The CIA Torture Report and Republican Majority

The Republican wave and the CIA torture report

November 15, 2014 - In the Republican sweep that was the 2014 elections — at least outside Oregon — there may have been one winner who didn't hold an election night victory celebration.

The CIA.

Normally, of course, the CIA only competes in foreign elections.

But this time the CIA — and Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden, perhaps its most prominent and active critic in Congress — had a lot on the line.

snip

At the end of this year, control of the Senate shifts to the Republicans. The chairmanship of the Intelligence Committee goes to Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., who has been called the CIA's best friend in the Senate. On the issue of transparency of the intelligence operation, Burr has said, "I personally don't believe that anything that ever goes on in the intelligence committee should ever be discussed publicly."

Burr has declared that the killing of Osama bin Laden was partly due to information acquired from enhanced interrogation, although other sources, and possibly the unreleased report, reject that claim.

As of January, negotiations between the Senate and the CIA about what should and shouldn't be made public are likely to be very different. read more>>>

* * * The British Iraq War Inquiry * * * Released will carry private communications between GWBush and TBlair, like this already released: TB said there was a danger the Tories would see this as their chance to get rid of him … Bush said they would make it clear to the Tories that if they moved to get rid of TB "we will get rid of them".

* * * Iraq War Promoted Terrorism Rather Than Reducing It * * *

24 April 2014 - Britain’s involvement in the Iraq War promoted terrorism rather than reducing it and was a “strategic failure”, according to a major new report which estimated the cost of all UK conflicts since the end of the Cold War.
The Royal United Services Institute said the UK could face a bill of nearly £65bn, once the cost of long-term care for injured veterans was factored in, with most of the money was spent on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The study, called Wars in Peace, said both conflicts were largely “strategic failures” for the UK, The Guardian reported."

Facts: Matthew Hoh {former Marine and foreign service officer in Afghanistan}: "We spend a trillion dollars a year on national security in this country."
"And when you add up to the Department of Defense, Department of State, CIA, Veterans Affairs, interest on debt, the number that strikes me the most about how much we're committed financially to these wars and to our current policies is we have spent $250 billion already just on interest payments on the debt we've incurred for the Iraq and Afghan wars." 26 September 2014

Bob Herbert "Losing Our Way" : "And then the staggering costs of these wars, which are borne by the taxpayers. I mean, one of the things that was insane was that, as we're at war in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Bush administration cut taxes. This has never been done in American history. The idea of cutting taxes while you're going to war is just crazy. I mean, it's madness." Bill 'Moyers and Company': Restoring an America That Has Lost its Way 10 Oct. 2014

Chris Hayes MSNBC: "If you can run a deficit to go to war, you can run a deficit to take care of the people who fought it" In response to Republican opposition to expanding Veterans' benefits on fiscal grounds

Seeds of ISIL Planted By Bush/Cheney and Conservative Congresses