What’s the scope of the SSCI investigation and where does that lead us?

Sheldon Whitehouse says we got no actionable intelligence from Abu Zubaydah through waterboarding.

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.

It sounds like Sheldon Whitehouse is focusing primarily on the upcoming OPR report–and tomorrow’s hearing will pave the way for that report.

It seems that Michael Mukasey made a thus far successful effort to stall out production of the OPR report on Yoo and Bradbury.

A number of people have pointed to EO 12333 in their discussions of whether or not Cheney’s assassination squads are legal. But that’s precisely the EO that we have reason to suspect got pixie dusted–or changed, without any public record of the change.

In which Sheldon Whitehouse trims David Rivkin’s hedges.

The protectors of the Constitution in the Senate also introduced a State Secrets Bill today.

I want prosecutions for Bush era wrong-doing. But barring that, we need to have some accounting for what was done. Today, Pat Leahy joined others in calling for such an investigation.

Man oh man, Greg Craig is not doing Obama any favors as White House Counsel. In this installment, he apparently told (probably) Senator Whitehouse or Feingold that he believes in Pixie Dust.