Cheney: Release More CIA Memos

RUSH: To Albuquerque, New Mexico, Joanne, nice to have you on the Rush Limbaugh program. Hi.

CALLER: Hi, Rush. Pleasure to talk to you. Hey, listen, I was watching a program last night. I was watching Dick Cheney. Mr. Cheney was talking about releasing all the — I was totally, totally against releasing anything, but since you’re going to release ’em, release ’em all ’cause I want the American people to know the good things that came out of this.

RUSH: Yeah, let’s address that right now. Vice President Cheney was on with Sean Hannity last night, and the question was interrogation and the releasing of the memos that gave out specific information. ‘Why were those tactics needed and necessary? Why do you think they continue to be necessary?’

CHENEY: They didn’t put out the memos that show the success of the effort, and there are reports that show specifically what we gained as a result of this activity. They have not been declassified. I formally ask that they be declassified now. I know specifically of reports that I read, that I saw, that lay out what we learned through the interrogation process and what the consequences were for the country. And 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 the 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.

RUSH: Now, isn’t this fascinating? And, by the way, Vice President Cheney asked for the release of these memos back in March, not just yesterday after the Obama administration released these memos. So the Obama administration goes halfway. The Obama administration releases the memos that describe the kind of torture — and, by the way, we’re now calling anything that causes any discomfort torture. It’s like women being allowed to get away with saying their husbands torture them if they shout at them. Those are about the kind of restraints we’re putting on interrogation now. I’ll guarantee you — I don’t know this — but the morale among the counterterrorism people in the field has got to be in the basement after all this, especially since there are memos that Vice President Cheney just referenced that show the success of the techniques, and the Obama administration does not release those.

Now, there’s a great piece today in the Washington Post by Marc Thiessen. It’s a column, and its title is, ”The CIA’s Questioning Worked’ — In releasing highly classified documents on the CIA interrogation program last week, President Obama declared that the techniques used to question captured terrorists ‘did not make us safer.’ This is patently false. The proof is in the memos Obama made public — in sections that have gone virtually unreported in the media. Consider the Justice Department memo of May 30, 2005. It notes that ‘the CIA believes ‘the intelligence acquired from these interrogations has been a key reason why al Qaeda has failed to launch a spectacular attack in the West since 11 September 2001.’ … In particular, the CIA believes that it would have been unable to obtain critical information from numerous detainees, including [Khalid Sheikh Mohammed] and Abu Zubaydah, without these enhanced techniques.’ The memo continues: ‘Before the CIA used enhanced techniques … KSM resisted giving any answers to questions about future attacks, simply noting, ‘Soon you will find out.’ ‘Once the techniques were applied, interrogations have led to specific –” This is what Obama released. This is in what he released that did not get reported on after the release of the memos.

This is quoting now from the memo, May 30th, 2005: ‘Specifically, interrogation with enhanced techniques ‘led to the discovery of a KSM plot, the ‘Second Wave,’ ‘to use East Asian operatives to crash a hijacked airliner into’ a building in Los Angeles.’ KSM later acknowledged before a military commission at Guantanamo Bay that the target was the Library Tower, the tallest building on the West Coast. The memo explains that ‘information obtained from KSM also led to the capture of Riduan bin Isomuddin, better known as Hambali, and the discovery of the Guraba Cell, a 17-member Jemaah Islamiyah cell tasked with executing the ‘Second Wave.”’ So even the stuff he puts out, the success is noted. Cheney says there are many more memos that he saw, that he wants now declassified that show the success of the techniques.

Now, what’s happened, and, you know, Obama gives out half the story. When he releases these memos, he focuses the media on, (impersonating New Castrati) ‘the harsh, unfair, ridiculous, torturous treatment of citizens of the world, Mr. Limbaugh. It’s uncalled for by Americans, it should never happen.’ The voice of the New Castrati. So Obama knows what he’s doing. He’s focusing once again negative attention on his own country in the war on terror to advance his silly theory that our interrogation techniques created more terrorists. Well, what interrogation techniques were we using before 9/11 that led to 9/11, hmm? We have allowed these guys, Obama and his buddies over at the CIA and in Congress to water down the definition of torture to mean anything that makes a person uncomfortable. You know what this reminds me of? Remember when the NOW gang and all these other social interest groups started asking women if they’d ever been a victim of domestic violence? They didn’t like the numbers they got initially. The numbers weren’t high enough for the NOW gang. So they expanded the definition to include a man shouting at them, a man shouting at them equaled domestic violence. It didn’t matter if the women shouted first. But let’s not get sidetracked.

The important thing to understand is that these appeasers have painted themselves into a corner. Dick Cheney has now called their bluff. The stark truth is that despite what the political left and the Hollywood elites say extreme measures, enhanced measures, so-called torture, whatever you want to call it, it works, and he’s seen the memos. He wants them released. I gotta take a brief time-out. But folks, there are people who have sacrificed greatly to keep us safe. They’re out in the field. There aren’t very many of them, couple hundred, and they feel betrayed like you can’t believe right now, and scared to death they’re going to be indicted or brought to trial by people in the Obama administration for helping defend and protect the country.