Obama Faces Torture Test Tomorrow

Tomorrow is decision day on whether Obama instructs the DOJ to release the next batch of memos regarding torture authorizations and techniques. Apparently they are bombshellish. Though I doubt that anyone here will find them particularly shocking. The main effect/test is two fold. First to “Alert the Media” that yes, torture happened and was authorized. A big media splash and hopefully enough outrage to move us as a nation further towards investigations and prosecutions.

But just as important, this is a test for the new administration. They are being heavily pressured to, in essence, cover-up the memos by not declassifying and releasing them. Those urging the cover-up are apparently a combination of Republicans CYAing on their rubberstamping the programs…and the CIA and other intel agencies trying to CYA on, well….torturing.

From the Wall Street Journal ….so take with a grain of salt, this is advocacy journalism.

Obama Tilts to CIA on Memos

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is leaning toward keeping secret some graphic details of tactics allowed in Central Intelligence Agency interrogations, despite a push by some top officials to make the information public, according to people familiar with the discussions.

These people cautioned that President Barack Obama is still reviewing internal arguments over the release of Justice Department memorandums related to CIA interrogations, and how much information will be made public is in flux.

From April 3rd….

As reported by NEWSWEEK, the White House last month had accepted a recommendation from Attorney General Eric Holder to declassify and publicly release three 2005 memos that graphically describe harsh interrogation techniques approved for the CIA to use against Al Qaeda suspects. But after the story, U.S. intelligence officials, led by senior national-security aide John Brennan, mounted an intense campaign to get the decision reversed, according to a senior administration official familiar with the debate. “Holy hell has broken loose over this,” said the official, who asked not to be identified because of political sensitivities.

Brennan is a former senior CIA official who was once considered by Obama for agency director but withdrew his name late last year after public criticism that he was too close to past officials involved in Bush administration decisions. Brennan, who now oversees intelligence issues at the National Security Council, argued that release of the memos could embarrass foreign intelligence services who cooperated with the CIA, either by participating in overseas “extraordinary renditions” of high-level detainees or housing them in overseas “black site” prisons.

From Greenwald on April 6th

Ever since October, 2007, the ACLU has been battling in court to compel the disclosure of three key torture-authorizing memos authored by Bush’s Office of Legal Counsel chief Steven Bradbury and approved by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales in 2005.  Two of those memos — the existence of which was first disclosed in a well-documented October, 2007 article by The New York Times’ Scott Shane, David Johnston and James Risen — are among the clearest, most specific and most vivid exhibits detailing how the U.S. Government formally “legalized” interrogation methods which unquestionably constitute torture.  They are, in essence, the Rosetta Stone for documenting the war crimes committed not by low-level CIA agents but by the highest-level Bush DOJ officials.  For that reason, the Bush administration vigorously resisted the ACLU’s campaign of compelled disclosure.

Those are the torture memos that are now at the heart of a growing controversy, as the Obama administration has sought multiple delays (a total of four) of the court-imposed deadline for it either to (a) disclose those memos to the ACLU or (b) declare that it will refuse to do so and explain why.  The last deadline was Thursday, April 2, and on that date, the Obama DOJ obtained yet another extension, making the new deadline April 16.  Two weeks ago, Newsweek’s Michael Isikoff reported that Eric Holder and White House counsel Gregory Craig had overruled the vehement objections from ex-CIA Director Michael Hayden and others in the intelligence community and had decided to disclose the memos.  But thereafter, the Obama DOJ, rather than release the memos, instead sought another extension of the deadline, and numerous sources — including The New York Times’ Shane, Newsweek’s Isikoff, and Harper’s Scott Horton — then reported that the anti-disclosure crusade inside the Obama administration is being led by John Brennan.  

Brennan, of course, was a former top aide to CIA Director George Tenet and was Obama’s first choice to head the CIA, a prospective nomination supposedly blocked by bloggers and others, who objected to Brennan on the ground that, though he condemned waterboarding, he had explicitly defended many of the “enhanced interrogation tactics” that these memos authorized.  Despite Brennan’s defense of many radical Bush/Cheney policies (or perhaps because of it), Obama named Brennan to be his top White House counter-terrorism adviser, a position Brennan is now using — quite predictably — to block disclosure of evidence that incriminates the Bush administration.  Exactly as Brennan critics predicted (and as intelligence reporters far too close to and respectful of their sources denied would happen), Brennan has now become, as Horton put it, “Dick Cheney’s clear champion.”

Today, in The Daily Beast, Horton — citing an anonymous Obama DOJ source and an anonymous Senate GOP source — claims that Senate Republicans are now “blackmailing” Obama by threatening to filibuster the confirmation of two Obama legal appointees (Dawn Johnsen as head of the OLC and Harold Koh as State Department legal counsel) unless Obama agrees not to release these OLC memos.  The Right has been obstructing the nominations of Johnsen (as a result of her aggressive rhetoric condemning Bush crimes) and Koh (for his advocacy of international law).  Horton’s DOJ source says that while it is true that Brennan has been aggressively advocating against disclosure, it is the threatened obstructionism from the Senate GOP that is the “principal” cause of concern inside the White House.

What this comes down to is whether Obama….and make no mistake, this will be from Obama himself….capitulates to the CIA and the Republicans trying to protect Bush and themselves.

I’m not sure what the technical requirements are for something to be called a cover-up. And certainly claiming that Obama is covering up Bushco’s War Crimes will be met with howling fury ….from some quarters.

But these memos are a clear, vital, and apparently incriminating record of those War Crimes. If he fails the test and keeps the memos a secret, what else can you call it?

Especially if the reasons stated for covering them up are merely…

Brennan, who now oversees intelligence issues at the National Security Council, argued that release of the memos could embarrass foreign intelligence services who cooperated with the CIA, either by participating in overseas “extraordinary renditions” of high-level detainees or housing them in overseas “black site” prisons.

To protect those who partipated in The Bush Torture Program.

Cross your fingers and hope that Obama passes this test and releases the memos. This is a true pivot point. If he decides not to, he is sliding down the slippery slope of the cover-up being worse than the crime. (Except in this case, nothing could be worse than State Authorized Torture)

If he does pass the test and releases the memos, it sends a VERY clear and strong signal that transparency, protecting the Rule of Law, and Justice are a larger priority than protecting torturers.