Respectfully submitted by Lawrence E. Rafferty (rafflaw)-Weekend Contributor
Since the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence voted in April of this year to declassify its long-awaited Torture Report, the intelligence agencies have been working behind the scenes to convince the Executive Branch to further sanitize it or keep it entirely secret. Needless to say, the declassification process used to prepare the report for public consumption has been dragging on. With the CIA and other defense agencies working overtime to keep a lid on the report, the truth may never reach the public.
What can Congress do to make sure that its report gets declassified and distributed to the public if the President agrees with the intelligence agencies and does not order the release?
Back in 1976, Congress created a procedure that would allow it to declassify documents on its own. This measure which also created the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, would allow Congress to declassify the report after a procedure that has never been fully used before.
“This is where Resolution 400 potentially comes into play. When the Senate passed that resolution in 1976, creating the Select Committee on Intelligence, it gave itself the extraordinary power to declassify information without the president’s approval — albeit with considerable exertion.
Basically, in order to invoke that provision successfully, the intel committee, chaired by California Democrat Dianne Feinstein, would first have to vote to bring the report before a rare closed session of the full Senate. If the president didn’t object in writing within five days, the full Senate would then weigh the report in closed session and vote on whether to unilaterally declassify it.
Senators have gone through the initial process of invoking Resolution 400 in the past, the last time during George W. Bush’s second term, but it’s generally been considered a way of getting the president’s attention rather than a realistic option. That’s probably the main reason it’s being trotted out now, too. No doubt some senators were willing to talk with me about it openly this week because they’re trying to pressure the White House.” Yahoo News
Whether Resolution 400 is merely being talked about for the purpose of pressuring the President and the Executive Branch or if the Senators are serious about invoking it, the result could be a major step in Congress reining in what some consider the Executive Branch running roughshod over Congress. The Torture Report’s contents have been kept secret, but the little that we do know about it is that it is very critical of the CIA and other intelligence agencies.
Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon has been especially critical of the process to declassify the report. He has gone on record stating that he won’t hesitate to push for the use of Resolution 400 if the report is delayed further or cleansed of important disclosures.
“But there’s also a growing sense among senators that, if Obama doesn’t disclose the summary more or less as is, Feinstein might be exasperated enough to actually ramp up the doomsday device, with the backing of some senior members. “I am going to use whatever tools it takes, including Senate Res 400, to declassify the torture report,” Wyden told me flatly, more than once.” Yahoo News
Whether the use of Resolution 400’s procedure to declassify the Torture Report is more bluster than reality, hopefully it will have the result of speeding up the declassification process and ensure that the report is not turned into a whitewash of the torture excesses. This battle between the intelligence agencies and the Senate is a fight that should be important to all of us.
Americans are entitled to know what its intelligence agencies did in our name and the full disclosure of this Senate report could go a long way in educating us all to the reality that was the Enhanced Interrogation program. Do you think that the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence should use Resolution 400 and release the full report? Do you think the Senate will actually have the intestinal fortitude to use the Resolution 400 process if necessary?
“The views expressed in this posting are the author’s alone and not those of the blog, the host, or other weekend bloggers. As an open forum, weekend bloggers post independently without pre-approval or review. Content and any displays or art are solely their decision and responsibility.”
Just getting to this report is torturous…
https://twitter.com/trevortimm/statuses/492807359081631744
You pet the pretty cow before they butcher it with saws and cleavers and hang it on meat hooks in the process so you can, ultimately, eat it.
Ever seen a chicken’s head cut off so it can bleed out in the rack before it’s plucked in preparation for cooking so you can have dinner?
You turn a soldier into red mist with a 175 Howitzer HE Round on the battlefield and wet your pants over “torturing” a prisoner to gain tactical or strategic advantage to win and save lives in the process?
Do you know you’re at war or do you think you’re enjoying an innocuous social parlor game?
I swear to Gosh, somewhere, entire minds have been lost. It appears they will never be found.
You release the dogs of war and tell them to win.
Be sure you’re on the right side.
We’re not in Disneyland anymore.
Alternatively, we can tell guys like Putin and the Chinese Presidium that we no longer engage in war and we have no weapons so do whatever tickles your fancy.
Can you see a Tyrannosaurus Rex politely asking a caveman if the caveman knew where the T Rex could get a tasty sandwich for lunch.
Will someone petition the next extinction event asteroid to kindly make a left turn at Mars and head off to Alpha Centauri?
I think Mao had something going on when he relocated intellectuals into the fields for some good old fashioned hard work producing copious amounts of blood, sweat and tears for extended periods of time introducing reality; a new reality for those academics and intellectuals.
Sometimes I get the impression that certain people have no idea where things come from; say a car and how it comes from a burning cauldron in a hot, explosive steel mill, a house that comes from the violent disarticulation of a massive tree or freedom from a brutal, savage, barbarous battlefield.
https://twitter.com/ColMorrisDavis/statuses/492301544705253376
doglover,
Context.
How is it that the ECHR can find the United States of America’s use of secret Polish prison sites illegal yet not find the practice of torture, illegal?
European court finds CIA tortured prisoners at Polish black site
http://america.aljazeera.com/opinions/2014/7/poland-cia-blacksiteeuropeancourthumanrightstorture.html
Eric-
In your equation, how do you ascertain which acts of torture are to be characterized as trying to stop other terrorist acts and which acts are not? How much research do you do to weigh who is justified in torturing others and who is not justified?
The TSA declassified the reports on the Christmas Day underwear bomber. We all know by the grace of God, the bomb would not fire. The reason turns out that the bomber wore his underwear bomb FOR 2 WEEKS DAILY. The crotch juice dampened and degraded the plastic explosive. Thank God he had horrible personal hygiene.
doglover,
Terrorist acts and acting to stop them are on an equal moral plane for you?
If Alan Sherman were around he would tweek his song about Little David Susskind in favor of Old Lady Feinstein:
Old Lady Feinstein Shut UP!
[music-]
Old Lady Feinstein: Shut UP!
Old Lady Feinstein: Shut up
Please don’t talk; please don’t talk
Old Lady Feinstein-
Me first
Then you’ll talk
–end- or sort of the end-
Old lady Feinstein is 80 or so and is of a firm belief that the NSA can do no wrong as long as it reads old lady Merkel’s emails but not Diane’s. The future of our nation is in the hands of some old senile dweebs. Think about it.
It’s a moral dilemma to be sure.
Last week, I watched the movie, ‘Lone Survivor’. It’s based on the account by former Navy SEAL Marcus Luttrell whose team, along with a Chinook crew and whole squad of SF operators, were killed in action.
Nineteen of the US military’s best men died because PO Luttrell’s commanding officer, LT Michael Murphy, decided to release 3 prisoners – 1 old man and 2 boys – rather than kill them outright or bind them, which the SEALs believed would likely result in their deaths (animal predators, weather).
LT Murphy made his decision in accordance with his morality, the rules of engagement, and laws of war. He also made this decision expecting that his erstwhile prisoners would inform the nearby Taliban forces of his SEAL team. These particular Taliban were known to be responsible for, and thus capable of, killing US Marines, which is a hard thing to do.
Nineteen of America’s best men, many of whom were husbands and fathers of young children, were killed because LT Murphy made an all-American moral decision, the kind we teach our soldiers to make with their dedicated ethical training from the earliest stage of their military indoctrination.
His only reprieve is that he didn’t survive long enough to see his close comrades in the rescue squad, whom he had called to save his team with his last act in life, also die as a result of his moral decision to spare the lives of the old man and 2 boys who would kill him and his men.
LT Murphy honored the highest traditions and values of the US military and was awarded the Medal of Honor, posthumously.
The moral dilemma of “enhanced interrogation” does not rise to killing old men and young boys who accidently stumble on a secret op. It’s usually not even torture by the standard of our enemy in the War on Terror.
But the other side of the moral dilemma of “enhanced interrogation” is even heavier than the life-or-death choice that faced LT Murphy and killed him.
Rather than LT Murphy’s own life, the lives of the three men in his command, and even the doomed rescue team he didn’t live to see, our interrogators are tasked with preventing the killing of 10s, 100s, 1000s, maybe even 10000s or more – depending on the kind of weapon the terrorists can obtain from terrorist supporters like Saddam – civilians, not just soldiers. Interrogators are charged with protecting the homeland itself.
When the Abu Ghraib scandal broke, I was disgusted, as was every other Army veteran I knew. But my reaction was tempered by the appreciation that the terrorists were assassinating and mass-murdering 10s and 100s of Iraqis at a time, almost every day, along with humanitarian aid workers and the coalition soldiers defending Iraq. Our interrogators at Abu Ghraib were wrong … but they were wrong while trying desperately to save American, coalition, aid workers, and most of all, Iraqi lives by stopping an enemy who was – and is – zealously committed to achieving social dominance through unrestrained terror-style murder and real torture.
Our morality – Michael Murphy’s morality – demands our judgement that certain acts are wrong and intolerable. Had I been in command, I’m certain I would have made the suicidal decision that LT Murphy made. I also would have penalized the interrogators and MPs at Abu Ghraib.
But know that that our morality, while we are competing with this enemy, comes with a very, very high price. At least consider the price when you judge.
“Americans are entitled to know what its intelligence agencies did in our name and the full disclosure of this Senate report could go a long way in educating us all to the reality that was the Enhanced Interrogation program.” – rafflaw
Indeed !
Big Brother sucks and is not American.
Larry,
I think this is an issue more Americans should be aware of to make such demands of their representatives and know that Congress actually has some power to address a wayward president.
I don’t trust Dianne Feinstein to allow the public in general to become privy to the misdeeds of the federal government; unless of course it is Senator Feinstein is the person who suffered at the hands of government agencies, (CIA Reading e-mails of congress) because it involved her, then she might demand the information be released.
Bringing it back into the news would have two effects – one it would re-affirm to Americans that the US is every bit as sadistic and brutal as any other group of people. Two – it would re-affirm that same information to the rest of the world. Both already know it is true, but re-affirmation would raise the idea to the surface for both groups.
It is curious that those who ascribe to religious fundamentalism are the biggest supporters of US torture. Maybe that’s what too much bible reading does to a person.
Gene,
As I understand it, it only takes one member of the committee to request the procedure to go forward.
Feinstein has been a major disappointment on these issues. Too bad we can’t trade her for Russ Feingold and a player to be named later.
Sunshine is the best disinfectant. Release is overdue. California may not be able to Water Board soon due to lack of water.
What’s the game here? Does ANYONE believe that Dianne Feinstein, the biggest cheerleader of the Intelligence Community, is going to allow this to proceed on her watch. It will take another Edward Snowden revelation to bring these things into the light of day.
Interesting stuff, Larry.
I hope it is released soon. FWIW, I hear California is now using Water Boards to harass its citizens, too.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter