It’s been a volatile week on the torture and intelligence front. Just look at these stories:
Hayden Named to Public Interest Declass Board
by Steven Aftergood, September 10, 2009
Op-ed: Fear was No Excuse To Condone Torture
By former Marine Corps commandant Charles C. Krulak and U.S. Central Command’s former commander in chief Joseph P. Hoar, Miami Herald
U.S. to Expand Detainee Review in Afghan Prison
By Eric Schmitt, NYT, September 12, 2009
Sweeping attack on terrorism trials
by Lyle Denniston, SCOTUSblog
Ray McGovern Warns of ‘Two CIAs’
By Brad Friedman, Consortium News, September 13, 2009
A step forward, a step back; another step forward, another step back. What a terrible dark dance this is.
The speed with which news is emerging about torture as well as the intelligence and military communities suggests that it is on the brink of even greater volatility.
What happens to the very first detainees in the GWOT if detainees in Afghanistan now have more rights to contest their detention?
What happens if portions of the military and intelligence communities are even more vocal in their protests over torture done in our name?
And what if the dark side of the intelligence community – and perhaps, a twin dark side to the military community – come out fighting to protect their backsides?
And lastly, what exactly of Michael Hayden’s appointment to the declassification board? Which of the two sides is he really on, the side which abhors torture, or the side which is complicit and is intent on protecting themselves from any potential prosecution? Will he help or hinder the case of detainees as they attempt to use their newly re-won rights to habeas corpus? If we are further prevented from seeing classified documents, how will we even know if Hayden has a conflict of interest?
Ray McGovern may be right, that President Obama and Leon Panetta are scared of the CIA; their fears may have hampered their ability to tackle the dirtiest laundry we have. But I don’t think it’s the CIA alone which may be a concern, nor do I think that Obama and Panetta are alone in any fears they may have.
I, for one, am worried we will never get to the truth about what has been done in our name, who did this in our name, and that we continue to be exposed to greater risk for the lack of transparency. I’m further worried that there will be changes in leadership, casualties of the tensions over getting to the truth, and the changes may not be for the best.
We may have dropped the use of the phrase, Global War on Terror, but we remain in the fog of war.
[Graphic: peterPIPERpickedTHEpeppers via Flickr.com]
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Recommended. Thank you, Rayne.
As I study each section of your diary I’m wishing more and more that we had never come to this dance.
Hayden’s appointment to the declassification board reminds me of LBJ appointing Chief Justice Earl Warren to the commission to investigate the assassination of JFK – with orders as to what the lone-nut conclusion was to be. Hayden probably already has his orders that documentation that would convict be stamped above top secret, to be protected from review for 75 years.
IMHO, moving the clandestine arm of the CIA to the FBI will not change anything for the better and may allow Murder Inc. the authority to operate within the borders of the USA (though that restriction hasn’t bothered them too much in the past).
I think Ray McGovern has again analyzed the situation correctly.
Thank you, Rayne, for sharing your keen observations with us in this excellent post.
Thanks much, acquarius.
I’m actually tempted to throw out a request for bets — no money, of course — as to what shoe will drop this week?
Because it sure feels like something’s about to let loose, doesn’t it?
This is probably the most critical point in Inspector Durham’s entire life. We’ll learn whether he is a man of character or just another puppet. If a puppet, we must stand up and demand of Obama and Holder, “Not this time!!”
Truly a danse macabre. Thanks for pulling all those interrelated articles together, Rayne, and for precisely asking the questions that flow from them.
Thanks for the round-up, Rayne, there’s an item or two here that I’d missed.
This falls well short of what you sense is in the air no doubt, but it could be an item on next week’s list, from Scott Horton at Harper’s:
One of the “Judges” is Laurence Silberman, whose very name makes my eyes flash and lip curl. Horton provides some of the specifics behind that reaction.
Well, prostratedragon, looks like that shoe just dropped. This SOB calls himself a ‘judge’?? This is open, in-your-face takeover of law and order. Can/will this be appealed? That judge must be on some mind-control chemical hypnosis.
Yes, I’d seen that, but hadn’t the time yet to dissect it. On the face it I can see the morons from the PMC formerly known as Blackwater attempting to use that same case and precedent in their defense against charges in the Nisour massacre.
Agh. How violations of the Geneva Conventions and CAT can ever be waived away is beyond me.