[R-G] `Holy Hell' Over Torture Memos

[Suzanne de Kuyper]

Doomed.  Obama is not commited to transparent government except in his
private life.

Suzanne             suzannedk at gmail.com

On Fri, Apr 10, 2009 at 10:47 PM, Sid Shniad <shniad at sfu.ca> wrote:

> `Holy Hell' Over Torture Memos
>
> Attorney General Eric Holder wants to release
> classified Bush-era interrogation memos. But U.S.
> intel officials are fiercely lobbying the White
> House to block him from moving forward.
>
> By Michael Isikoff
> Newsweek Web Exclusive
> <http://www.newsweek.com/id/192314>
> April 3, 2009
>
> A fierce internal battle within the White House over the
> disclosure of internal Justice Department interrogation memos
> is shaping up as a major test of the Obama administration's
> commitment to opening up government files about Bush-era
> counterterrorism policy.
>
> As reported by NEWSWEEK, the White House last month had
> accepted a recommendation from Attorney General Eric Holder
> to declassify and publicly release three 2005 memos that
> graphically describe harsh interrogation techniques approved
> for the CIA to use against Al Qaeda suspects. But after the
> story, U.S. intelligence officials, led by senior national-
> security aide John Brennan, mounted an intense campaign to
> get the decision reversed, according to a senior
> administration official familiar with the debate. "Holy hell
> has broken loose over this," said the official, who asked not
> to be identified because of political sensitivities.
>
> Brennan is a former senior CIA official who was once
> considered by Obama for agency director but withdrew his name
> late last year after public criticism that he was too close
> to past officials involved in Bush administration decisions.
> Brennan, who now oversees intelligence issues at the National
> Security Council, argued that release of the memos could
> embarrass foreign intelligence services who cooperated with
> the CIA, either by participating in overseas "extraordinary
> renditions" of high-level detainees or housing them in
> overseas "black site" prisons.
>
> Brennan succeeded in persuading CIA Director Leon Panetta to
> become "engaged" in his efforts to block release, according
> to the senior official. Their joint arguments stalled plans
> to declassify the memos even though White House counsel
> Gregory Craig had already signed off on Holder's
> recommendation that they should be disclosed, according to an
> official and another government source familiar with the
> debate. No final decision has been made, and it is likely
> Obama will have to resolve the matter, according to the
> sources who spoke to NEWSWEEK.
>
> The continued internal debate explains the Justice
> Department's decision late Thursday to ask a federal judge
> for another two-week delay (until April 16) to file a final
> response in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit by the
> American Civil Liberties Union seeking the release of the
> memos. The ACLU agreed to the two- week delay only after
> Justice officials represented that "high-level Government
> officials will consider for possible release" the three 2005
> memos as well as another Aug. 1, 2002, memo on torture, that
> has long been sought by congressional committees and members
> of Congress, according to a motion filed by Justice lawyers
> with U.S. Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein in New York, who is
> overseeing the case.
>
> The 2002 memo, written by former Justice lawyers Jay Bybee
> and John Yoo, concluded that waterboarding and other harsh
> interrogation techniques could be used against Qaeda suspects
> without violating a federal law that prohibits torture. That
> memo was publicly withdrawn by the Justice Department in 2004
> after its existence became publicly known and sparked a
> public controversy. But a new set of Justice lawyers-led by
> Steven Bradbury, the newly installed chief of the
> department's Office of Legal Counsel-later secretly authored
> additional memos in the spring of 2005 that essentially
> approved the same techniques, permitting the agency to
> barrage terror suspects with a combination of physical and
> psychological tactics, including head-slapping and frigid
> temperatures, according to a 2007 New York Times account.
> Those memos concluded that the harsh interrogation techniques
> used by the CIA would not violate Geneva Conventions
> restrictions on "cruel, inhuman and degrading" treatment of
> prisoners.
>
> The internal controversy over the memos is viewed as
> especially significant in light of the larger debate over
> whether there should be "accountability" for Bush- era
> tactics in the war on terror, including calls in Congress for
> a "truth commission" to investigate the matter. Until now,
> that debate has been cramped by the fact that most of the key
> material-including those that describe precisely what tactics
> were used by the CIA in interrogations and what happened to
> high-level suspects in U.S. custody-has been classified,
> making it at least theoretically a federal crime for
> officials with direct knowledge of these issues to publicly
> discuss them.
>
> If the Justice memos were to be declassified, it would free
> up a host of former officials to talk about precisely what
> took place during White House and Justice Department meetings
> over the issue of interrogations. If the White House were to
> overrule Holder and side with Brennan and Panetta, it could
> essentially shut the door on attempts to have a full public
> airing of these issues, according to human- rights activists,
> lawyers and others who have followed the debate.
>
> "It is our goal to release [Office of Legal Counsel] opinions
> to the maximum extent possible, while still protecting
> national security information and ensuring robust executive
> branch decision-making," said Tracy Schmaler, a Justice
> Department spokeswoman, in a statement. "We continue to
> review OLC memos for possible release and to consult with the
> departments and agencies to whom OLC provides legal advice
> about the appropriate path forward with respect to other
> memos."
>
> Jameel Jaffer, an ACLU lawyer who is overseeing the
> litigation, said he still remains hopeful that the Justice
> Department will release the memos later this month. He added,
> "This is arguably the most important test thus far of the
> Obama administration's commitment to transparency."
>
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