Will Obama keeps Bush's torture secrets?

"We must never forget that the record on which we judge these defendants today is the record on which history will judge us tomorrow." Justice Robert Jackson at Nuremberg.

By Cernig

So far, Team Obama is off to a very shaky start on rolling back Bush's torturing ways, and the Bush administration's secrecy about those ways. We have a presidential executive order which is very upfront that international statutes on detainees and interrogations must be obeyed and orders for closing Gitmo and CIA "black site" prisons in due course. But then we have Leon Panetta confirming what AG Holden had already signalled - no prosecutions for those who actually tortured because they were just obeying orders (it didn't work at Nuremberg but it works now - go figure) and because of that lack of prosecuted actual crime quite probably no prosecutions for those who ordered torture either.Panetta also wants to reserve the possibility of using torture for "ticking bomb" scenarios, despite every expert in the field saying you don't get such scenarios outside TV dramas and even if you did torture wouldn't be any help.

The next big test comes Monday, when a hearing will determine whether Holden will continue the Bush administration's assertion of “state secrets privilege,” claiming that the disclosure of information in a lawsuit case involving five former detainees who allege they were victims of rendition-to-torture could damage national security.

“Every single torture case filed against a U.S. official has been thrown out without any adjudication of law or facts” because of the early and broad use of the state secrets privilege, said Ben Wizner, an A.C.L.U. lawyer.

The practical effect, Mr. Wizner said, is that detainees are blocked from the courts, and so “there aren’t any checks and balances over the conduct.”

In a conference call with reporters on Thursday, Anthony D. Romero, executive director of the A.C.L.U., noted that as a presidential candidate, Mr. Obama pledged to break with the past on the issues of rendition and torture. His Justice Department, however, has not yet signaled whether it will continue to assert the broad state secrets claim, alter it or simply ask for more time to consider its options.

“The baton has been passed,” Mr. Romero said. “The runner must run in the same direction or change course.”

A spokesman for the Justice Department, Charles Miller, declined to comment on the case, as did a White House spokesman, Ben LaBolt.

But whatever the government’s lawyer says on Monday will speak volumes about the administration’s views, Mr. Wizner said.

“If he repeats the Bush administration’s argument that this case must be dismissed at the outset,” Mr.Wizner said, “then we’ll know that despite the change of administration, the policy of the United States that torture victims be shut out of the courtroom has continued.”

One of the plaintiff's is Binyam Mohamed, who was the subject of the UK case I posted about where Obama's team continued a Bush administration blackmail threat of the British government and legal system. There, the Obama administration thanked the UK government for keeping Bush's torturing ways secret. So don't hold your breath till Monday, please - but I'll be posting as soon as there's something to write about on that one.

Comments

[Kat]

"...no prosecutions for those who actually tortured because they were just obeying orders...)

Here's an idea:

Give those who actually tortured immunity (in the US, at least) if, and only if, they testify before Congress, naming everyone who gave them these orders, and saying precisely what orders they were given by each person they name.

[Steve Hynd]

I could probably live with that.

[sfHeath]

Here's the information on the Mohamed vs. Jeppsen Dataplan case, which will be heard in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco this Monday. Oral arguments are posted the next day here. The case number is 08-15693. It's the first opportunity for the new DOJ to use Bush's completely bogus state-secrets claim; let's see if they do so.

[Steve Hynd]

Thanks, sf!

[sfHeath]

Today's Telegraph has a CIA leak about the danger of Islamist-extremist British nationals towards the US. I think the timing of that report points to more CIA propaganda, even if the report is factually true. What do you think?

[Steve Hynd]

I'd agree and had already seen that article.

But did you see this piece on what got Binyam Mohamed tortured and sent to Gitmo? Reading an old Rolling Stone spoof on how to make an H-bomb gets you accused of "dirty bomb" plots.

Regards, C