Mark Udall's Open To Releasing CIA Torture Report Himself If Agreement Isn't Reached Over Redactions
from the putting-the-pressure-on dept
As we were worried might happen, Senator Mark Udall lost his re-election campaign in Colorado, meaning that one of the few Senators who vocally pushed back against the surveillance state is about to leave the Senate. However, Trevor Timm pointed out that, now that there was effectively "nothing to lose," Udall could go out with a bang and release the Senate Intelligence Committee's CIA torture report. The release of some of that report (a redacted version of the 400+ page "executive summary" -- the full report is well over 6,000 pages) has been in limbo for months since the Senate Intelligence Committee agreed to declassify it months ago. The CIA and the White House have been dragging out the process hoping to redact some of the most relevant info -- perhaps hoping that a new, Republican-controlled Senate would just bury the report.The arguments for not leaking the report -- or just putting it into the Congressional record -- is not a legal one. Members of Congress are allowed to put whatever they want in the Congressional record without fear of legal repercussions. However, it could lead to other problems, including being kicked off of the Intelligence Committee, which would have led to less ability to oversee what was going on in the future. But since he's leaving anyway... As Timm notes:
But Udall’s loss doesn’t have to be all bad. The lame-duck transparency advocate now has a rare opportunity to truly show his principles in the final two months of his Senate career and finally expose, in great detail, the secret government wrongdoing he’s been criticizing for years. On his way out the door, Udall can use congressional immunity provided to him by the Constitution’s Speech and Debate clause to read the Senate’s still-classified 6,000-page CIA torture report into the Congressional record – on the floor, on TV, for the world to see.In fact, Gravel is now urging Udall to do exactly that, in an interview he gave to Dan Froomkin.
There’s ample precedent for this. In 1971, former Senator Mike Gravel famously read the top-secret classified Pentagon Papers for three hours before almost collapsing and then entering thousands of pages more into the record after he couldn’t speak for any longer from exhaustion.
“If Udall wanted to do this, he could do the same thing.” Gravel said. “Hell, I’d fly into Washington and help him pass it out.”Udall himself had been rather quiet about all of this over the past few weeks, but has now told the Denver Post that all options are on the table, but he's still hopeful that a deal may be reached.
If it’s more convenient, Gravel said, he’ll be in Udall’s home state of Colorado in a couple weeks. “If he wants to, we can get together over Thanksgiving weekend, and talk this thing out so he feels comfortable.”
The two biggest reasons not to do it, Gravel said, are no longer relevant. “The biggest fear you have is peer pressure. What are my members of the Senate going to think of me? But I’ve got to say, if you lose office, like he has, he’s got no more peer pressure.”
“I’m going to keep all options on the table to ensure the truth comes out,”In an odd way, his loss may actually put extra pressure on the CIA to agree to fix the retraction problem, since they now know that Udall can just go around them entirely. Suddenly, the "fallback" position isn't such a good situation. In the past, the CIA could stall under the likelihood that no one could really do much about it. But that calculus has changed, meaning that the CIA no longer has the upper hand here. Still, it would be something if Udall decides that the only way to get this info out is to put it out himself, in part, because he could release a lot more than just the executive summary. Who knows if he'd go that far, but it's good to hear that he's at least open to the option.
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Filed Under: cia, mark udall, privilege, torture report
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GOP freak out in 3...2...
But seriously, incoming rants of treason seem likely...
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Re: GOP freak out in 3...2...
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Do it!!!!!
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Re: Do it!!!!!
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Do eeet
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Do eeeet!
Do it!!
Come on, Udall, do it!
Release the kraken, Udall!
Do it, Udall!
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Tragic news
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Re: Tragic news
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I had this same conversation with one of Feinstein's interns...
19 yr olde self-important intern- "The senator is very upset that the CIA and the White House refuse to release the executive summary"
AricTheRed- "Bullshit! If "The Senator" had any interest in upholding her oath "to support and defend the constitution from all enemies foreign and domestic" she would read the whole fucking report during debate of some BS bill that they are going to ram through, like the farm bill, and make it a matter of record and tell everyone who thought that that was akin to providing "Material Support" to terrorists to go PATRIOT ACT themselves to death!"
19 yr olde self-important intern- "That is an interesting idea, I'll have to tell the senator."
Self-important-AricTheRed- "You should do that and then hold your breath until she does it."
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Re: I had this same conversation with one of Feinstein's interns...
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Re: Re: I had this same conversation with one of Feinstein's interns...
Nice try however.
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Re: Re: Re: I had this same conversation with one of Feinstein's interns...
Usually I get the canned responses...
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Re: Re: Re: I had this same conversation with one of Feinstein's interns...
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Re: Re: Re: Re: I had this same conversation with one of Feinstein's interns...
Plus people love to talk about themselves (as a rule) so I just asked a bunch of questions about her and eventually asked what she was doing commuting to and fro on the ferry to San Francisco. And she was proud to state that she was working as an unpaid intern for a part of the axis of evil (Commentary added by author).
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: I had this same conversation with one of Feinstein's interns...
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Now all the plotting looks to be the smoke it is. Someone is just short of having a heart attack even at the mention he might do this. I would suspect nothing will happen to Udall until several years after this is blown over. Then there will be this tragic accident no one can prove otherwise on.
It's gone far enough that I have little doubt such could happen.
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my prediction
I hope I'm wrong.
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Home of the brave I have no doubt, land of the free?
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Re:
Not serious enough to actually release the report.
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Kennedy-Warren report
Semper CIA!
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How?
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Re: How?
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Something wicked this way comes
That's funny because there weren't many people out here all that concerned about Udall losing after he ran a terrible campaign. Frankly, he didn't seem to be working at it very hard.
It would great to see a DefCon 1 level of panic inside the beltway if he did release the unredacted report but the down side is there might actually be real names and locations in it of people who don't need to be fingered.
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This is where the rubber meets the road
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Enough of the "ive got something to hide and i am NOT a person" secrecy
YES, 100%, something BIG needs to change, and if there are folks out there thinking thats to much, well yes, because its BIG, and you've been conditioned to think that secrecy from those in power is for some delusioned reason, a good thing
Our governments/corporations shouldnt be participating in something they cant publicly disclose............throw out, greed in monotization or social influence/power
The rich get richer, the REAL bad guys get badder
Rant terminated
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