In the wake of the September 11 terrorist bombings, the media, liberal as well as conservative, spearheaded a campaign to justify the torture of terrorism suspects as a necessary part of the so-called “war on terror.” At the time, articles appeared in leading publications such as the New York Times and Washington Post uncritically presenting intelligence and military officials’ defense of torture. The magazine Newsweek infamously ran an article entitled “Time to Think About Torture,” which argued that “survival might well require old techniques that seemed out of the question.”
For their part, Democratic congressional leaders were briefed by Bush officials on the criminal methods being employed, supported them, and provided political cover for the US government’s violations of international law. The Military Commissions Act, passed by Congress with significant Democratic support in 2006, sanctioned the legal chimera “enemy combatant,” thus denying terrorism suspects recourse to the legal system of any country or to any international body.
The liberal wing of the Democratic Party is steadfastly opposed to criminal investigation of the Bush administration. Senator Patrick Leahy, who postures as a defender of democratic rights, has proposed a toothless “truth commission,” which would take as its starting point the rejection of criminal prosecution of perpetrators. Such a procedure could have but one purpose—to bury the crimes of the Bush years and “move on.” Even this meager proposal has been abandoned by the Democratic leadership, which proceeds from the standpoint that the less discussion on torture, the better.
Second, Obama seeks to keep at his disposal similar methods as those used by Bush, while effecting a cosmetic change in image. If the administration is opposed to holding accountable those who perpetrated war crimes and violations of both US statutes and international human rights laws, then all of its verbal disavowals of torture and affirmations of “American values” are worthless. It should be recalled that Bush also declared repeatedly that “We do not torture.”
The Panetta memo underscores the essential continuity in Washington’s personnel and policies. Obama has retained leading Bush administration figures who are implicated in all its policies, including the defense secretary, Robert Gates, and the military brass responsible for conducting the brutal colonial wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Like all of his attempts to distance his administration from the policies of his predecessor, Obama’s purported closure of the secret prisons is full of loopholes.
Panetta did not say when the secret prisons—which likely exist in Poland, Romania, Jordan, Morocco and Thailand, among other places—would be closed, while claiming that the CIA has not sent any people to the black sites since he took over the CIA’s helm in February.
But since their locations remain classified, it is impossible for third parties, including the ICRC, to investigate Panetta’s assertion that there are currently no suspects in the prisons.
At the same time, Panetta declared that the CIA “retains the authority to detain individuals on a short-term transitory basis.” He did not explain on what evidence a suspect could be detained. Moreover, the reference to “short-term and transitory” imprisonment deliberately leaves open the door for extraordinary rendition, whereby those abducted in the “war on terror” are moved, without access to any legal system, to third countries to be tortured there. Panetta and other administration officials have all but acknowledged that this practice will continue.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
