by spodek on 3/13/14, 9:49 PM
It's like watching Lance Armstrong just before his fall. You know where it's going to go and just wish they'd come clean and quit breaking the Constitution instead of insisting on their innocence.
Too many scandals that went similarly ended up revealing cover-ups to expect the Executive Branch to come out clean. It looks like it's trying to make the most of a bad situation. Tylenol's 1982 recall remains the gold standard for disaster recovery -- http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/23/your-money/23iht-mjj_ed3_..... Doing something like that could salvage something and get people on the White House's side.
But it only works if you act with sincerity.
by InclinedPlane on 3/13/14, 10:16 PM
The bigger problem is societal acceptance of torture. There are countless fictionalized portrayals of the "good guys" participating in torture and not only remaining good but also getting benefit from it. That points to a deep seated cultural acceptance of torture. And you see it in practice as well. Many people believe that torture is acceptable if it's used towards important ends (stopping terrorism).
Even if we put the brakes on the use of torture in an official capacity in the here and now so long as it's culturally accepted to any degree it's only just a matter of time until it creeps back to the forefront.
by cdooh on 3/13/14, 9:42 PM
Not too shocking. I'm sure this is too much of a generalisation but Anericans don't like to know of the atrocities done in their name as long as their "catching the bad guys". The global war on terror has you making enemies of people who would otherwise leave you alone...
by TrainedMonkey on 3/13/14, 9:15 PM
Bush authorized CIA to do 'whatever it takes'. CIA cited him on it in their interrogation guidelines. Some of the documents were released with authorization blacked out. Now white house trying to keep specific wording of that authorization hidden. Rest is purely speculation.
by morsch on 3/13/14, 9:59 PM
"These are not just academic exercises. We’re not analyzing the media on Mars or in the 18th century or something like that. We’re dealing with real human beings who are suffering and dying and being tortured and starving because of policies that we are involved in. We, as citizens of democratic societies, are directly involved in and are responsible for." (Eminent MIT political activist)
by ballard on 3/13/14, 9:31 PM
The patterns of drone strikes and raids points to JSOC as processing an ever-growing kill list directed by the POTUS. Feel free to peruse Dirty Wars docu.
by nl on 3/14/14, 12:23 AM
People are framing this as a coverup story.
It is that, of course.
But the reason it has happened is because the executive branch of government is fighting to preserve its power, even across party lines (ie, the Obama Whitehouse is covering up things that happened in the Bush Whitehouse).
Coming from somewhere with a Westminster system of government I find that dynamic quite interesting. Clearly in this case it is bad, but I do like the way the US system isn't as bound along party lines as Westminster systems usually are.
by TOGoS on 3/13/14, 10:29 PM
Next time we get an opportunity for a constitutional amendment, I suggest mandatory death penalty for any official found to have condoned or covered up the use of torture.
by rthomas6 on 3/13/14, 11:12 PM
Is "torture" here waterboarding only or something even worse? I'm not condoning waterboarding, but it's already unofficially common knowledge. What other "enhanced interrogation techniques" were used under approval?
by puppetmaster3 on 3/13/14, 10:57 PM
I'm almost sure there is no way this will lead to blow back - no way this comes back to us. /s
by ballard on 3/13/14, 10:03 PM
This might be a completely crazy thought:
Given technological enablement, why cant govt be more run as a StackOverflow tempered by the elder wisdom of the Supreme Court? Rip the executive branch out and make the president more of a city manager than the political emperor. Absolute power corrupts...