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 Disclosure of ‘Secrets’ in the ’70s Didn’t Destroy the NationPosted on Apr 29, 2009By Amy Goodman President Barack Obama promised “more transparent ... more creative” government. His release of the torture memos, and the Pentagon’s expected release of more photos of detainee abuse, is a step in the right direction. Yet he assured the CIA that he will not prosecute those who followed the instructions to torture from the Bush administration. Congress might not agree with this leniency, with prominent senators calling for investigations. Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, just released a 262-page report titled “Inquiry Into the Treatment of Detainees in U.S. Custody.” Levin said the report “represents a condemnation of both the Bush administration’s interrogation policies and of senior administration officials who attempted to shift the blame for abuse ... to low-ranking soldiers. Claims ... that detainee abuses could be chalked up to the unauthorized acts of a ‘few bad apples’ were simply false.” Sens. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., also are proposing investigations. The Senate interest in investigation has backers in the U.S. House, from Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., to Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee John Conyers, D-Mich., who told The Huffington Post recently, “We’re coming after these guys.” Amrit Singh, staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union, said the Pentagon’s photos “provide visual proof that prisoner abuse by U.S. personnel was not aberrational but widespread, reaching far beyond the walls of Abu Ghraib. Their disclosure is critical for helping the public understand the scope and scale of prisoner abuse as well as for holding senior officials accountable for authorizing or permitting such abuse.” The ACLU also won a ruling to obtain documents relating to the CIA’s destruction of 92 videotapes of harsh interrogations. The tapes are gone, supposedly, but notes about the content of the tapes remain, and a federal judge has ordered their release. In December 2002, when the Bush torture program was well under way, then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld signed off on a series of harsh interrogation techniques described in a memo written by William Hayes II (one of the “Bush Six” being investigated by Spanish Judge Baltasar Garzon). At the bottom of the memo, under his signature, Rumsfeld scrawled: “I stand for 8-10 hours a day. Why is standing limited to 4 hours?” Rumsfeld zealously classified information in his years in government. Advertisement It is not only the practices that are similar, but the people. Frederick A.O. Schwarz Jr., general counsel to the Church Committee, noted two people who were active in the Ford White House and attempted to block the committee’s work: “Rumsfeld and then [Dick] Cheney were people who felt that nothing should be known about these secret operations, and there should be as much disruption as possible.” Church’s widow, Bethine Church, now 86, continues to be very politically active in Idaho. She was so active in Washington in the 1970s that she was known as “Idaho’s third senator.” She said there needs to be a similar investigation today: “When you think of all the things that the Church Committee tried to straighten out and when you think of the terrific secrecy that Cheney and all of these people dealt with, they were always secretive about everything, and they didn’t want anything known. I think people have to know what went on. And that’s why I think an independent committee [is needed], outside of the Congress, that just looked at the whole problem and everything that happened.” © 2009 Amy Goodman Distributed by King Features Syndicate Elsewhere: . CommentsAre you a Truthdig member yet? Login now, or register with Truthdig. Add Your Comment |
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By mandinka, May 4, 2009 at 6:27 pm #
Green the poll was ABC who have never confused truth with their political views. Its just like the WashPost weekly poll is off by 10 points every time its the bias in the questions and how they are asked
Report thisBy Constitutional Patriot, May 4, 2009 at 3:19 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)
Everybody has this exactly backwards.
The issue here is not torture to obtain information.
These techniques were adopted from the Chinese during the Korean War, when they were used - not to extracxt truth - but to “brainwash”, to guarantee lies that the victims knew were not true.
So, Dick Cheney clearly used these techniques to try to force Al Qaeda members and others including innocents to confirm Dick Cheney’s own lies.
Report thisBy greenferret, May 2, 2009 at 8:14 am #
A new ABC poll shows that a majority of Americans favor investigating whether Bush administration officials broke the law regarding torture. An independent investigation would reaffirm the basic American principle that no one is above the law.
Join GreenChange.org in calling on Attorney General Holder to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate whether Bush administration officials violated laws prohibiting torture:
http://tinyurl.com/NoMoreTorture
Report thisBy Sepharad, May 1, 2009 at 7:05 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)
As a long-time Freedom of Information freak and one-time collaborator with the excellent Church committee, I agree that very few things justify the secrecy accorded them. Columnist Andrew Lewis once noted that in WWII it was the open societies that drove the secret-keepers over the Rhine. (WWII was also the only necessary and just war this country has ever fought. Maybe secrecy and unjust wars don’t auger well for an allegedly open society.)
Report thisBy mandinka, May 1, 2009 at 6:13 pm #
too bad we never were able to get to the bottom of Bill Clinton’s sexual battery and Barack’s illegal land deal and his scholarship for being an non citizen.
Report thisBy hippie4ever, May 1, 2009 at 1:17 pm #
There’s been a lot of talk, esp. by the POTUS, regarding American values. I was confused about which values he referred to: a nation founded upon slavery and for the procurement of land, drugs and alcohol, or a democratic republic founded upon ideals of the Enlightenment? This has always been a problem in the States, the chasm between what we think we are and what we truly represent. Since our inception as a nation state, we have been at war nonstop: War of 1812, American-Indian Wars, the Spanish-American War, WWI, WWII, Latin American Interventions, Korean War, Vietnam, Granada, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Kuwait, Iraq, Afganistan. No generation of Americans has escaped the beat of the drum, and this is factually the most violent, war-like nation in the history of the modern world. At the end of WWII the States, in a genuine coalition of allies, was forced to bring justice to the Nazis and we should consider that very few of them ever faced trial, and that many more were let into the U.S. for employment contracts with the CIA and NSA. The common wisdom for doing such involved the Cold War (sorry I forgot to mention that), and that these Nazis were people our military/espionage forces could learn from.
Apparently they did, and now Americans follow the lead of the post-war Germans in wanting to bury their collective heads in the sand. The world community is shocked by Obama’s unwillingness to pursue this issue, and our stature in world affairs will suffer as a result. Americans traveling overseas will continue to have to look over their shoulders and face less than friendly interactions with foreign peoples. American business will compete at a disadvantage because foreign publics will avoid our products if an alternative is available.
The next time we are attacked, and some American idiot crows, “why do they hate us so,” give him/her a good swift kick. These Americans are ignorant of their history, bankrupt of morality, and amnesiac. They are rubbish and traitors to human rights, albeit wrapped in Christianity and Old Glory.
Report thisBy rjf7r, May 1, 2009 at 8:04 am #
We are living in a kind of “soft fascism”. It’s really quite a brilliant idea (of the “evil genius” sort). For many people it’s easy to ignore, easy to “live with”.
Report thisBy Outraged, May 1, 2009 at 4:08 am #
From Wiki:
“The Church Committee learned that beginning in the 1950s, the CIA and FBI intercepted, opened and photographed more than 215,000 pieces of mail by the time the program called “HT Lingual” was shut down in 1973. This program was all done under the “mail covers” program. A mail cover is when the government records without a warrant or notification all information on the outside of an envelope or package, including the name of the sender and the recipient. The Church report found that the CIA was zealous about keeping the Postal Service from learning that mail was being opened by government agents. CIA agents moved mail to a private room to open the mail or in some cases opened envelopes at night after stuffing them in briefcases or coat pockets to deceive postal officials.”
Do you think “a certain faction” of the government would open your mail, subvert your mail, listen in on your phone conversations or “check” your emails? Hmmm….. whatever would give you that idea….. obviously, YOU must be a “conspiracy theorist”. Well… maybe you’re simply a “terrorist”...... no?
Are people who endorse freedom or denounce war, “terrorists”? Even after these same have been followed, investigated, harassed and OUTRIGHTLY threatened because of their DEFENSE against fascist ideologies and their organizations yet found to be completely legit AMERICANS!? I certainly have pause to wonder.
I have read, through my many readings regarding the topic of fascism and WWII, that Hitler had a “shadow government” as well as a “shawdow war”, the public one and the “private” one. Kinda disturbing although not suprising, considering the circumstances, how those who profess LAW, break it so often. Then again…. maybe not.
Report thisBy Outraged, May 1, 2009 at 1:39 am #
Re Jim Yell:
Your comment: ”in democracy the people are supposed to be informed and while there might be a practical side in keeping somethings out of view for short periods of time, nothing should ever be secret forever or to protect the political foolishness that is often part of government.”
Well put. As to your comment, “nothing can be secret forever”, to this I would add, they only want it “kept under wraps” until they’re dead. It appears they CARE NOT what their progeny will experience regarding their misdeeds AND that they…without hesitation, would like to SAVE THEIR OWN ASS.
Also, when we say “government”, to WHAT or WHO truly should our aggravation be directed.
Report thisBy Jim Yell, April 30, 2009 at 9:21 am #
(Unregistered commenter)
You are an American and minding your own business and suddenly someone kills or greviously hurts you in response to something our government did in our names, but we aren’t permitted to know what they did.
Point being that in democracy the people are supposed to be informed and while there might be a practical side in keeping somethings out of view for short periods of time, nothing should ever be secret forever or to protect the political foolishness that is often part of government.
Certainly nothing should be secret at all that is not secret or that is already known by the enemy and yet people get accused all the time of revealing secrets which everyone already knows at lest the enemy already knows.
Let’s put a limit on secret of no more than 6 months and let’s go public with it all. It is in the best interest of everyone. Well except for the criminals.
Report thisBy Bob F, April 30, 2009 at 8:49 am #
(Unregistered commenter)
The vast majority of people—almost everybody—will willingly surrender rights in the face of a serious “present danger”. People don’t appreciate that what we think of as our rights are in fact protections against the ever-present danger of abuse by the government and the powerful. Is there any way of making people always mindful of the ever-present dangers of power, and always appreciative of the necessity of protections against those dangers?
Report thisBy roy r benson, April 30, 2009 at 2:00 am #
(Unregistered commenter)
United States Supreme Court Chief Justice Roberts resigns - steps down
Supreme Court Chief Justice Roberts resigned for failure in not stopping or preventing actual torture conduct and torture policy. Did not measure up to the level of integrity being a Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court. The President will appoint a temporary Chief Justice until the President is ready to make a formal announcement in a estimated 90 days. Justice Roberts remains on the court. He resign for it is the duty of a citizen and to his country. He was appointed Sept 29, 2005 as Chief Justice.
Report thisBy Robert, April 30, 2009 at 12:09 am #
(Unregistered commenter)
This time disclosure of secrets is likely to be more destructive to the American public. Cheney’s corrupt actions and associations went far beyond torture and are tied to some of the largest American corporations and some of the richest Americans. Now those people are forced to protect him lest he in retaliation discloses the whole truth about what went on during the Bush administration. So Cheney on trial, would he survive the experience or can he and would he be silenced. Should he survive to trial how far would the criminal convictions extend and who would join him in prison and how many billions of dollars of assets would be confiscated as proceeds of crime.
Report thisBy Grasshopper Alec Kaplan, April 29, 2009 at 5:45 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)
Thanks truthdig, purple girl, fellow truth seekers
Indeed, Cheney is quite likely to be the prime masterminds of the controlled demolition that was 9/11.
One book about this is “Crossing the Rubicon”
by Michael Rupert.
The real crimes of the former administration have hardly yet begun to come out; in light of these truly monstrous, but, also, sadly, staged, - fake terrorist attacks, what’s a little torture? Seems to pale in comparison… to a controlled demolition with thermite charges to allow the steel framing to be neatly sliced into 30 foot segments for easy transport; witnesses on the scene , including many first responders ( firemen, etc.) report hearing explosions; why would they have to neatly slice the structure of the buildings to allow them to fall at nearly freefall speeds? Why would they have to explode the sub- basements first, and have the path of resistance to the freefall cleared out , so as to not make too much of a mess of New York? Come on, any intelligent, unbiased, OBJECTIVE look at the actual facts leaves one wondering ,why they even bothered flying the planes into the buildings at all ? In fact, no airplane hit building 7, which Giuliani said they knew they’ld have to pull. Why ? Merely just to pass legislation that would otherwise have been unthinkable? To get public support for wars in the middle east?
Really, the torture is just the tip of the iceberg, but I would like to speak to this some as well
Torture has become a uniquely American institution now, and in fact, you can probably find it happening locally, in your nearby jail.
But further, it runs through our very way of life and being. Rather than allowing people freedom of speech and mind, and the beloved freedom of political expression, in reality there is hardly anything of this sort. This is both my observation and personal experience. I can only conclude that Americans actually believe strongly in, and fully support torture, which is truly sad.
Torture does not lead to any useful information; it is merely an end unto itself; if you torture someone sufficiently, they shall say whatever you like, whenever you like it, if you’ll just lessen the torture.
Report thisBut torture has permanent, brain-changing effects. Once you’ve instilled a state of learned helplessness, the whole point of torture, then the detainee is jello which you can mold at your will.
So i guess this is what we want to do to our enemies, which is bad enough, but what’s far worse is the whole mindset of having sort of your
Daily Enemy Requirement; if you can’t find an alien enemy, there are plenty right here at home.
But torture doesn’t have to be anything as extravagant as water boarding or insects; this is the more difficult way; the easiest forms of torture are the most commonplace, merely routine practice.
i’m talking about sleep deprivation, prolonged cold , stress positions such as being handcuffed inside a holding cell, being denied use of toilet facility; i’ve personally experienced these forms of torture myself for a so-called terrorist threat i did not commit; but the need to torture each other has grown so great, almost in-grown into being an integral part of our society, that when I tried to speak my mind, the whole system of injustice was reigned against me, and now, a year later, these same courts won’t even release my transcript of my kangaroo trial to allow me to pursue an appeal.
What are they afraid of? Whatever we’re most afraid of, it may be far worse; but without the exposure of the Truth, and then a prolonged fight to actually be free thereafter, we’ve little chance for or HOPE of a free society…
Peace and love,
Grasshopper Kaplan
http://www.myspace.com/thegrasshopppersongs
By the worm, April 29, 2009 at 12:27 pm #
TORTURE - YES! FELLATIO - NO!
For Republicans, it is worthwhile to expend the public’s money, time and attention on the investigation of Presidential fellatio (a la the Starr Report), while investigating and prosecuting Presidential sponsorship of torture, kidnapping and black sites is a waste of the public’s time, attention and resources,
Echoing ‘the party of ideas’, many Democrats, apparently, subscribe to a variation of this idea: investigations and possible prosecutions would divert the public’s attention from more important matters.
Exposing the details of Presidential fellacio made us the world’s laughing stock. hiding the details of Presidentially sponsored kidnapping, black sites and torture confirms to world the true meaning of ‘American values’: the end justifies the means, might makes right, the law is for other people, black sites and kidnapping are fine, torture is good, fellacio is bad.
If the new war is a war of ideas, we lose.
Report thisBy Paul_GA, April 29, 2009 at 10:20 am #
As Lord Acton said, “Everything secret degenerates; nothing is safe that does not bear discussion and publicity.”
Report thisBy Peter Chamberlin, April 29, 2009 at 9:40 am #
(Unregistered commenter)
It is the secrets, especially the secret operations, which will either kill this Nation or save it, by driving the rest of us to organize in order to force disclosure.
Report thisBy Purple Girl, April 29, 2009 at 8:16 am #
The release/exposure is not the betrayal- it was the Torture which was the betrayal and reckless endangerment.
Report thisThese High crimes criminals are not sorry for their crimes- they’re sorry they got caught.
I have no doubt the Terrorist network knew about these methods long before we did- and probably know much more than we even know now.
we have yet to find out about that ‘rendition’ Program (kidnapping) and the methods used at those foreign ‘Black Sites’. Even more disturbing is the revelation of a Hit squad.
The most likely explanation for Cheney’s sudden Openness is he has far more heinous crimes to distract our attention from.
He and his minions must be praying they are convicted on these torture crimes here, instead of more egregious acts in an international court. they know we have little stomach for executions.
Cheney ,Rummy and Wolfie have the added concern of the crimes they have committed over the last 40 yrs.The split over whether Waterboarding is torture may grant them life sentences- but proof of Conspiracy through decades (acts which created the environment leading to the attacks on 9/11), may secure their execution for Treason- Iran Contra, Assisting Both Binny & Saddam in the ‘80’s, Rigging elections and Undermining sitting Presidents…Basically using the Resources of the US for their own MIC covert operations- will negate such ‘Benefits of the Doubt’ by even their most staunch supporters.
So convicted of ‘harsh interrogation methods’ in a US Court- is the lesser of the Evils they could face.
Dig Deeper, these Guys are hiding far bigger crimes- domestically and internationally,‘torture’ is a red herring.