Andrew Sullivan, Josh Marshall and, as I mentioned earlier this week, Bob Cesca are all grabbing onto the torture-Iraq War nexus story with both hands right now.
And with good reason.
It's rare that I hype a news item, particularly one that would at first glance seem to require a bent toward the conspiracy-minded, but this is one of those things that has to be very seriously looked into. It's no exaggeration to say that if it's true that the Bush-Cheney White House ordered the torture of foreign prisoners specifically to establish a link -- completely unreliable at the time and inevitably faulty -- between 9/11 and Iraq, it would be the largest criminal conspiracy in the history of this country's executive branch.
From Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo:
"More and more the timeline is raising the question of why, if the torture was to prevent terrorist attacks, it seemed to happen mainly during the period when we were looking for what was essentially political information to justify the invasion of Iraq."
A message to the people in power now: Do not brush this shit under the rug.
Update (from CNN story): "(The torture program's) principal priority for intelligence was not aimed at preempting another terrorist attack on the U.S. but discovering a smoking gun linking Iraq and al Qaeda."
Those are the words of Lawrence Wilkerson, Colin Powell's chief of staff during his tenure as secretary of state.
Seriously, read the story linked directly below and tell me Cheney shouldn't be in handcuffs right now -- or maybe up against a wall out behind the Hague.
CNN: Top Powell Aide Says Torture Helped Build Iraq War Case/5.15.09
Related: True/Slant: Taibblog: Being Anti-Torture Doesn't Make You Pro-Terrorist/5.11.09
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