Farewell. The Flying Pig Has Left The Building.

Steve Hynd, August 16, 2012

After four years on the Typepad site, eight years total blogging, Newshoggers is closing it's doors today. We've been coasting the last year or so, with many of us moving on to bigger projects (Hey, Eric!) or simply running out of blogging enthusiasm, and it's time to give the old flying pig a rest.

We've done okay over those eight years, although never being quite PC enough to gain wider acceptance from the partisan "party right or wrong" crowds. We like to think we moved political conversations a little, on the ever-present wish to rush to war with Iran, on the need for a real Left that isn't licking corporatist Dem boots every cycle, on America's foreign misadventures in Afghanistan and Iraq. We like to think we made a small difference while writing under that flying pig banner. We did pretty good for a bunch with no ties to big-party apparatuses or think tanks.

Those eight years of blogging will still exist. Because we're ending this typepad account, we've been archiving the typepad blog here. And the original blogger archive is still here. There will still be new content from the old 'hoggers crew too. Ron writes for The Moderate Voice, I post at The Agonist and Eric Martin's lucid foreign policy thoughts can be read at Democracy Arsenal.

I'd like to thank all our regular commenters, readers and the other bloggers who regularly linked to our posts over the years to agree or disagree. You all made writing for 'hoggers an amazingly fun and stimulating experience.

Thank you very much.

Note: This is an archive copy of Newshoggers. Most of the pictures are gone but the words are all here. There may be some occasional new content, John may do some posts and Ron will cross post some of his contributions to The Moderate Voice so check back.


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Wednesday, April 23, 2008

CIA Admits To 7,000 Documents On Torture Program

By Cernig



Raw Story reports that the CIA has 7,000 documents in its possession that relate to the Bush adminsitrations rendition, detention and "enhanced interrogation" programs. But it's claiming the ubiquitous excuse of Executive Privilege as a reason for not releasing them under FOI rules.

Amnesty International USA, the Center for Constitutional Rights and the International Human Rights Clinic at NYU School of Law made the claim following a summary judgment motion by the agency this week to avoid a lawsuit that seeks to force the nation's top spy outfit to make the documents public under a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit.



"Among other assertions, the CIA claimed that it did not have to release the documents because many consist of correspondence with the White House or top Bush administration officials, or because they are between parties seeking legal advice on the programs, including guidance on the legality of certain interrogation procedures," the groups wrote in a release. "The CIA confirmed that it requested�and received�legal advice from attorneys at the Department of Justice Office of Legal Counsel concerning these procedures."



�For the first time, the CIA has acknowledged that extensive records exist relating to its use of enforced disappearances and secret prisons,� Curt Goering, AIUSA senior deputy executive director, said in a statement. �Given what we already know about documents written by Bush administration officials trying to justify torture and other human rights crimes, one does not need a fertile imagination to conclude that the real reason for refusing to disclose these documents has more to do with avoiding disclosure of criminal activity than national security.�

Well, yeah. Given that we now know that John Yoo was ordered to come up with a legal CYA after the orders to torture had already been given, it's obvious that the Bush administration knew all along that it was venturing into the area of war crimes.



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  1. DFwApril 23, 2008 at 6:22 PM

    The State Department had a program that had other countries sign agreements that the US military was not subject to the UN or war crimes. The countries were 'developing nations.' This may be where the torture problems began to be known.
    The CIA wasn't doing the torture, it had to be military.

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