Author: Officials against torture memo feared wiretaps, physical danger (Raw Story)

David Edwards and Muriel Kane
Published: Monday July 21, 2008

.. Jane Mayer, author of The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned Into a War on American Ideals, .... told the hosts of MSNBC's Morning Joe that Cheney's staff took advantage of 9/11 to enhance presidential power and that -- in the words of Republican lawyer and former 9/11 Commission director Philip Zelikow -- "fear and anxiety were exploited by fools and zealots" ...

Mayer pointed out that "two of the top lawyers in the Bush administration, Jim Comey who was the number two in the Justice Department and Jack Goldsmith who ran the Office of Legal Counsel, were trying really hard to put the country back on what they thought was a legal footing when it came to how to treat prisoners. They were trying to take away the torture memo and replace it with something that was more responsible."

"As they were working on this," Mayer continued, "they became so paranoid that the vice president's office was either trying to push back in some way -- they thought they might be being wiretapped, they thought they might be in physical danger. The fights were that intense. I can't tell you how passionate and hard-fought these fights were inside this government."

Host Joe Scarborough appeared less interested in following up on Mayer's statements about Goldsmith and Comey than in her implied characterization of Dick Cheney. "Are you suggesting that the vice president of the United States is a fool?" he asked. "Or a zealot?" ...

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Author_Officials_feared_wiretaps_over_opposing_0721.html

What a tool