from Marcy Wheeler (empty wheel) has a different interpretation than the NYTimes.
http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2009/06/06/all-the-news-nyt-does-not-print/<snip>
As I have pointed out in the last two posts, the NYT has a story up claiming that Jim Comey approved of torture, but that grossly misreads the Comey emails on which the story is based. In fact, the memos appear to show that the White House--especially Dick Cheney and David Addington--were pushing DOJ to approve the torture that had been done to Hassan Ghul, without the specificity to record what they had done to him; in fact, one of the things the push on the memos appears to have prevented, was for Comey and Philbin to have actually researched what happened to Ghul.
But the NYT instead claims that Jim Comey approved of torture legally, even while downplaying his concerns about the "combined techniques" memo that was the focus of his concerns (and not mentioning his response to the third memo).
But there is more news than that in the Comey emails--news the Grey Lady doesn't seem to think is news. This includes:
<snip>
Pressure on Pat Philbin
On April 27, 2005, Jim Comey alerted Chuck Rosenberg, his then Chief of Staff, on the fight over the torture emails because he was about to go on a trip, and he figured Pat Philbin would need cover from political pressure. He described that Philbin's concerns about the memo were ignored. He closed the email by saying that Gonzales had visited the White House and--in spite of Comey's request for a delay--told Philbin and Bradbury to finish the memo by Friday, April 29. Philbin objected that that was not enough time to do the "fact gathering" needed to fix the memo. Comey was basically asking Rosenberg to prepare to intercede on this process.
The following day, Comey emailed again to say that Ted Ullyot (who had just been read-in to this program) was pushing to get the memo done. It also appears that Ullyot was claiming Comey's objections had to do with the prototypical interrogation included in the memo, and not the lack of specificity.
Alberto Gonzales' Cowardice
Comey describes Dick Cheney putting a great deal of pressure on Alberto Gonzales to push through the memos in the last weeks of April.
"The AG explained that he was under great pressure from the Vice President to complete both memos, and that the President had even raised it last week, apparently at the VP's request and the AG had promised they would be ready early this week. He added that the VP kept telling him "we are getting killed on the Hill."
.....more