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Liz Cheney Al Qaeda Seven Ad Timed to John Yoo, Jay Bybee Report?

by Karen Hatter | March 8, 2010 at 07:02 am

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Daphne Eviatar, Senior Associate in Human Rights First’s Law and Security Program observed a possible correlation between the timing of the release of the Keep America Safe Al Qaeda Seven ad by its founder, Liz Cheney, the daughter of former Vice President Richard 'Dick' Cheney and a Justice Department report, dated February 18, 2010.

The report reveals close contact between two of the attorneys believed to be among the architects of the Bush administration's adopted policy of enhanced interrogation techniques, John Yoo and Judge Jay Bybee, with the office of former Vice President Dick Cheney.

Ms. Cheney has come under fire from fellow conservative Republicans for Keep America Safe's most recent efforts, which targets Attorney General Eric Holder's Justice Department and attorneys who represented prisoners at Guantanamo Bay prison, appearing to question their loyalty and dubbing them the 'Al Qaeda Seven'.

Ms. Cheney has been a vigorous defender of her father and the former Bush administration's use of enhanced interrogation, which others call torture, and has lamented the fact it can no longer be used as an anti-terrorism tactic. She has gone so far as to say the US is less safe without it.

The ad has been disparaged even within Conservative quarters; political pundit Paul Mirengoff, compared it to McCarthy's communist witch hunt.

Consider the timing: late on Friday, February 18, the Department of Justice released a long-delayed report that set out the details of how two Justice Department lawyers, in close contact with the Vice President's office, wrote a series of legal memos that grossly perverted existing law. ... just days after the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on the Justice Department's ethics report, Keep America Safe on March 2 released its video on "The Al Qaeda 7".

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nanute

at 09:24 on March 8th, 2010

And Liz Cheney's partner in this mess, William Kristol is trying to weasel his way out of the controversy, claiming the ad is a subtle attempt for transparency.

It isn't subtle. Keep America Safe is not in this for the sake of transparency. The group was angling to kick-start a witch hunt. And that's why so many former Republican officials have been willing to go on record criticizing—some using sharp terms—the daughter of Vice President Dick Cheney. Liz Cheney obviously miscalculated, and the ever-savvy Kristol is looking for cover. But his case—just like the WMD argument he made for war in Iraq in 2002 and 2003—is not supported by the facts. He's stuck with Liz Cheney in a very-disclosed and very-exposed location.

Kristol Wiggling Out of Liz Cheney's Mess? | Mother Jones

Karen Hatter

at 14:21 on March 8th, 2010

Nanute, what was most intriguing about Liz's attack ad was the position offered by the lawyer that represented the Bush administration in Bush v Gore in a paper in 2007, linked at the other story here, praising attorneys for doing their jobs when representing clients, no matter who they may be.

The whole attempt at maligning lawyers using 'guilt by association' with whom they represent seems a dangerous road to travel.

nanute

at 04:11 on March 9th, 2010

Agreed. Here's a snippet from Glenn Greenwald: So any lawyer who represents accused Terrorists and argues that the Government is violating constitutional limitations in its Terrorism policies is -- all together now -- an "al Qaeda lawyer" (even if those detainees were innocent, as most were). Worse, these "al Qaeda lawyers" -- which includes large numbers of long-time members of the U.S. military -- are "undermining our military's" efforts to keep us safe. That sounds like treason to meHigh standards at The Washington Post