http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/torture/source-despite-claim-cheney-didnt-really-ask-cia-to-release-torture-intelligence/










The Plum LineGreg Sargent's blog
Source: Despite Claim, Cheney Didn’t Really Ask CIA To Release Torture Intelligence

Did Dick Cheney really “formally” ask the CIA to release reams of intelligence allegedly showing that the torture program worked, as Cheney claimed last night on Fox News?

An intelligence source familiar with the situation says the answer is No.

“The agency has received no request from the former Vice President to release this information,” the source told me a few moments ago.

Last night, Cheney said he’d asked the CIA to release memos he had read containing all the intelligence that had been collected via torture. “I’ve now formally asked the CIA to take steps to declassify those memos so we can lay them out there and the American people have a chance to see what we obtained and what we learned and how good the intelligence was, as well as to see this debate over the legal opinions,” Cheney said.

According to the source, there are several ways this could happen: Cheney could lodge a Freedom of Information Request (which is hard to imagine a former Veep doing); he could contact CIA officials; or he could submit the request via the White House. Cheney said he’d made the request to the CIA.

The source, however, tells me that the CIA didn’t get any such request from Cheney. So barring the unlikely possibility that Cheney submitted his request to the Obama White House, it seems fair to assume for now that the only target of this request was the Fox News television audience.

Update: A Cheney spokesperson is refusing to say what he meant when he claimed to have made a “formal” request for this info

CIA denies Cheney made demand
By JOSH GERSTEIN & MIKE ALLEN | 4/22/09 2:23 PM EDT
www.politico.com

On Monday, after Cheney made the statement to Fox News, the CIA declined to commen

The Obama administration denied Tuesday that former Vice President Dick Cheney had directly asked the CIA to declassify memos that he claims would vindicate Bush-era techniques for harsh interrogation of suspected terrorists.

A senior U.S. intelligence offical e-mailed: "The Agency has received no such request from the former Vice President.”

A source familiar with the request said the former vice president made the request to the National Archives, and said that is the appropriate process for requesting declassification.
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A spokeswoman for the National Archives said Cheney recently sought declassification of certain records from his former office.
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“I can confirm that Vice President Cheney did put in a request to us on March 31 for a mandatory review,” the spokeswoman, Susan Cooper, said Monday afternoon. She said the request was directed to the Archives because it has legal custody of Bush White House records, including those from Cheney’s office. However, she said agencies whose information was contained in the records make the decisions on any release.
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Asked on Tuesday when the CIA was advised of Cheney’s request, Cooper said, “My understanding is the request went over to the agency this morning.”

On Monday, after Cheney made the statement to Fox News, the CIA declined to comment.

When reporters at Tuesday's White House briefing asked press secretary Robert Gibbs about the existence of such memos, he referred the question to the CIA.

So cheney did request CIA to release memos or didn't ? it is not very clear in that article,

your blog is a little fuzzy also, Cheney requested the release of his memos from the archives which is proper procedure, they in turn notified the CIA, and other branches that the release would affect...I tried to make it easy for you to understand , I had underlined in the post...

haha i understand perfectly.don't need your help at all to understand, but it is fuzzy..

from my article//Update: A Cheney spokesperson is refusing to say what he meant when he claimed to have made a “formal” request for this information// saying anything~~so far the decision hasn't been made o release them~` ummm so looks like no one knows anything, we will just let it play out, maybe it will go awaylooks to me like they are doing..` LOL

my interpretation is cheney made request to the archives,I don;t see anywhere the cia recognized his request they declined to answer..oh well!! it will come out in the wash~ it always does~

CIA denied the request.......