Despite checks-and-balances, America didn't come up Aces, in its torture test.
All the lessons of Watergate and Arms-for-Hostages ... didn't help, apparently. What does that tell you about being humble, even as a progressive?
Everyone will surely find some cross-section of their favorite political gripes to lay at the feet of that failure. (Good insights from AS, Robert Stein, and many others).
TOWARDS A STANDARD FOR SUBSTANTIVE REVIEW OF "THE SECRET WAR", OF "COVERT"
But the bottomline is that it didn't work. Handling of the "Secret War", so called, seems beyond the reach of the Congress.
The tea-leaves say that Ruling Class seem divided and griping amongst themselves, mostly that Bush-Cheney proved themselves no Gentlemen in dealing behind closed doors with the Senate, as far as jointly coming up with a "what we'll do, now" beforehand and mostly digging in to protect their party's lead/leader, ex post facto.
The 9/11 commission found ways to streamline the bureaucracy, but never did much to imagine ways in which the moral character of "secrecy" should and ought to be managed (that I recall).
The founding fathers insisted on open government, open hearings and oversight of the Executive and independent judicial review, among the tools. None of this applies to "covert actions", and what procedures exist, clearly can be abused (especially with a compliant DOG, er.. DOJ).
RELEASE ZUBAYDAH
It's probably premature to say (because it might create more heat than light, to turn up the stakes so high, early on), but it's on the back of my mind, even after considering the spectacle that it would cause.
When you make a mistake, in America, either you open your wallet or you open your jail.
Yes, it's a real, freaking pain, to do so.
I don't know about Moussaoui (I haven't followed the details of these cases). Probably not, though.
Sunday, December 9, 2007
A Nation, Tested, Found Wanting: Release Zubaydah?
