Well, that didn’t take long, for a Director of Central Intelligence to totally lose his credibility in the servitude of the institution… I’ll have more to say about Panetta’s declaration in the ACLU FOIA case tomorrow. But for now, a little unsolicited advice for the spook-in-chief. When you say,I also want to emphasize that my determinations expressed above, and in my classified declaration, are in no way driven by a desire to prevent embarrassment for the U.S. Government or the CIA, or to suppress evidence of unlawful conduct,
Yet the entire world knows – and the CIA has itself acknowledged – that the materials in question do, in fact, show evidence of unlawful conduct, and when you sort of kind of pretend that no one else knows what they all know – that the materials show evidence of unlawful conduct. Then you look like a fool… And then when you go on to say,As the Court knows, some of the operational documents currently at issue contain descriptions of EITs being applied during specific overseas interrogations. These descriptions, however, are EITs as applied in actual operations, and are of qualitatively different nature than the EIT descriptions in the abstract contained in the OLC memoranda.
… Let me say this plainly. According to the CIA – the CIA itself – there’s a reason why the interrogations don’t resemble the "EIT descriptions in the abstract contained in the OLC memoranda." That’s because some cowboy probably named James Mitchell who was getting rich off of torture thought things would be more poignant – yes, the fucker actually said "poignant" – if he drowned Abu Zubaydah in gallons of water rather than sprinkling him like a daisy. There’s a reason why the descriptions of torture as it was applied is such a problem – and yes, is evidence of unlawful conduct. And that’s because we know – we all know! – that the torture began before the memos authorized it, and the torture exceeded what few guidelines John Yoo placed on it.
CIA Urges Judge To Keep Bush-Era Documents Sealed
Al-Qaeda Could Use Contents, Agency Says
By R. Jeffrey Smith
Washington Post
June 9, 2009… The "disclosure of explicit details of specific interrogations" would provide al-Qaeda "with propaganda it could use to recruit and raise funds," Panetta said, describing the information at issue as "ready-made ammunition." He also submitted a classified statement to the court that he said explains why detainees could use the contents to evade questions in the future, even though Obama has promised that the United States will not use the harsh interrogation techniques again.
Jameel Jaffer, director of the ACLU’s national security program, said yesterday evening that it is "grim" and "troubling" for the Obama administration to say that information about purported abuses should be withheld because it might fuel anti-American propaganda. He said that amounts to an assertion that "the greater the abuse, the more important it is that it should remain secret." Jaffer said the ACLU is convinced that the public should have "access to the complete record of what took place in the CIA’s prisons and on whose authority"…
The way to keep al Qaeda form using American documents as a recruiting tool is to not do things that give people a reason to hate us. And C.I.A. doesn’t stand for Covering Its Ass. It stands for Central Intelligence Agency. And it’s not living up to its name [intelligence]. Here’s what we [the American people] and al Qaeda already know:
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After al Qaeda attacked New York, the U.S. Government wanted to blame that attack on Iraq, or at least use the al Qaeda attack as a reason to invade Iraq.
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In pursuit of this goal, the C.I.A. secretly tortured al Qaeda prisoners in hopes of getting confirmation that Iraq was involved in the attack.
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The Bush Administration responded to the C.I.A.’s complaint that what they were doing was illegal by getting the Department of Justice to issue secret memos saying that torture wasn’t torture.
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The C.I.A. continued their torture policy until it became public.
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Since then, the Administration and C.I.A. have obstructed all attempts to get at the truth, including this one – claiming that their secrecy is for any reason under the sun except hiding the truth.
Here’s what the American people and al Qaeda don’t know any more:
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We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. – That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed…
It’s not for the Director of the C.I.A. nor the President [no matter how much I like him] to tell me how to think. To me, it is more important that we clean up our side of the street than to hypothesize what al Qaeda recruitment officers will do with the information on their side. Our Declaration of Independence goes on to say:
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That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness…
No, I’m not advocating another revolution. We did that in November. Just get out of the way and let justice be done. It is the Rule of Law…
[…] primitive level of our enemies, and now are speaking with forked tongue [Graham/Cheney]. As I said below, "it is more important that we clean up our side of the street than to hypothesize what al […]