The "Legal World" continues to be aflutter this week, in high tonus and on high aleart, over the latest stone in the pond of the Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld torture regime. (check out Balkinization)
An OLC memo is released, unredacted (overshadowing the shocking Mukasey and unsettling Hayden comments from early this week, if that is possible, even).
Clearly, "secrecy" is code word for political protection under Cheney-Bush, right? "Classification" has clearly gone to the point of abuse, at more than one point of serious departure in the past seven years.
The idea that super-secret torture - even the Working Group that had been set up at DoD on the matters was kept in the dark about what was adopted - was the way to handle or take a decision to "change the rules" just makes the entire effort look twice as expedient, to my eyes.
n.b. Small Government Conservative Watch: The bloke who oversaw the OLC at the time, Jay Bybee? Bush put his name forward to be a Federal judge ... (I guess he was fresh out of Congressional Medals, like the one given to Tenant, right?). Haynes, chum to VP lawyer and Admin heavyweight Addington and lawyer-enabler of Rumsfeld? Bush put him forward for a judgeship as well, although by that time the Senate ... was nervous.
BACKGROUND
Here is the long, sordid history, the lead-up to this week's turning of one more card in our great national non-secret secret, before the Phillp Sands article this week caused a wider stir. [n.b. this "card" was turned face-down again, ten months after it was issued, ... Blind leading the blind? No. It appears to be a function of a zealously autocratic leadership, from what I take away myself from the timeline of events.]
Thursday, April 3, 2008
Abuse of Power
