I had hoped to blog a bit about a KM issue today, but so much is going on in Washington relating to the issue of accountability for the torturers, that I can’t really leave it alone. In my last post, I pointed out that the President’s decision to refrain from seeking prosecutions of the officials who actually committed torture was beyond his authority, and that if he proceeded along these lines he would be engaging in a lawless act beyond his authority under the constitution. Over the weekend, the situation turned for the worse.
First, on Saturday, Marcy Wheeler, a blogger at Firedog Lake broke the story that Abu Zubaydah was waterboarded on 83 occasions and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed on 183 both within a single month. Then, on ABC’s This Week on Sunday, Rahm Emanuel, the White House Chief of Staff, revealed that the President also would not seek to prosecute any high level CIA, Department of Justice or White House officials who approved torture or who provided the quasi-legal justifications for it, that provided cover for those performing torture. Following this disclosure, today (Monday as I write this), White House Press Secretary, Robert Gibbs confirmed Rahm’s view, and it looked like the Obama Administration was lining up behind the lawless view that acknowledged crimes under international law and treaty would not be prosecuted by the United States of America.
But, this evening, the situation began to turn around, when Michael Isikoff and Evan Thomas of Newsweek reported that Justice Department lawyers, in discussions with Attorney General Eric Holder were studying prosecutions of both CIA and high level officials, and also the appointment of a non-partisan outside counsel to conduct them. Most importantly, they also believe that a decision about going forward with prosecutions is theirs, rather than anyone’s at the White House, including the President’s, and that the proper role of the President in prosecution decisions is a “hands-off” one. Finally, members of both the House and the Senate are calling for investigations, and Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), has asked the President to hold decisions about prosecution in abeyance, until the Senate has had a chance to carry out its investigations of the full dimensions of Government use of “enhanced Interrogation” techniques.
Over the past few days, more and more voices are calling for an investigation of torture activity and also for prosecutions. At this point, I think the wave of protests against the idea of transparency without accountability, and the lawless decision of the President not to prosecute, has now become too intense for the White House to stand against. in the end, there may well be both transparency and accountability, and this will be a good thing for restoring the rule of law in America, and for preventing future attempts of overweaning executives to circumvent it.