I think Obama will lose his purported attempt to keep the DOD abuse photos secret. But I also think, to prove his good intentions, he ought to order DOD to make the embarrassing information behind these photos available.

Philip Zelikow made clear in today’s hearing how Congressional briefing should work. But all the evidence suggests that’s not what happened.

Lindsey Graham says that if the Bush Administration were trying to commit a crime, then they wouldn’t brief Democrats on what they were doing. And, as it turns out, that’s precisely what the Administration did–not brief Democrats.

Ali Soufan didn’t get to read his entire prepared statement in today’s SJC hearing. But his prepared statement adds some more nuance to the narrative of how CIA started to torture Abu Zubaydah. [Except where linked, the details below come from Soufan’s testimony.

March 28, 2002: Abu Zubaydah caught.

March 31, 2002: AZ flown to Thailand.

In a statement at SJC’s torture hearing, Lindsey Graham just suggested that Dick Cheney was the guy who had determined who got sent to Gitmo.

Whitehouse: SASC report. Great deal of disagreement with OLC analysis. Mora called 2003 OLC memo profoundly in error. To extent that it relied on memo, did not include fair analysis. Chart based on OLC opinion. Green means go column. Read Admiral Dalton, that green column was wrong legally, embarrassing.

Here’s the committee stream.

Whitehouse: Winston Churchill, truth always attended by bodyguard of lies. Sordid truth of torture accompanies by bodyguard of lies. Lies are legion. Bush told us America does not torture. Cheney agreed that waterboarding a dunk in the water. Former CIA said waterboarding once. Waterboarding determined to be legal, but not told how badly law ignored and bastardized, how furiously lawyers rejected OLC opinions.

Yet another outlet that can’t tell the difference between past and future.

It’s not just torture hearings on the training table this morning, there is a plateful of AIG/Bankster/Bailout fun on tap too. At 10:00 am EST, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee will hold a hearing on “AIG: Where is the Taxpayer Money Going?”. In advance of the big hearing, the Washington Post has a significant article out detailing how complicit the NY Fed, Congress and, likely, Tim Geithner are in the bonus scandal.

When the CIA lists “not available” on its torture list, is it trying to hide Dick Cheney’s lobbying of Congress?