All of this happened before....

... Will it happen again?

More than twenty years ago, Bill Moyers broadcast this truly amazing, thoughtful and angry critique of the Iran-Contra Affair, and the policy of official government secrecy that was instrumental in allowing that treason to occur.

It is as salient today as it was in 1987.

A theme that ran through the re-imagined TV series Battlestar Galactica was the phrase, "All of this has happened before. And all of will happen again." Indeed, when you see the same activities of the government, the same beliefs in untrammeled executive power, the inability of Congress to participate in controlling the course of our national destiny, you have to wonder if we are seeing is all happen again.

Today, our Congress has even less courage to try to find out what happened, despite knowing what we already know of the secret, unconstitutional and illegal covert activities undertaken by the Bush-Cheney Administration.

Take some time to watch this whole (90 minutes!!!) presentation. And consider. If we are ever able to right our ship of state, how will we prevent traitors to our Constitution like Ollie North from making it happen again?

The Secret Government: The Constitution in Crisis, by Bill Moyers

(h/t The Exiled)

The Guant�namo “Suicides”

A Cover-up Continues?

Scott Horton has published an advance text of the upcoming cover story in Harpers regarding the 2006 deaths of three Guantanamo detainees while in U.S. custody. Horton is a dogged investigator, renown lawyer and compelling blogger. He has been strongly critical of U.S. torture and rendition policies throughout the Bush Administration and, like Glenn Greenwald, strongly advocated for the Obama Administration to dump it's "look forward, not backward" policies.

"When President Barack Obama took office last year, he promised to “restore the standards of due process and the core constitutional values that have made this country great.” Toward that end, the president issued an executive order declaring that the extra-constitutional prison camp at Guant�namo Naval Base “shall be closed as soon as practicable, and no later than one year from the date of this order.” Obama has failed to fulfill his promise. Some prisoners there are being charged with crimes, others released, but the date for closing the camp seems to recede steadily into the future. Furthermore, new evidence now emerging may entangle Obama’s young administration with crimes that occurred during the George W. Bush presidency, evidence that suggests the current administration failed to investigate seriously—and may even have continued—a cover-up of the possible homicides of three prisoners at Guant�namo in 2006." The Guant�namo “Suicides”: A Camp Delta sergeant blows the whistle—By Scott Horton (Harper's Magazine)

This article demands to be read. And read again by all officers of our government who are connected to national security and intelligence. Most importantly, it demands an answer from our Attorney General, not only to the specifics of this case, but to the broader issue of what exactly is the Department of Justice doing to investigate torture- and "enemy combatant"-related crimes, but also how FREE the Department actually is to go after those who committed heinous crimes in all our names.

As the first year of Obama'a administration ends, we learn new and, quite frankly, disturbing details about the "suicide" of detainees in Guantanamo. And, as this year ends, we now officially see the failure of one of Obama's signature promises made in the heady, post-inaugural days. That is, to close GTMO within one year. Probably the saddest and most damning aspects of this entire case is that the facts have long been well known. And whitewashed.


Update: Scott Horton published a follow-up to the original story today focusing on the compromised statement made by a key officer in charge of the Cuban prison camp as well as the tepid "non-response" by the Justice Department. If you're smelling a rat, you should be. The response so far seems all very reminiscent of the "official" stories being put out ahead of the first breaking of Abu Ghraib story.

Will there be accountability? When?

This is Change...

... I Can Believe In.

Issued by President Barack Obama on 22 January 2009 at the White House.

EXECUTIVE ORDER -- ENSURING LAWFUL INTERROGATIONS

Effective immediately, an individual in the custody or under the effective control of an officer, employee, or other agent of the United States Government, or detained within a facility owned, operated, or controlled by a department or agency of the United States, in any armed conflict, shall not be subjected to any interrogation technique or approach, or any treatment related to interrogation, that is not authorized by and listed in Army Field Manual 2 22.3 (Manual).

From this day forward, unless the Attorney General with appropriate consultation provides further guidance, officers, employees, and other agents of the United States Government may, in conducting interrogations, act in reliance upon Army Field Manual 2 22.3, but may not, in conducting interrogations, rely upon any interpretation of the law governing interrogation -- including interpretations of Federal criminal laws, the Convention Against Torture, Common Article 3, Army Field Manual 2 22.3, and its predecessor document, Army Field Manual 34 52 issued by the Department of Justice between September 11, 2001, and January 20, 2009.

The CIA shall close as expeditiously as possible any detention facilities that it currently operates and shall not operate any such detention facility in the future.

"Where were we???"

The unbelievably great Driftglass serves up another seminal post.

...and the Moderate, worse than any of them "because he knew what they were and went along with them"

Using a simple clip from that great film, Judgement at Nuremberg, the indictment rings as true today as it did then:

"What was going to be a passing phase became a way of life."

Responsibility without authority is the road to inaction. Likewise, authority without accountability is the road to disaster. Finally, apology without accountability is the rankest of hypocrisy -- and the end of the way of life we say we hold dear.

Without some accounting for the last few years, we have indeed traded a "passing phase" for a new "way of life."

As they say, go read it all...

Friday Nite Points

OK. It's been a long week and I'm tired. Mostly, I'm tired of being outraged at how poorly the People's Servants in Washington are actually serving the People. So, some short takes.

One. Digby catches this great quote by Barney Frank: "Having lived with this very right wing Republican group that runs the House most of the time, the notion of trying to deal with them as if we could be post-partisan gives me post-partisan depression." Well Barney, I can sympathize with how you feel. Now, get motivated and get some real help to real Americans in the manufacturing sector, eh?

Two. If this (Worst month for job loss in 34 years) isn't enough motivation, then maybe putting some thought into what the default of any of the Big 3 would mean in the fantastical credit default swap market may be in order. B over at Moon of Alabama has done just that. An automaker default translating into hundreds of billions in CDS losses ... now that is leverage I can believe in!

Three. By the way, we should take heed to what this guy has to say (h/t B). Especially when he says this:

People, especially Americans, started believing that they can live on other people’s money. And more and more so. First other people’s money in your own country. And then the savings rate comes down, and you start living on other people’s money from outside. At first it was the Japanese. Now the Chinese and the Middle Easterners.

We—the Chinese, the Middle Easterners, the Japanese—we can see this too. Okay, we’d love to support you guys—if it’s sustainable. But if it’s not, why should we be doing this? After we are gone, you cannot just go to the moon to get more money. So, forget it. Let’s change the way of living.

Four. This is simply bullpuckey! And if it were so dang important, how come no one sought to question the citizenship of "Panama" John McCain? Over at Stonekettle Station, Jim calls it a "Conspiracy of Stupid." I know the fevered swamp dwellers want nothing more than this to be true... but give it up already! YGTBFKM!

Five. China Hand is looking behind the blaring soundbites of last week's Mumbai attack (has it been a week already) and sees that not everything is as simple as you may think it is. What is simple is that two nuclear armed nations are moving towards a confrontation and defusing the tension will not simply happen because the U.S. advocates calm and caution. If that is what we are advocating.

Six. I started to put some of my own thoughts down about what Bruce Miller has been writing lately about the impending Afghanistan escalation. Suffice it to say, take a few moments to read and reflect on his pleas for a real strategy ("How many times to we have to watch this movie?" and Afghanistan and Pakistan).

Seven. Glenn Greenwald gets up in Tom Gjelten's grill for the sloppy reporting and commentary Tom and NPR broadcast in the wake of John Brennan's withdrawal from consideration as Director of the CIA. Be amazed at the power of teh "left-wing bloggers"! Never mind that Brennan had some other issues that made any potential vetting and confirmation run a bit dicey. Besides, who needs that kind of controversy? Way to go Glenn! Stay on it!

Eight. I think Col Lang is becoming fed up with the global ineptitude in dealing with those scurvy sea-dog pirates of Somalia. His readers certainly are and its a lively discussion!

Nine. I'm with Athenae. Only a few more weeks to wait for this!

Ten. And lastly. Enjoy the snark that emerges from the Rising Hegemon.

Guess Who's Not Going to CIA

So it's breaking today that John Brennan says he's not the guy for the CIA. One "former senior intelligence official" told Washington Post's Joby Warrick that Mr. Brennan's withdrawal was "a tragedy." Seems that this unnamed source would not agree with many fellow citizens who felt that the 25-year intelligence veteran's advocacy of rendering alleged terrorists to foreign nations ("an absolutely vital tool") and the use of illegal and morally repugnant "enhanced interrogation techniques" more than disqualified him from leading the CIA.

Mr. Brennan noted in his publicly released note to the President-elect that he had "been a strong opponent of many of the policies of the Bush administration such as the pre-emptive war in Iraq and coercive interrogation tactics, to include waterboarding...the fact that I was not involved in the decision-making process for any of these controversial policies and actions has been ignored." Well, he might have opposed the Iraqi War, but his own statements, amply documented, contradict his plea that he opposed coercive interrogation techniques. At No Comment, Scott Horton gives a good analysis of Mr. Brennan's credibility problem:

As a company man, Brennan was quick to justify and support what was done. As an “independent” analyst for broadcast journalists, he also provided support and cover for practices from waterboarding to the use of psychotropic drugs. As an adviser to the Obama campaign, Brennan experienced an unconvincing epiphany and came to reject President Bush’s “program” along the same lines as his boss. The timing and circumstances of Brennan’s conversion suggest that it was dictated by political expedience and not ethics.

Perhaps Mr. Brennan is trying to salvage a portion of his legacy and credibility in the era of "teh Google." Maybe he decided that staying in business securing (or not) the passport records of U.S. citizens is much more lucrative than running the CIA. Whether Mr. Brennan pulled the plug on himself, or whether the plug was pulled for him as a result of the advocacy of psychologists, bloggers and activated, concerned citizens, his withdrawal from consideration is but a small step towards righting the horrifying wrong of detention policies in the so-called War on Terror. Either way, this is far, far from a tragedy. If you don't believe me, take some time to watch Torturing Democracy and tell me why any advocate of current policies should get a paycheck from the taxpayers.

Glen Greenwald discusses this development much more eloquently than I can -- It's a good thing that "the C.I.A.’s secret detention program remains a particularly incendiary issue" and that anyone associated with it -- let alone someone who defended it -- will have a difficult time being appointed to a position of high authority. Now let's hope that no other retreads (John McLaughlin) or morally compromised politicians (Jane Harman) get the nod to lead any portion of our intelligence community.

And that, my friends, is some change I can believe in.

(This - Gates Staying on as Defense Chief - not so much.)

"I was horrified..."

One of the deepest, most profound and indeed, most damaging and damning aspects of U.S. policy since 2001 is the embrace of the "dark side" when it comes to fighting terrorism. Despite a long history of using criminal justice, both in the U.S. and around the world, to defeat those who use violent measures to solve their political problems, the U.S. walked into what can only be described as a "twilight zone" in its use of imprisonment and torture against those who fall into its hands. Even today, I can hardly believe that the country established upon the "Rule of Law" so easily abandoned its principles, its morals, and its role as a global leader when it turned its back on the Geneva Convention, international laws against cruelty and its own national laws against torture.

America's treatment of those it has captured on the global "battlefield" in the so-called "War on Terror" is perhaps the single greatest failure of policy made by the Bush Administration.

Scott Horton of Harper's Magazine recently highlighted the documentary Torturing Democracy. This important film, which was produced for PBS and available for airing since this past May, only recently started airing on a few PBS affiliated stations since the network could find "no time slot could be found for the documentary before January 21, 2009."

And no wonder. In a little less than an hour of concise, revelatory and compelling journalism, Torturing Democracy makes clear that the most senior officials of the U.S. government, including the President, Vice President, Secretary of Defense and Attorney General, demanded and approved of interrogations that at a minimum were cruel and almost certainly violated U.S. and international laws. Even more, they broke these fundemental laws all the while asserting that their policies were legal and those performing torture were immunized by President Bush's orders.

We once tried some folks who defended their actions using the very same arguments. It was called the Nuremberg Trials and the International Military Tribunal for the Far East. More than a few of those defendants were hung as a punishment for their crimes.

President-elect Obama repeatedly campaigned on a promise to end the use of torture by the United States. But, he has advising him on intelligence issues, folks that themselves have a questionable commitment to ending this illegal and immoral practice. Nevertheless, President-elect Obama reiterated this commitment in Sunday evening's 60 Minutes interview:

I have said repeatedly that I intend to close Guantanamo, and I will follow through on that. I have said repeatedly that America doesn't torture. And I'm gonna make sure that we don't torture. Those are part and parcel of an effort to regain America's moral stature in the world.

Please, please, please. Watch the documentary. Read the documents. Review the sworn testimony given to the Senate in the past few months. And LEARN what has been done in all our names over the past several years.

Finally, THINK about what happens when our Soldiers are captured, your loved one is "rendered" or your neighbor disappears into a "black site."

Then ACT to hold accountable our officials for their actions, because, if we fail to act, we citizens must hold ourselves accountable for what has been done - in our name.

(Title words spoken by Alberto Mora, former General Counsel of the U.S. Navy)
(Image from McClatchy News Service)