the President could authorize torture if he felt that it was necessary, and that Congress “may no more regulate the President’s ability to detain and interrogate enemy combatants than it may regulate his ability to direct troop movements on the battlefield.”
Yoo also confirmed that a second opinion was signed off on 1 August, which, unlike the first –- leaked after the Abu Ghraib scandal in 2004 –- has never been made public, and an unnamed source cited by the authors explained that it contained a long list of techniques approved for use by the CIA, which included waterboarding, but apparently drew the line at threatening to bury a prisoner alive.
The final twist in the dirty saga of how Cheney and his advisors brought torture out of the closet and into the mainstream is, surprisingly, provided by John Yoo, who admitted to Gellman and Becker that he “verbally warned” lawyers for Bush, Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld that “it would be a risky policy to permit military interrogators to use the harshest techniques, because the armed services, vastly larger than the CIA, could overuse the tools or exceed the limits.” “I always thought that only the CIA should do this,” he said, “but people at the White House and at DoD felt differently.”
With even Yoo admitting doubts, the spotlight on torture’s advocates remains firmly fixed not only on the semi-invisible Dick Cheney, but also on the even less visible figure of David Addington. Gonzales, throughout, is dismissed as a fool, Bush is barely visible, and Flanigan, who left the White House in December 2002, dropped off the radar after taking up commercial work and becoming embroiled in the Jack Abramoff scandal, which scuppered his nomination as deputy Attorney General in 2005, but Gellman and Becker’s exposure of the roles played by Cheney and Addington in rebranding the United States as a torture-wielding dictatorship will hopefully encourage a few more of their fellow citizens to scrutinize the power behind the President’s fading throne.
For more on Guantánamo and US torture policies, see my book The Guantánamo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America’s Illegal Prison (published by Pluto Press, distributed by Macmillan in the US, and available from Amazon — click on the following for the US and the UK). To receive new articles in your inbox, please subscribe to my RSS feed.
For more on Dick Cheney’s role in the Military Commissions and the detention of prisoners in the “War on Terror,” see the following articles: The Dark Heart of the Guantánamo Trials, Silence on war crimes as the US election campaign ends, Why Guantánamo Must Be Closed: Advice for Barack Obama and The Ten Lies of Dick Cheney (Parts One and Two).
Investigative journalist, author, campaigner, commentator and public speaker. Recognized as an authority on Guantánamo and the “war on terror.” Co-founder, Close Guantánamo and We Stand With Shaker, singer/songwriter (The Four Fathers).
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76 Responses
Andy Worthington: Folly and injustice: Salim Hamdan’s Guantanamo trial | NewsMeToday says...
[…] the alternative legal system for trying “War on Terror” prisoners that was stealthily established in November 2001 (bypassing the Justice Department, the State Department and the National Security […]
...on July 24th, 2008 at 11:11 am
DhafirTrial » Seized at 15, Omar Khadr turns 22 in Guantánamo says...
[…] Commissions — unrelated to any other form of US justice — that were conceived by Vice President Dick Cheney and his close advisers in November […]
...on September 20th, 2008 at 2:08 am
exotraxx division says...
[…] Commissions — unrelated to any other form of US justice — that were conceived by Vice President Dick Cheney and his close advisers in November […]
...on September 22nd, 2008 at 2:01 pm
Andy Worthington: A Message to Barack Obama: Don’t Forget Cheney and Addington | Cross Party Lines says...
[…] to vote for the ill-conceived legislation (the Military Commissions Act) that not only brought Dick Cheney and David Addington’s monster back to life, but also endorsed the President’s right to […]
...on September 30th, 2008 at 5:15 am
Andy Worthington: U.S. Justice Department drops "dirty bomb plot" allegation against Binyam Mohamed | NewsMesh says...
[…] (the system of trials for “terror suspects” that was conceived by Vice President Dick Cheney and his close advisers in November 2001), and, as I have recently reported in detail, everything […]
...on October 16th, 2008 at 3:07 pm
My Blog Channel » Blog Archive » Andy Worthington: Life sentence for al-Qaeda propagandist fails to justify Guantanamo trials says...
[…] in the Military Commissions Act, which revived the trial system — conceived by Vice President Dick Cheney and his closest adviser, David Addington — after the Supreme Court ruled it illegal in June […]
...on November 4th, 2008 at 1:47 am
Andy Worthington: Why Guantanamo Must Be Closed: Advice for Barack Obama | NewsMesh says...
[…] wake of the 9/11 attacks, the nation’s response was mainly driven forward by Vice President Dick Cheney, former defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld, and their close advisors (including, in particular, […]
...on November 17th, 2008 at 4:21 pm
Closing Guantánamo | freedetainees.org says...
[…] the wake of the 9/11 attacks, the nation’s response was mainly driven forward by Vice President Dick Cheney, former defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld, and their close advisors (including, in particular, […]
...on November 18th, 2008 at 3:58 am
Clare Boothe Luce Is Rolling In Her Grave. « From Laurel Street says...
[…] “The Clare Boothe Luce Policy Institute’s commitment to fostering leadership in young women is important and appreciated.” Vice President Dick Cheney […]
...on November 23rd, 2008 at 1:21 am
Andy Worthington: The Ten Lies of Dick Cheney (Part One) | My 2 Cents Worth says...
[…] a series on Dick Cheney in the Washington Post last summer, Barton Gellman and Jo Becker explained how, on the day of the […]
...on December 25th, 2008 at 6:58 am
Obama Chronicles » Andy Worthington: Chaos and Lies: Why Obama Was Right To Halt The Guantanamo Trials - all the Obama news, all the time says...
[…] prosecutors in Guantánamo’s Military Commission trials (the much-criticized system dreamt up by Dick Cheney and his close advisers in November 2001) to ask for a four-month stay on all proceedings, “in the […]
...on January 22nd, 2009 at 1:47 pm
Andy Worthington: Chaos and Lies: Why Obama Was Right To Halt The Guantanamo Trials | World Tweets says...
[…] in Guantánamo’s Military Commission trials (the much-criticized system dreamt up by Dick Cheney and his close advisers in November 2001) to ask for a four-month stay on all proceedings, “in […]
...on January 23rd, 2009 at 2:45 am
Andy Worthington: Obama’s Decisive Break with Bush’s "War on Terror" Policies | World Tweets says...
[…] the Military Commissions; and the Military Commissions Act of 2006 (PDF), which resuscitated Dick Cheney and David Addington’s reviled trial system after the Supreme Court ruled it illegal in June […]
...on January 24th, 2009 at 7:39 am
freedetainees.org » Chaos and Lies: Why Obama Was Right To Halt The Guantánamo Trials says...
[…] prosecutors in Guantánamo’s Military Commission trials (the much-criticized system dreamt up by Dick Cheney and his close advisers in November 2001) to ask for a four-month stay on all proceedings, “in the […]
...on January 24th, 2009 at 7:28 pm
freedetainees.org » Who’s Running Guantánamo? says...
[…] to all proceedings in the Military Commissions at Guantánamo (the terror trials conceived by Dick Cheney and his close advisers in November 2001), to give the new administration time to review the system […]
...on February 12th, 2009 at 2:19 am
Prosecuting the Bush Administration’s Torturers by Andy Worthington « Dandelion Salad says...
[…] the “Convening Authority” for the Military Commission trial system at Guantánamo (another brain-child of Cheney and his legal counsel, David Addington), admitted, in a Washington Post interview with Bob […]
...on March 24th, 2009 at 3:31 am
Political Jib.com » Andy Worthington: Obama’s First 100 Days: A Start On Guantanamo, But Not Enough says...
[…] by Military Commission at Guantánamo (the “dark side” of the law, as envisaged by Dick Cheney and David Addington) to be halted for four months. The second and third orders will be dealt with in the following […]
...on May 4th, 2009 at 12:03 pm
Obama’s First 100 Days: A Start On Guantánamo, But Not Enough by Andy Worthington « Dandelion Salad says...
[…] of trials by Military Commission at Guantánamo (the “dark side” of the law, as envisaged by Dick Cheney and David Addington) to be halted for four months. The second and third orders will be dealt with in the following […]
...on May 4th, 2009 at 11:56 pm
Obama Returns to Bush Era on Guantánamo | freedetainees.org says...
[…] commissions is a distressing development for the many critics of the novel trial system invented by Dick Cheney and David Addington, who hoped that the administration would resist all calls to reinstate them, and would, instead, […]
...on May 5th, 2009 at 12:50 am
Political Jib.com » Andy Worthington: Guantanamo: A Prison Built On Lies says...
[…] the Obama administration prepares to relaunch Dick Cheney and David Addington’s reviled Military Commissions (with claims that they will be used for less than 20 of the […]
...on May 19th, 2009 at 6:44 pm
Guantánamo: A Prison Built On Lies « Dandelion Salad says...
[…] the Obama administration prepares to relaunch Dick Cheney and David Addington’s reviled Military Commissions (with claims that they will be used for less than 20 of the 240 […]
...on May 20th, 2009 at 6:17 am
My Message To Obama: Great Speech, But No Military Commissions and No “Preventive Detention” by Andy Worthington « Dandelion Salad says...
[…] Military Commissions that were first conceived as an appropriate venue for “terror suspects” by Dick Cheney and David Addington, arguing — wrongly, I believe — that they have a noble history, are “an appropriate venue for […]
...on May 22nd, 2009 at 4:21 am
Guantánamo And The Many Failures Of US Politicians by Andy Worthington « Dandelion Salad says...
[…] they went to meet Gonzales, however, they found him flanked by David Addington, Vice President Dick Cheney’s Legal Counsel, and Timothy Flanigan, a lawyer in the White House Counsel’s Office. “Neither […]
...on May 27th, 2009 at 1:47 pm
A Child At Guantánamo: The Unending Torment of Mohamed Jawad by Andy Worthington « Dandelion Salad says...
[…] however, I was reminded of another of these prisoners, one of several put forward for trial in the Military Commission trial system conceived by Dick Cheney and his legal counsel, David Addington, in November 2001, who, it seemed […]
...on June 2nd, 2009 at 12:18 am
A Broken Circus: Guantánamo Trials Convene For One Day Of Chaos by Andy Worthington « Dandelion Salad says...
[…] bayed in disbelief. After all, the much-criticized system, conceived by former Vice President Dick Cheney and his legal counsel David Addington, ruled illegal by the Supreme Court in 2006, and then revived […]
...on June 5th, 2009 at 2:43 pm
Obama Returns To Bush Era On Guantánamo by Andy Worthington « Dandelion Salad says...
[…] Commissions is a distressing development for the many critics of the novel trial system invented by Dick Cheney and David Addington, who hoped that the administration would resist all calls to reinstate them, and would, instead, […]
...on June 7th, 2009 at 7:18 am
Obama Proposes Swift Execution of Alleged 9/11 Conspirators by Andy Worthington « Dandelion Salad says...
[…] the system of trials by Military Commission (the much-criticized “terror courts,” conceived by Dick Cheney and his legal counsel David Addington, which were mired in incompetence and corruption throughout their seven-year history), and secondly […]
...on June 8th, 2009 at 10:25 pm
Obama’s Confusion Over Guantánamo Terror Trials by Andy Worthington « Dandelion Salad says...
[…] in a reworked version of the Military Commission trial system introduced by former Vice President Dick Cheney in November 2001, but also drafted legislation whereby Congress could “clear the way for […]
...on June 18th, 2009 at 7:57 pm
Military Commissions: Government Flounders, As Admiral Hutson Nails Problems by Andy Worthington « Dandelion Salad says...
[…] version of the Military Commissions (the “terror trials” introduced by former Vice President Dick Cheney in November 2001), and indefinite detention. As I mentioned in an article last week, “At the […]
...on July 9th, 2009 at 12:19 am
Andy Worthington: Will Eric Holder Be The Anti-Torture Hero? - My First New Blog says...
[…] Commissions at Guantánamo (the “terror trials” introduced by former Vice President Dick Cheney in November 2001) is bitterly disappointing, as is its role in advocating a policy of […]
...on July 12th, 2009 at 7:24 pm
Will Eric Holder Be The Anti-Torture Hero? by Andy Worthington « Dandelion Salad says...
[…] Military Commissions at Guantánamo (the “terror trials” introduced by former Vice President Dick Cheney in November 2001) is bitterly disappointing, as is its role in advocating a policy of “preventive […]
...on July 13th, 2009 at 2:30 pm
“La ‘detención preventiva’ es una traición radical a nuestros valores más fundamentales” – P+DH [periodismo + derechos humanos] says...
[…] versión remozada de las comisiones militares (los “juicios a terroristas” que puso en marcha Dick Cheney en noviembre de 2001) y detención indefinida. Tras el discurso de Obama y el anuncio, hecho al […]
...on July 20th, 2009 at 10:49 am
Obama And The Deadline For Closing Guantánamo: It’s Worse Than You Think by Andy Worthington « Dandelion Salad says...
[…] courts, trials by Military Commission (the “terror trials” introduced by former Vice President Dick Cheney in November 2001, and revived by Congress in 2006 after the Supreme Court ruled them illegal), and […]
...on July 27th, 2009 at 9:56 pm
Obama And The Deadline For Closing Guantánamo: It’s Worse Than You Think « Dr Nasir Khan says...
[…] trials by Military Commission (the “terror trials” introduced by former Vice President Dick Cheney in November 2001, and revived by Congress in 2006 after the Supreme Court ruled them illegal), and […]
...on July 29th, 2009 at 8:11 pm
Tortured Guantanamo Prisoner, Government Refuses to Concede Defeat « freedetainees.org says...
[…] when he was first put forward for a trial by Military Commission (the “terror trials” introduced by Dick Cheney in November 2001, and revived by Congress in 2006, after the Supreme Court ruled them illegal), and […]
...on July 31st, 2009 at 9:12 pm
Tortured Guantanamo Prisoner, Government Refuses to Concede Defeat « freedetainees.org says...
[…] when he was first put forward for a trial by Military Commission (the “terror trials” introduced by Dick Cheney in November 2001, and revived by Congress in 2006, after the Supreme Court ruled them illegal), and […]
...on July 31st, 2009 at 9:12 pm
As Judge Orders Release Of Tortured Guantánamo Prisoner, Government Refuses To Concede Defeat by Andy Worthington « Dandelion Salad says...
[…] 2007, when he was first put forward for a trial by Military Commission (the “terror trials” introduced by Dick Cheney in November 2001, and revived by Congress in 2006, after the Supreme Court ruled them illegal), and […]
...on August 1st, 2009 at 4:36 am
Andy Worthington Discusses Guantánamo With World Can’t Wait « Dandelion Salad says...
[…] as we know but cannot yet prove, every aspect of the torture program required the approval of Dick Cheney or his legal counsel (and later Chief of Staff) David […]
...on August 12th, 2009 at 8:53 pm
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[…] by Military Commission at Guantánamo (the “terror trials” introduced by former Vice President Dick Cheney in November 2001, and revived by Congress in 2006, after the Supreme Court ruled them illegal), and […]
...on August 18th, 2009 at 3:38 pm
Arrogance And Torture: A History of Guantánamo | Andy Worthington says...
[…] John Yoo and Jay S. Bybee, under the guidance of David Addington, General Counsel to Vice President Dick Cheney — decided that, for interrogation to count as torture, the pain endured “must be equivalent […]
...on August 21st, 2009 at 5:47 pm
Arrogance And Torture: A History of Guantánamo by Andy Worthington « Dandelion Salad says...
[…] John Yoo and Jay S. Bybee, under the guidance of David Addington, General Counsel to Vice President Dick Cheney — decided that, for interrogation to count as torture, the pain endured “must be equivalent in […]
...on August 22nd, 2009 at 6:12 am
An Interview With Col. Lawrence Wilkerson (Part One) by Andy Worthington « Dandelion Salad says...
[…] the Pentagon and the CIA, and how defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld — albeit with the backing of Dick Cheney — infected the military with the kind of techniques authorized for use by the CIA on […]
...on August 27th, 2009 at 8:37 pm
Reflections On Mohamed Jawad’s Release From Guantánamo by Andy Worthington « Dandelion Salad says...
[…] to the scrap heap of history, along with every other innovation dreamt up by former Vice President Dick Cheney and his close […]
...on September 5th, 2009 at 12:17 am
Spanish judge resumes torture case against six senior Bush lawyers by Andy Worthington « Dandelion Salad says...
[…] who signed off on the August 2002 “torture memos”; and David Addington, former Vice President Dick Cheney’s Chief of […]
...on September 8th, 2009 at 8:58 pm
Andy Worthington: 9/11 Trial At Guantanamo Delayed Again: Can We Have Federal Court Trials Now, Please? | TipTe.com says...
[…] Military Commissions, established by former Vice President Dick Cheney in November 2001 and revived by Congress in 2006, after the Supreme Court ruled them illegal, were […]
...on September 22nd, 2009 at 9:05 pm
Call on A.G. Holder to Launch a Full-Scale Investigation of the “Torture Memos” « Did You Know says...
[…] who signed off on the August 2002 “torture memos”; and David Addington, former Vice President Dick Cheney’s Chief of […]
...on October 13th, 2009 at 1:12 am
Military Commissions Revived: Don’t Do It, Mr. President! by Andy Worthington « Dandelion Salad says...
[…] Act of 2006, authorizing the revival of the much-maligned “terror trials” that were first dragged from obscurity by Dick Cheney and his close advisors in November […]
...on November 5th, 2009 at 12:24 am
Military Commissions Revived: Don’t Do It, Mr. President! « freedetainees.org says...
[…] Act of 2006, authorizing the revival of the much-maligned “terror trials” that were first dragged from obscurity by Dick Cheney and his close advisors in November […]
...on November 5th, 2009 at 10:34 pm
The Logic of the 9/11 Trials, The Madness of the Military Commissions « Dandelion Salad says...
[…] judicial system — for “terror suspects” only — was set up by former Vice President Dick Cheney in November 2001, and struggled to establish anything resembling legitimacy throughout its […]
...on November 18th, 2009 at 11:53 pm
Former Guantánamo Prosecutor Loses Job For Criticizing Military Commissions by Andy Worthington « Dandelion Salad says...
[…] the chain of command from Haynes, via Susan Crawford, the Commissions’ Convening Authority, to Dick Cheney and David Addington), but it also provides another demonstration that, when it came to exercising his freedom of speech […]
...on December 9th, 2009 at 12:40 am
Chaos and Confusion: The Return of the Military Commissions by Andy Worthington « Dandelion Salad says...
[…] dragged out of obscurity in November 2001 by Dick Cheney and his close advisors, specifically to secure the convictions of “terror suspects” in a system […]
...on December 11th, 2009 at 12:58 am
Lawyers Appeal Guantanamo Trial Convictions « freedetainees.org says...
[…] trial system established by Congress in 2006, after the first version, conceived by Vice President Dick Cheney and his close advisors in November 2001, was ruled illegal by the US Supreme […]
...on February 2nd, 2010 at 1:12 am
Lawyers Appeal Guantánamo Trial Convictions | The Smoking Argus Daily says...
[…] trial system established by Congress in 2006, after the first version, conceived by Vice President Dick Cheney and his close advisors in November 2001, was ruled illegal by the U.S. Supreme […]
...on February 3rd, 2010 at 12:58 am
Prosecuting a Tortured Child: Obama’s Guantánamo Legacy. By Andy Worthington « Kanan48 says...
[…] after the Supreme Court ruled in June 2006 that the original version, the brainchild of Dick Cheney and his legal counsel David Addington, was […]
...on May 9th, 2010 at 6:57 am
No Surprise at Obama’s Guantánamo Trial Chaos | Dark Politricks says...
[…] commissions — dragged from the bowels of history in November 2001 by Dick Cheney — looked appropriate to the former vice president and to President George W. Bush, because […]
...on September 3rd, 2010 at 2:31 pm
Lawyers Play Important Role In Access To Justice | Lansing Personal Injury Lawyer says...
[…] his presentation, Mr. Spence ridiculed individuals like U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney and the Bush administration for destroying the American justice system. These people along with […]
...on November 14th, 2010 at 6:11 pm
Gvantanamo aizspogulija « socialismslv says...
[…] the Second World War. These were established through a “military order,” which was passed with virtually no oversight from anyone, signed by President Bush on November 13, […]
...on February 1st, 2011 at 2:41 pm
Hiding Horrific Tales of Torture: Why The US Government Reached A Plea Deal with Guantánamo Prisoner Noor Uthman Muhammed « Eurasia Review says...
[…] trial by Military Commission. He is only the sixth prisoner convicted since the Commissions were dragged from the grave by Dick Cheney in November 2001, and the fourth to accept a plea deal. Noticeably, of the three prisoners […]
...on February 16th, 2011 at 6:59 pm
An Extraordinary Article by Jason Leopold About His Friendship with Former Guantánamo Prisoner David Hicks « Eurasia Review says...
[…] author of a book on Dick Cheney titled Angler, wrote that Howard, “under pressure from home,” met with Cheney during the vice […]
...on February 20th, 2011 at 3:48 pm
Prosecuting a Tortured Child: Obama’s Guantanamo Legacy | STATESMAN SENTINEL says...
[…] after the Supreme Court ruled in June 2006 that the original version, the brainchild of Dick Cheney and his legal counsel David Addington, was […]
...on April 18th, 2011 at 9:44 pm
Dick Cheney And The Death Of Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi by Andy Worthington « Dandelion Salad says...
[…] by appointing a Special Prosecutor to investigate the whole sordid saga, former Vice President Dick Cheney is still gobbling up airtime as though he were still in the White House. Yesterday, in an interview […]
...on June 12th, 2011 at 12:56 am
Guantánamo: Las comisiones militares y la ilusión de justicia | Amauta says...
[…] que se utilizaron por última vez contra los saboteadores nazis en la II Guerra Mundial, fueron devueltas a la vida por el Vicepresidente Dick Cheney hace casi diez años –mediante una preocupante orden militar de […]
...on October 6th, 2011 at 3:34 am
Torture and Terror Trials | Lew Rockwell says...
[…] forward such ideas have obviously failed to scrutinize the failures of the system conceived by Dick Cheney and his close advisers in November 2001. Thrown out by the Supreme Court in June 2006, the […]
...on December 9th, 2011 at 3:00 am
Omar Khadr | Lew Rockwell says...
[…] of trials for “terror suspects” that was conceived in the Office of Vice President Dick Cheney in November 2001). Even so, it took the Canadian government many years to fulfill its most basic […]
...on December 9th, 2011 at 3:03 am
Hiding Horrific Tales of Torture: How Guantanamo Fuels Injustice (Andy Worthington) says...
[…] trial by Military Commission. He is only the sixth prisoner convicted since the Commissions were dragged from the grave by Dick Cheney in November 2001, and the fourth to accept a plea deal. Noticeably, of the three prisoners […]
...on December 16th, 2012 at 8:15 pm
2009-10-08 Request to RCMP to arrest George Bush when he is in Canada. COMPREHENSIVE argument. » The Battles says...
[…] who signed off on the August 2002 “torture memos”; and David Addington, former Vice President Dick Cheney’s Chief of […]
...on February 3rd, 2013 at 2:13 am
Guantánamo: Charge Or Release Prisoners, Say No To Indefinite Detention by Andy Worthington | Dandelion Salad says...
[…] in a trial by Military Commission (the “terror trials” introduced by former Vice President Dick Cheney in November 2001), and to be executed — thereby fulfilling their stated aim of becoming martyrs […]
...on November 16th, 2013 at 9:23 am
Cleaning Up the Guantanamo Mess: Worthington Provides Some Valuable Details | The Rag Blog says...
[…] Osama bin Laden, was tried at Guantánamo in the Military Commissions conceived by Vice President Dick Cheney and his advisers, sentenced and sent home in November to serve the last few weeks of a five-month […]
...on August 12th, 2014 at 11:29 pm
The Guantanamo Military Commissions: A Parody of Justice | The Rag Blog says...
[…] are another serious blow to the credibility of the Military Commissions, which were established by Dick Cheney and his close advisers in November 2001. In June 2006, they were ruled illegal by the US Supreme […]
...on August 17th, 2014 at 8:45 pm
Closing Guantánamo says...
[…] the wake of the 9/11 attacks, the nation’s response was mainly driven forward by Vice President Dick Cheney, former defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld, and their close advisors (including, in particular, […]
...on July 31st, 2015 at 7:54 pm
Guilty Verdict Fails to Justify Gitmo says...
[…] in the Military Commissions Act, which revived the trial system — conceived by Vice President Dick Cheney and his closest adviser, David Addington — after the Supreme Court ruled it illegal in June […]
...on August 1st, 2015 at 6:50 pm
Justice Department Drops "Dirty Bomb Plot" Allegation says...
[…] at Guantánamo (the system of trials for “terror suspects” that was conceived by Vice President Dick Cheney and his close advisers in November 2001), and, as I have recently reported in detail, everything […]
...on March 16th, 2016 at 10:30 pm
The Dark Heart of the Guantánamo Trials says...
[…] are another serious blow to the credibility of the Military Commissions, which were established by Dick Cheney and his close advisers in November 2001. In June 2006, they were ruled illegal by the US Supreme […]
...on March 16th, 2016 at 11:27 pm
Lawyers Play Important Role In Access To Justice | Lansing Personal Injury Lawyer says...
[…] his presentation, Mr. Spence ridiculed individuals like U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney and the Bush administration for destroying the American justice system. These people along with […]
...on May 1st, 2019 at 1:38 pm
Obama’s Collapse: The Return of the Military Commissions – Dandelion Salad says...
[…] are the only legitimate venue for trying offenses related to terrorism, is that the system first dragged from the grave by Dick Cheney in November 2001, and revived by Congress in the fall of 2006, and again in 2009 (under Obama), […]
...on May 20th, 2021 at 8:01 pm
An Interview With Col. Lawrence Wilkerson (Part Two) by Andy Worthington – Dandelion Salad says...
[…] had any serious intelligence value, and also includes reflections on how former Vice President Dick Cheney is “crazy,” how the Democrats have no spine and the mainstream media has no principles, and how […]
...on June 22nd, 2023 at 4:53 pm