It’s racism, straight up.
The declassification of Senate Intelligence Committee documents showed former National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice in the command chain for approval. It puts the decision [to allow waterboarding] even further in the White House, joining then-Attorney General John Ashcroft and then-White House counsel Alberto Gonzales (via Baldilocks):
Then-national security adviser Condoleezza Rice verbally OK’d the CIA’s request to subject alleged al-Qaida terrorist Abu Zubaydah to waterboarding in July 2002, a decision memorialized a few days later in a secret memo that the Obama administration declassified last week . . . .
Rice may not have occupied an organizationally higher spot in the White House than Ashcroft or Gonzales, but she’s been known as one of George Bush’s closest advisers ever since he took office. If one was tempted to make a compartmentalization defense for Bush in case of a prosecution, having Rice in the loop giving her blessing would make that more difficult . . . . .
However, that’s really a moot point. Dick Cheney has all but burst into song with his defense of these interrogations, and a VP has no authority other than that which a President explicitly gives him. If Cheney was in the loop, and McClatchy reports that Cheney signed off as well, then obviously Bush was as well . . . .
Rice . . . has been reticent to get involved in politics since leaving the State Department at the end of the Bush administration. I suspect she’ll have to get back into the game to defend herself and the interrogations, even if she does it reluctantly.
I am old-fashioned enough to hope that she doesn’t have to do this. Certainly, I am very very hopeful that Bush will not be in a position to have to speak up. Obama has attacked George W. Bush relentlessly ever since he himself was sworn in as POTUS, but Bush has protected the integrity of the office by turning the other cheek. I respect that, and I hope that circumstances allow him to continue on this course.
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Strong concur. The longer we do not hear from Bush, the greater the indictment of the current administration’s callow behavior.
Don’t worry. My dear friend and neighbor Pete Hoekstra has asked the Admiral to provide a complete listing of all Congress-critters who were briefed or signed off on the interrogations all the way back to 2001.
Pete is tenacious and thinking about running for Governor of Michigan. This should get interesting.