Article: Remarks On Torture And Secrecy By The Redoubtable Scott Horton.

I believe that the moment - the day of “official censorship and concealment” - that Kennedy foresaw is drawing near, if it is not already upon us in America today. The moment has crept upon us by stealth, as a result of decisions taken at the highest level in government. These decisions have been made behind closed doors, with no public discussion – and indeed with a concerted effort to misdirect the public as to the gravity of the changes in policy which have been undertaken. They have led to a dramatic expansion of Government action without oversight, which is to say on the basis of a decision by the President unchecked by courts and Congress, and to a shrinkage of individual freedom.

We have a duty to posterity, and that is to bear witness to these events. We must document them carefully. We must act to avoid the destruction of valuable evidence – and recognize, as we have already seen, that it is in the character of those who commit crimes to destroy the evidence of their misdeeds. In this way we lay the path for the justice which will in good time be meted out to those who betrayed a nation’s trust. For I believe, like the Puritans, in the certainty that justice will triumph and that wrongdoers will be held to account, though I am not so foolish as to think that this will happen soon. Still, the time is coming, as John Milton wrote, that sun part the clouds which tyrants muster,

that good men may enjoy the freedom which they merit,
and the bad the curb which they need.

Remarks delivered at New York University School of Law's Conference on Government and Secrecy, April 12, 2006

Posted 3:40 PM by Scott Horton [link]

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