Former CIA and National Security Agency director Michael Hayden has long been the face and voice of the growing security state within the United States. While many of his representations have been challenged, he continues (like Dick Cheney) to create his own reality to justify powers viewed as authoritarian and unlawful. Now, with the approaching release of a comprehensive report on the torture program, Hayden is out in the press denying the findings of the report that torture did not result in any meaningful new intelligence and that the CIA tortured people who were already cooperating with conventional (and legal) interrogations. Hayden took to the airways to champion torture by attacking the chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D, Cal.) and said that she was just being “emotional” and should not be involved in such a serious debate.
On “Fox News Sunday,” Hayden cited comments Feinstein made last month that the report would “ensure that an un-American, brutal program of detention and interrogation will never again be considered or permitted.” That was just Feinstein being “emotional” Hayden insisted: “That sentence — that motivation for the report — may show deep, emotional feeling on the part of the senator, but I don’t think it leads you to an objective report.”
It was an ironic moment since Feinstein has been widely denounced by civil libertarians for her blind support for the intelligence community, including her campaign against Edward Snowden and her defense of massive surveillance programs targeting the entire population in meta data collection. When she was granting the security agencies their every wish, she was pragmatic and powerful. However, once she allowed an investigation into torture, she became emotional and incompetent. Of course, under Hayden’s approach, the United Nations, various countries, numerous human rights organizations, and former government officials are equally blinded by their emotions in denouncing the torture program — and our failure to prosecute former Bush officials.
It is equally telling that Hayden views the condemnation of torture to be a purely emotional response. Torture is a war crime as well as a domestic crime. It is like saying that a prosecutor is a bit too emotional in denouncing murder. Normal people tend to have a certain emotion over torture. We had some pretty powerful emotions when we tried Japanese officers for water boarding our POWs. Hayden made his career by dismissing questions of illegality as emotional tripe.
Ironically, Hayden is my neighbor down the street from my house. The few houses that separate us are nothing like the “emotional” divide over war crimes. I still strongly oppose the record of Feinstein in the expansion of national security powers in this country. However, having Michael Hayden as a critic on the subject of torture is a good step toward redemption.
Source: Washington Post
bigfatmike,
I grew up believing that Nuremberg set a standard. I guess we as a country have abandoned that important standard.
UConn women tomorrow!
Clapper, Hayden. Feinstein, Holder, etc. there is no honor in politics. They will lie to your face, they will lie under oath. Our political system has collapsed and there will be blood.
When it comes to war crimes, torture is the least of it.
There are legitimate reasons to go to war. I won’t even mention Afghanistan. That situation is clouded by the fact that their government protected those who attacked this country.
But the case of Iraq is clear. Without imminent threat this was a war of aggression.
As for the idea that the war was about oil, we should remember that some believe the Japanese entered WWII to secure access to raw materials.
The simple fact is that at the end of WWII we hung leaders for starting the war.
Now we are faced with a stark question. Was Nuremberg a simple act of victors justice. Or did Nuremberg set a standard of justice to which all must adhere.
I once started the research for a book on the war crimes of FDR using Nuremburg as the standard, but it would have been so big, it just got out of hand. Nuremburg (of course FDR was dead then) was victor’s justice. If you want to see just how much victor’s justice it was read a translation of Goering’s testimony. He tore the Allies a new one. Everything they were accusing him of, he had proof they had also done.
UConn just won the NCAA championship!
If the CIA is so confident that they are within the rule of law, man up and release the report.
🙄
That’s even funnier.
Let’s stay focused on the issue, gents. The discussion of other blogs and intramural squabbles is counterproductive. We have here a serious issue on this post that has generated many good points. Let’s keep our comments on that out of respect for this blog. Thank you for your anticipated cooperation.
xenonman
What we need are more courageous individuals who are not afraid to release classified documents …
=================
“Four things on earth are small,
yet they are extremely wise:
Ants are creatures of little strength,
yet they store up their food in the summer;
hyraxes are creatures of little power,
yet they make their home in the crags;
locusts have no king,
yet they advance together in ranks;
a lizard can be caught with the hand,
yet it is found in kings’ palaces.”
(Proverbs 30:24-28)
Here is a place where you can get “Miss Me Yet” billboards on sale for some reason (The Rehabilitation of High Priest Bush II – 2).
Who cares about the Ferengi Rules of Misposition, or an ear rub, or a self-appointed bully priest who is full of shit?
What we need are more courageous individuals who are not afraid to release classified documents andto name names of Agency scum.
That is the only way we will ever get to the bottom of this Agency-inspired mess.
“In Defending Dianne Feinstein, Ron Wyden Reminds that Michael Hayden Lied to Congress”
Published April 7, 2014 | By emptywheel
http://www.emptywheel.net/2014/04/07/in-defending-dianne-feinstein-ron-wyden-reminds-that-michael-hayden-lied-to-congress/
Gene Howington
Dredd,
Some soirées have rules and bouncers and better yet less denouncers.
Had you had the desire to stay, you should have followed the rules of play.
================
As with you here.
You stay there and cause trouble, I will stay here and cause civility.
I never even look at the Flowers of Hypocisy Site any more.
An alternate title:
“Here’s an emotional response to the torture report: I’m outraged”
By Eugene Robinson, Monday, April 7, 7:49 PM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/eugene-robinson-the-senates-torture-report-merits-an-emotional-response–outrage/2014/04/07/d4413674-be87-11e3-b195-dd0c1174052c_story.html
Trevor Timm tweet:
Trevor Timm @trevortimm 5h
Michael Hayden this week: @SenFeinstein is “emotional,” @RonWyden “should’ve acted like a man,” Senate Intel staffers are “sissies.”
AP – are you supporting this tweet? Or do you have contrary information?
When the ex-governor of Kandahar former director of Afghan Security Directorate was hurt in a suicide bombing aimed at him in Kabul, he was ultimately flown to Virginia for treatment. Pres. Obama hurried to his bed good friend’s bed site there. The man in bed was the same man who has been alleged to run places like the Salt Pit where Mr. Gul Rahman was tortured to death. He is the man alleged to have tortured himself prisoners in a prison under his living quarters. This is the man the CIA pays handsomely. This is a good friend of Pres. Karzai whom has received handsome payouts as well. The Associated Press noted that the CIA official who oversaw Rahman’s treatment “was reprimanded” and “now works as a defense contractor.” Whoopee.
In its 2008 report on America’s culpability to war crimes Amnesty International noted: “There is not a single fix that will bring the USA’s actions on counterterrorism into compliance with international law. The violations in the “war on terror” have been many and varied, and the government has exploited a long-standing reluctance of the USA to commit itself fully to international law, including in relation to recognizing the full range of its international obligations with respect to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. The question of accountability and remedy for violations in the “war on terror” must therefore be part of a new commitment by the USA to international law.” Wishful thinking.
In its refusal to investigate the Bush-era torture practices, President Obama’s declared that he prefers to look forward, not backward. His administration announced June 30 (2011) that it would shut down 99 investigations into deaths of prisoners in US custody during the “war on terror,” leaving only two investigations with the potential to develop into criminal prosecutions. These last two have been dismissed.
It’s hard not to laugh bitterly when the president calls Russia’s invasion into the Crimea against international law or when the US State Dept. releases its annual The World’s State of Human Rights Report.
Lastly, I met up in Kabul with one of the men who was present during some of the torture scenes couldn’t eat nor sleep for weeks afterward. He was paid handsomely for interpreting. He felt filthy inside and out.
SWM, Udall and Wyden have been undercut continuously regarding the NSA by Feinstein. She’s no good.
AP, I’d like to unpack this ideas here. It is “outrageous”, actually ridiculous) to say Feinstein’s actions were motivated by emotion. It is also sexist.
It is not accurate for Wyden to say that Feinstein has been motivated only by facts in the report. Some of the most important facts were leaked,–, that’s why we saw any of this report in the first place. As it is, the American public will be allowed to see a very small percentage of these facts.
Asking the Obama administration for help is odd, because by law, Obama and Holder ought to have brought prosecutions for torture along time ago. Of course, Obama engages in torture, so that may have a lot to do with why he doesn’t prosecute those who commit torture.
Wyden is a strange man. I’m glad he has put out the information he has into the public domain. That fact remains that he has held back information we have a right to know. The fact remains that members of the intelligence committee were briefed on torture and gave assent to it.
By eliding the remarks of Hayden into vindication of the actions of Feinstein, Wyden is himself engaged in a cover up.
http://www.wyden.senate.gov/news/press-releases/wyden-calls-former-cia-directors-attack-on-senator-feinstein-outrageous
Wyden Calls Former CIA Director’s Attack on Senator Feinstein “Outrageous”
Monday, April 7, 2014
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) released the following statement in response to former NSA and CIA Director Michael Hayden’s remarks suggesting that the Senate Intelligence Committee’s landmark report on torture and coercive interrogations was not objective because the committee’s Chairman, Senator Dianne Feinstein, is too “emotional.”
“General Hayden’s suggestion that Chairman Feinstein was motivated by ‘emotion’ rather than a focus on the facts is simply outrageous. Over the past five years I watched Chairman Feinstein manage this investigation in an extremely thorough and professional manner, and the result is an extraordinarily detailed report based on millions of pages of internal CIA records, including operational cables, internal memos, and interview transcripts.
General Hayden unfortunately has a long history of misleading the American public – he did it on domestic surveillance when he was the head of the NSA, and he did it on torture when he was the CIA Director. The best way to correct this culture of misinformation is to give the American people a chance to review the facts for themselves, and I’ll be working with my colleagues and the administration to ensure that happens quickly.”
I don’t see what party affiliation has to do with torture. Members of both parties, current and former, ordered, authorized, excused, allowed, and aided in the torture of human beings.
This should outrage people. It is not O.K. to engage in these actions because one is from the “correct” party. This is not the rule of law. I don’t understand how people can justify these actions for any reason. The level of cruelty and unlawfulness is beyond the pale. What does party affiliation have to do with people’s actions? Nothing.
We should not stand by justifying this kind of cruelty. It is just mind numbing that people would put membership in a party over justice. No wonder it’s SNAFU in this nation.