Wednesday, May 12, 2004
Sinking feeling
Powell is dropping a bomb on DoD and Bush. A few weeks ago, he starting letting his disdain for Rummy et al be known through his aides and friends, as documented in a well-circulated GQ article. Now, he's contradicting Rumsfield's testimony that news of Abu Ghraib abuse didn't reach the cabinet level, saying he and "other top officials" kept the president in the loop about the ICRC report, etc. So...any bets on whether Powell will resign before the election? Because the knives seem to be coming out.
More people are leaving the reservation. They lost Tucker Carlson. And Tom Friedman is slowly waking up to political reality.
And well they should, because it's going to keep getting worse. Ever wonder about the rest of the gulag---all those prisoners from Afghanistan and the rest of the war on terror? Like, where are they, what's being done to them, and will they ever see the light of day, or a courtroom? An important NYT story claims many are being tortured by the CIA:
The article raises a terrifying thought:
Let's see. CIA agents in undisclosed locations, often in other countries, under little or no oversight, with secret prisoners, might face an investigation if their actions come to light. If Kerry wins in November, might some of these prisoners be disappeared? And how will we ever know?
Two years ago, maybe even two months or two weeks ago, this thought would seem a bit outrageous, even paranoid. But it's now clear that the old rules and norms don't apply. They've been systematically undermined---through the abandonment of international treaties and allies, the passage of the Patriot Act, the declaration that presidentially declared enemy combatants have no rights, and the establishment of lawless prisons and lawless occupied territories. We gotten so used to this that questions that might have leapt unbidden are unasked and forgotten (example of the day: under what authority is the DoD restricting Congressional access to photos from Abu Ghraib? How can a DoD official tell a Senator he may look but not keep copies of these documents---they aren't classified to my knowledge. But our meek Senators accept orders from the executive nowadays).
Institutions are living things, and we are watching ours be corrupted at a frightening rate.
More people are leaving the reservation. They lost Tucker Carlson. And Tom Friedman is slowly waking up to political reality.
And well they should, because it's going to keep getting worse. Ever wonder about the rest of the gulag---all those prisoners from Afghanistan and the rest of the war on terror? Like, where are they, what's being done to them, and will they ever see the light of day, or a courtroom? An important NYT story claims many are being tortured by the CIA:
At least one agency employee has been disciplined for threatening a detainee with a gun during questioning, they said.
In the case of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, a high-level detainee who is believed to have helped plan the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, C.I.A. interrogators used graduated levels of force, including a technique known as "water boarding," in which a prisoner is strapped down, forcibly pushed under water and made to believe he might drown.
...
Counterrorism officials say detainees have also been sent to third countries, where they are convinced that they might be executed, or tricked into believing they were being sent to such places. Some have been hooded, roughed up, soaked with water and deprived of food, light and medications.
The article raises a terrifying thought:
Concerns are mounting among C.I.A. officers about the potential consequences of their actions. "Some people involved in this have been concerned for quite a while that eventually there would be a new president, or the mood in the country would change, and they would be held accountable," one intelligence source said. "Now that's happening faster than anybody expected."
Let's see. CIA agents in undisclosed locations, often in other countries, under little or no oversight, with secret prisoners, might face an investigation if their actions come to light. If Kerry wins in November, might some of these prisoners be disappeared? And how will we ever know?
Two years ago, maybe even two months or two weeks ago, this thought would seem a bit outrageous, even paranoid. But it's now clear that the old rules and norms don't apply. They've been systematically undermined---through the abandonment of international treaties and allies, the passage of the Patriot Act, the declaration that presidentially declared enemy combatants have no rights, and the establishment of lawless prisons and lawless occupied territories. We gotten so used to this that questions that might have leapt unbidden are unasked and forgotten (example of the day: under what authority is the DoD restricting Congressional access to photos from Abu Ghraib? How can a DoD official tell a Senator he may look but not keep copies of these documents---they aren't classified to my knowledge. But our meek Senators accept orders from the executive nowadays).
Institutions are living things, and we are watching ours be corrupted at a frightening rate.
