Either It's Getting Closer or It's the Illusion of Getting Closer

Accountability for the torture used by the Bush administration in the "war on terror" might have come one step closer to being actualized, or the leaks to the press might be making it look like tortured, hard decisions are about to be made within the Obama administration.

I can't tell the difference yet. Newsweek's Daniel Klaidman reported in a long and very "personal" look into the character and family of Eric Holder, Jr., Attorney General of the United States, that four separate sources claim he is struggling with the decision whether to go after the Bush administration officials responsible for authorizing torture.

Four knowledgeable sources tell NEWSWEEK that he is now leaning toward appointing a prosecutor to investigate the Bush administration's brutal interrogation practices, something the president has been reluctant to do. While no final decision has been made, an announcement could come in a matter of weeks, say these sources, who decline to be identified discussing a sensitive law-enforcement matter. Such a decision would roil the country, would likely plunge Washington into a new round of partisan warfare, and could even imperil Obama's domestic priorities, including health care and energy reform. Holder knows all this, and he has been wrestling with the question for months. "I hope that whatever decision I make would not have a negative impact on the president's agenda," he says. "But that can't be a part of my decision.

Citing the two recent extremes of attorneys general--Janet Reno who was fiercely independent and therefore not an insider of the Clinton administration and Alberto Gonzales, a mere "yes-man," Newsweek claimed that since Holder was the White House liaison during the embattled Reno years, he is extremely sensitive to the balance he needs to bring to his job--enforce the law yet also support the President's agenda. Rahm Emanuel, Obama's Chief of Staff, is the constant reminder of just what that Presidential agenda is. But according to these sources, what Holder has learned about what occurred during the Bush years is moving him closer to opening an investigation.

Then there is the New York Times story this morning by Scott Shane. What began as a disingenuous attempt by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi to wiggle out of responsibility for knowing that the CIA was waterboarding has turned into admissions that the CIA, under orders of the evil mentor of Bush, that's vice president Dick Cheney, to prevent Congressional oversight committees from being briefing on a yet unnamed CIA program: extraordinary rendition, more wiretapping, assassinations, torture of detainees?

According to the Times: The disclosure about Mr. Cheney’s role in the unidentified C.I.A. program comes a day after an inspector general’s report underscored the central role of the former vice president’s office in restricting to a small circle of officials knowledge of the National Security Agency’s program of eavesdropping without warrants, a degree of secrecy that the report concluded had hurt the effectiveness of the counterterrorism surveillance effort.

This is major news. Surely the Sunday morning talking heads will be all abuzz. We have to find out what happened, and hold people accountable. That is the essence of the rule of law. Yes, Obama's popularity around the world has restored much of America's lost credibility. But the only way to restore our credibility at home, among the voters and citizens, is to undo the corruption to the rule of law and restore government to its foundations in the constitution.

The Art of Secrecy

During the first nine months of the Bush administration, nothing happened, because the new president had been elected to dismantle our confidence in the federal government. Remember he was vacationing, once again, when the ominous memo arrived warning Bush that Al Qaeda was planning to attack the country, and he was reading a book about a goat to school children when they did.

Suddenly the architect of do-nothing government and his evil mentor, Dick Cheney, panicked and abandoning the procedures and structures of constitutional government, in part to cover up their inaction (despite Richard Clarke, counter-terrorism aide in the White House and Bill Clinton's exit interview), came up with programs that attacked the very heart of American ideals: detention and torture of suspects both in the United States and abroad; extraordinary rendition, kidnapping foreign nationals to secret prisons where either contractors or "friendly" government agents beat, tortured, and often killed suspects; wiretapped American citizens who made telephone calls to Muslim countries to speak with family members, business associates, and friends; wiretapped attorneys and journalists, and perhaps members of Congress; and then denied it all.

The last gasp of American journalism, more likely because some real Americans with access to information leaked it to the New York Times and the Washington Post (as Daniel Ellsberg did with the Pentagon Papers), made us aware of these programs quite early in the Bush administration, early enough to have prevented Bush's re election. However, the scary tone frightened too many Americans into keeping with the guys who had failed to protect us in the first place and who were ransacking America in its aftermath.

This is more than incompetence. This was ideological warfare against the very traditions of American government and idealism, and it made money for the principals, too. Don't get me wrong: I've spent my career as an attorney and have no illusions about how government operates, no matter which party is in charge, and the egregious disregard for the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, along with the Geneva Conventions, during prior administrations. But this was different, very different, because there were attempts to justify their actions, just as the Nazi's did, with trumped up legal opinions, deceitful briefings to members of Congress, and the United Nations, and there is much more that we don't know. And they profited from their actions: Rumsfeld and Cheney got richer while in office.

The New York Times presents a story today about just how ineffective all of this wiretapping really was.

And talkingpointsmemo.com reports that the extent of the secret surveillance is still unknown and goes way beyond our wildest expectations. The Inspector General's report alludes to stuff that makes my civil libertarian heart quake.

This is why we need a full investigation and prosecutions, if appropriate, of Bush officials who intentionally refused to uphold the Constitution and laws of the United States. Remember that oath of office that Chief Justice Roberts blew during Obama's inauguration, well, it means something.

I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.