Page 482 - Abuses News Today

Chair, outgoing chair of the committee. if anybody didnt think that factored into this whole release of the report, i think were back with the panel, likely did. >> it did. and she -- look. this is not a person whos earned a reputation as a person who throws partisan bombs, seeks the spotlight, is a game player. shes outraged. and i think that she should be. i think its putting it mildly to say its separation of powers violation. that said, i think that americans probably believe the truth lies ...

Years. but still we learned a lot more about it. about its inception, about the alleged deception, and the abuses that went beyond our understanding going into this week. >> yeah. and, fred, hindsight is always 20/20. as you think about where we were right after 9/11, the country lived in fear about another big terror attack. and there was sort of a sense of dont ask, dont tell, really wanting the cia to do whatever it took to prevent another attack. and the reality is, is the cia was not fully ...

The united states government at the highest level. one side story thats come out of this report is that the president, president obama was not briefed on this for four years after this took place. well, that may have been the cia covering up, but it was also a breakdown of responsibility by the president to oversee a program that he authorized. he had a responsibility to know what was going on. and he decided not to push that as far as he should have, otherwise we, perhaps, would not have had th...

Documentation. but second, theres no doubt in my mind that mistakes were made in this program. there may have been some abuses, and thats why republicans wanted an honest evaluation of this program. it was conducted immediately in the aftermath of 9/11 when, basically, the white house was given carte blanche to do whatever it takes to defend our country against terrorism. of course some mistakes were made, and its a shame we didnt have an honest, bipartisan assessment of this program to find out...

Or was there more to it? >> well, i think in one element, i think the country went rogue after 9/11. not just the cia. you saw military abuses. you saw intelligence abuses. you saw overreach for surveillance systems that were still seeing right now. and there were elements in the cia that were desperate, that acted, i think, inappropriately, stupidly. they contracted out, spending millions of dollars to inexperienced people and ran a torture program. that was a -- >> they ran a torture program? ...

Into, and they were lied to. but even the president and the national security advisor and colin powell and george w. bush were not told about in a timely manner. >> theres some refuting of that part of this report, from the bush folks, and i think were going to hear much more about that from vice president champion in his first interview tomorrow on special report. steve, the push back, to the timing, the why now? what about all that? >> if the report were what george and marcie suggest what it ...

Of information that you use to validate another piece of information. and then you take another piece of the mosaic and eventually you get together and put a puzzle. so, was it totally valueless? its hard to know. was it worth the compromising our moral position? probably not. and i think thats where -- what senator mccain said. after 9/11, and you have to remember the context of all of this, there was an atrocity and for many years the u.s. lost its way. and i think everyone can agree with that...

Into the cleveland police department has found a systemic pattern of abuses and deficiencies. this comes two weeks after a police shooting sparked outrage and protest in that city. tamir rice was found in a park with a pellet gun. police approached him and within seconds he was shot dead. eric holder spoke on the city. >> we have determined theres reasonable cause to believe that they engage in a pattern and practice of using excessive force. and as a result of systemic deficiencies including ac...

Wedding. though the officers responsible for bells death were indicted by a grand jury, they were eventually e quitted on all charges. since johns death, nicole has become an activist, speaking out against excessive use of force by police and shes the founder and president of when its real its forever. and advocacy group that combats police brutality and civil rights abuses. what do you know these families are going through right now? >> i have to say after eight years of being vocal about these...

Profiling legislation, something thats been talked about since the 90s. comprehensive review of systematic abuses by local police departments. a lot focusing on trying to have the national, federal government coming in and taking it out of the hands of local prosecutors. what do you think about that? >> yeah, absolutely. again, these are starts. because what i want is less interaction with the police. i think that theres a lot of conversation around how to build better relationships between poli...