Senator Wyden Toying With The Idea Of Releasing The Senate's CIA Torture Report
from the the-pressure's-on dept
Senator Ron Wyden is apparently getting tired of waiting for the White House to use up its buckets of black ink in redacting everything important in the Senate's big torture report. He's publicly pondering the idea of using Senate privilege to just release it himself.As you may recall, the Senate Intelligence Committee spent years and $40 million investigating the CIA's torture program, and the 6,000+ page report is supposedly devastating in highlighting (1) how useless the program was and (2) how far the CIA went in torturing people (for absolutely no benefit) and (3) how the CIA lied to Congress about all of this. The CIA, not surprisingly, is not too happy about the report. At all. Still, despite its protests, the Senate Intelligence Committee voted to declassify the executive summary of the report.
However, the CIA got to take first crack at figuring out what to redact, which seemed like a massive conflict of interest. Either way, the CIA apparently finally ran out of black ink in late June, and asked the White House to black out whatever else was left. The State Department has already expressed concerns that releasing anything will just anger the public (our response: probably should have thought of that before sending the CIA to torture people). And, now it appears the report is being held up due to "security" concerns.
At least some are getting anxious about this. Senator Wyden has apparently deliberately mentioned Senate Resolution 400 to two separate reporters recently. The key part of Resolution 400 is as follows:
The Select Committee may, subject to the provisions of this section, disclose publicly any information in the possession of such committee after a determination by such committee that the public interest would be served by such disclosure. Whenever committee action is required to disclose any information under this section, the committee shall meet to vote on the matter within five days after any member of the committee requests such a vote. No member of the Select Committee shall disclose any information, the disclosure of which requires a committee vote, prior to a vote by the committee on the question of the disclosure of such information or after such vote except in accordance with this sectionNow, this still means he'd need to get the rest of the Committee to go along with the plan, which could be difficult. But, really, it seems that this move is just an effort to remind the White House that if it keeps dragging its feet, the Intelligence Committee (the majority of whom have already supported releasing this document) can take matters into its own hands.
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Filed Under: cia, ron wyden, senate intelligence committee, torture report
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Welcome, but a titch late
Just like you don't let an accused criminal have redaction rights over the police report covering their activities before it's presented in court, putting the CIA, the very agency under investigation, in control of the findings is a conflict of interest, and/or a showing of contempt towards the public, so vast it should never have been considered.
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We didn't.
He'd be seen as a threat in the eyes of any bureaucrat.
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Either release and deal with it, or sit down and stop trying to gain advantage.
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Also, at least in this case, it's likely only to gain some good PR, rather than trying to shake down some companies for 'donations'.
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oxymoron?
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He holds pole position for the race to be my write-in for 2016.
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All in the name of fighting terror of course. Although, I'm sure most people will find what's in the report pretty terrifying.
Maybe that's why the report is being redacted and delayed. The CIA and Whitehouse are trying to figure out a way to make their war crimes sound less terrifying.
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Correct me if I'm wrong...
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Re: Correct me if I'm wrong...
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Take Out The Terrorist Politician
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Re: Take Out The Terrorist Politician
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Now it takes chuzpe to intentionally bomb UN schools and claim that one is only "defending oneself". But if Israel can get away with that, why not the U.S.?
The newspapers and channels will happily regurgitate any garbage they are fed.
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Re: Take Out The Terrorist Politician
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Not the only tool in the box
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It's our property
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Wouldn't do after all to have a nice, easy to read sheet that listed who was in favor of hiding the details regarding the CIA torturing people for no gain and then lying about it, versus those who rightly believed that such information needs to be public, if for no other reason than to hopefully make it less likely to happen again. /s
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Public anger
That this is even a consideration in whether or not to release the report makes me angry.
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'But people might get angry if they read it'
They act like people getting angry over the report going public is a bad thing, whereas the truth is if people weren't angry over a report on how a government agency tortured prisoners, then something is seriously wrong.
Being angry, even furious, at a gross injustice like that should always be the default position, for any sane and rational person.
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Re: 'But people might get angry if they read it'
I would question that the angering hasn't already happened in this case since the congress has already shot them very hard. The political damage has already been done and the public is already somewhat aware. They fear that further damage to their political independence might pursue as a result of the release. That is where it hurts. Political oversight is a bitch.
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Re: Public anger
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Since When
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Buy printer ink stock
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