No Torture in 2nd Bush Term?

Lawrence Wilkerson, former Chief of Staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell, reports in a post on The Washington Note that torture stopped in the second Bush term (h/t Zachary Roth on Talking Points Memo).

My investigations have revealed to me--vividly and clearly--that once the Abu Ghraib photographs were made public in the Spring of 2004, the CIA, its contractors, and everyone else involved in administering "the Cheney methods of interrogation", simply shut down. Nada. Nothing. No torture or harsh techniques were employed by any U.S. interrogator. Period. People were too frightened by what might happen to them if they continued.

What I am saying is that no torture or harsh interrogation techniques were employed by any U.S. interrogator for the entire second term of Cheney-Bush, 2005-2009. So, if we are to believe the protestations of Dick Cheney, that Obama's having shut down the "Cheney interrogation methods" will endanger the nation, what are we to say to Dick Cheney for having endangered the nation for the last four years of his vice presidency?

Wilkerson also makes the case that Cheney's push for the use of these techniques "was not aimed at pre-empting another terrorist attack on the U.S. but discovering a smoking gun linking Iraq and al-Qa'ida." Wilkerson goes on to agree with most of the US intelligence community that such links did not exist.

UPDATE: Wilkerson has been catching flak from the Cheney camp defending its torture policies and answers these criticisms in a interview with Rachel Maddow on MSNBC.

--Ballard Burgher