My Yearly December Post on John Brennan Rolling DiFi on Torture Report
Approximately 358 days ago, I wrote a post titled,
Yup, John Brennan Rolled DiFi on the Torture Report
In it, I predicted,
Since I was right about John Brennan being completely untrustworthy about bringing an open mind to the evidence presented in the Torture Report, let me make another prediction based on this detail.
Committee aides said the panel hoped to finish work on an updated version of the report, taking note of CIA comments, by the end of the year. The committee could then vote to request declassification, which would allow the public to see the report, or at least parts of it.
What’s going to happen is the SSCI will water down the report, ignoring the clear implications of the evidence, in hopes of getting support for declassification. The Republicans on the committee, at least, still won’t vote to declassify it. Some section of the watered-down report will be released. And the historical record on torture will not reflect the clear evidence in the documentary record.
Dianne Feinstein could, of course, move to declassify the report in its current state.
But she won’t do that, and John Brennan knows it. You see, he knows DiFi wants to be loved by the spooks she oversees, and they could care less what she thinks of them, so long as they continue to hide the true nature of their organizations. And her desire to be loved by those she oversees makes her an easy mark.
When that post said, “by the end of the year”? That meant last year. 2013.
Didn’t happen.
Meanwhile, in recent days, we’ve learned that Brennan prevailed on one of the key fights between CIA and SSCI, succeeding in having the pseudonyms of pseudonyms redacted so we can’t track all the things Alfreda Bikowsky did, beyond the torture tourism we know she engaged in and the torture she subjected an innocent Khalid el-Masri to, before she got several more promotions at CIA.
And while I think today’s report, confirming that “Yup, John Brennan Rolled DiFi on the Torture Report,” adds another dynamic — that of CIA and the President and State publicly making clear that Dianne Feinstein will bear responsibility for any backlash over the revelations in the Torture Report, I think Brennan is still doing a victory lap.
Secretary of State John Kerry personally phoned Dianne Feinstein, chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Friday morning to ask her to delay the imminent release of her committee’s report on CIA torture and rendition during the George W. Bush administration, according to administration and Congressional officials.
[snip]
“What he raised was timing of report release, because a lot is going on in the world — including parts of the world particularly implicated — and wanting to make sure foreign policy implications were being appropriately factored into timing,” an administration official told me. “He had a responsibility to do so because this isn’t just an intel issue — it’s a foreign policy issue.”
“That’s a nice Torture Report you’ve got there, Dianne,” these men seem to be saying, “and we’ll happily take credit for your work. Unless something bad happens in which case expect us to throw you to the wolves.”
CIA (and NSA) always get Congress to back off oversight with threats like this — kudos to Senator Feinstein for remaining committed to releasing the report.
It’s just really really frustrating that we are here, a year later, with the men in charge still levying these kinds of threats. If the torture CIA did will cause blowback, then that’s CIA’s fault, George Bush’s fault. Dick Cheney’s fault.
What about Mark Udall?
http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/mark-udall-0115
quote:”What about Mark Udall?”unquote
Mark Udall
quote:”What happened broke faith in the Constitution. It’s made our challenge much greater when it comes to facing the threat of Islamic fundamentalism. And it is morally repugnant. When this report is declassified, people will abhor what they read. They’re gonna be disgusted. They’re gonna be appalled. They’re gonna be shocked at what we did. But it will lay a foundation whereby we don’t do this in the future. That’s been my goal. That’s been my mission.”unquote
Morally repugnant. Abhor what they read. They’re gonna be appalled. They’re gonna be shocked at what we did. And then what? Even if it were totally declassified, NO ONE will be held accountable. This is why the so called “rule of law” is a myth. A joke. A mockery. The mere fact that Obama admitted “we tortured some folks”, as if it were some act that was some kind of abberation..is living proof . If the “rule of law” truely existed, every single DOJ lawyer who wrote the memos “authorizing” torture would be under arrest for conspiracy to commit war crimes, notwithstanding Bush, Cheney , CIA operatives, corporate contractors, and DOD support personnel..and on and on. Unfortunately, the power of LEGAL IMPERIALISM will NEVER allow those who committed war crimes to be held accountable, regardless how repugnant, abhorrent, and evil they were.
Meanwhile, the so called “rule of law” allows a degenerate cop to murder a person over the alleged crime of selling a cigarette on the street for $.75, and then allows a prosecutor to convince a Grand Jury to NOT indict him for murder, at the same time, allowing the entire Wallstreet financial terrorists to rape the worlds economy.
THAT is aborrant. THAT is moraly repugnant. And THAT is why the so called “rule of law” is indeed a myth. And that is why these reprehensible, deviant CIA psychopaths who conspired to torture human beings will NEVER see the inside of a prison cell, even IF the report were declassified. In reality, the US “Justice” system is an abomination. Just ask Aaron Swartz. Or Border Patrol agent Terry. Or the mother of the child who will suffer a lifetime of mental and physical scars from a flashbomb thrown by a SWAT team..who then are exonerated. Or any number of victims of the US IN justice system and police state.
Now, excuse me while I vomit.
Mr. Kerry,
In 1971, when you were about to publicly tell Congress of US soldiers cutting off ears and heads, electrocuting people, etc., what would you have told the Kerry of 2014 if he told you to hold off because a lot was going on in implicated parts of the world (i.e. Vietnam)?
I’d be slightly happier if I actually believed that DiFi wasn’t willing to be rolled on this.
Sadly I have to agree with PJ Evans. The only reason that the current version is being held back is because Diane Feinstein has willed it so. She may have done so in the fantasy that her president would do the right thing but either way she played along till this bitter end.
.
As for Obama he really does seem to be making the most out of losing. By ‘losing’ the election he jettisoned most of his stiffest opponents on issues of civil liberties, war, and “Free Trade”
You have to keep in mind that DiFi is pretty much a DINO any more. Whatever the MIC wants, she’s willing to give them.
Thanks Anon. Yes it’s malevolent Obama. He’s been that way from the beginning. And as you suggest, his job as he saw it was to hand over control of Congress. He tried to lose both Houses in 2010 and finally succeeded this year. Note among a million other things the way he managed to deflate the Latino vote.
Can’t we please just deport these assholes, every last one of them, to someplace where they can all play with each other to their heart’s content and leave our great nation the fuck alone? I am absolutely certain that no one will even notice they are gone. I’m pretty sure they would be welcome in, say, Antarctica as it has no government to screw up.
mt–great post: muscular, forceful, clear and to the point. more please. yes, DieFye is a woefully compromised woman. The nauseating deference that she showed towards that sad excuse, Brennan, during Congressional hearings surely would lead one to conclude that she is part of the problem. not sure what to make of the latest Kerryesque shim-sham. it may likely just turn out to be nothing more than the empty gesturing of a defeated man. the final product, if any, will most likely read like the insubstantial drivel published as the 9/11 commission report: essentially useless for the purpose of meaningful research. i guess we’ll just have to wait and see.
Why should lil obama be off Our Hook? He made it all possible with his lie(s) and using them(lies) to become Our President. He put Our Honor on the lil bush gang! the white wash of a get out of jail hanging card.