Release and Conceal: The Mirror-World Edition

In the latest phase of what I'm proud to name The War on Torture, we've definitely entered Mirror World. In the regular world, we've become used to Democrats urging the release of more information regarding abusive interrogations and Republicans suggesting that any such exposure to sunlight would kill the beneficial organisms contained in those programs.

But now it's today, and Dick Cheney is telling everyone on television (with the possible exception of Billy Mays) that he wants more memos released. Lindsey Graham is doing the same thing in the Senate. More memos made public, Senator Graham suggests, will prove that torture, which isn't really torture, works, whatever "works" means.

And President Obama, who once took pride in making his first act in office the ending of the Orwellishly-named enhanced interrogation program, is now saying his administration will oppose a court order mandating the release of photos of prisoner abuse by American soldiers in the past, because it may lead to harm of American soldiers in the present.

So, to review, Cheney wants more stuff made public and Obama wants less stuff made public. Will Cheney soon come out, so to speak, in favor of gay marriage? Will Obama soon support prayer in public schools? All we can do is stay tuned. Or tune out.

UPDATE (5/18): While we all (and the Sunday yakking heads) discuss whether or not the photos should be released, Saturday's Sydney Morning Herald had 60 of them. The rest of the world has seen them.

Comments

[kimk3]

You're right about all this. I am voting NO on all Ballot Measures Tuesday (in CA election) and guess who else is now against them? The Republicans. I went to a forum last week at Hammer Museum with Bruce Fein (Reagan admin), Philippe Sands (English, doesn't count), moderated by Ian Masters (who knows) and John Dean (we all know). We all agreed on the basic premise that torture is wrong, must be prosecuted; discussion was mostly differences in tactics (I agree with Sands mostly). But here am I on the same side as a couple of famous Republicans. Republicans are questioning budget for Afghanistan and Obama's strategy. So am I. Wtf?

So is the discussion about whether Pelosi knew? Or whether Cheney, et al., started torturing even before the famous memos were written "legalizing" the methods. Or is it that the memos said the techniques were to be used in case of the "ticking time bomb" scenario not, as it appears, to torture people into making up stories that Al Quaeda and Iraq were connected?

I think there's also something disingenuous about Cheney asking for release of memos proving how much great info he got and CIA saying they won't de-classify. Smells like bs.

But I'm enjoying all the leaks... who needs fiction?

[MomfromTexas]

I have to say that I do not understand, for the life of me, why anyone thinks this is the time to release more torture photos. President Obama is getting ready to give a speech from Egypt to the Muslim world next month, seniors all over the country are going on their senior trips abroad, violence has increased in Iraq, and Pakistan is in turmoil. And we want to release more torture photos? What? Could we pick a worse time to do this?

[azureblue]

a two edged sword. Obama could go there with the photos, release them, and pledge "never again", and swear to bring those who tortured to justice. Obama could use this trip to restore America's honor and honesty, and prove to the Muslim world that we are not the monsters the Bushies are.

[azureblue]

PS. OTOH, if he does not release the pix, it will seem to the Muslim world that he is covering for Bush's war crimes, and is not much more than Bush #3. Obama is walking into a minefield on this trip, and he knows it- he almost has to release the photos, if not to the public, at least to the leaders of the Muslim world.

[druidlady42]

Third option: He COULD say publicly that he is releasing the rest of the photos to the confidential custody of the proper investigatory Committees of the Congress and to the Justice Dept. for their determination of whether our laws were broken!---That after viewing the pictures himself, it appears that THIS GOVERNMENT, in compliance with the Geneva Conventions on Torture, should honor our obligations under that Treaty to pursue immediate investigation and accountibility!

THAT should satisy the LAW, satisfy the Muslim world, and put Congress on notice that these violations will not be tolerated and appropriate actions WILL be taken!

[snoopjohnny]

Isn't Cheney's new stance largely a well-aimed bid for our attention? In the past, we've seen Dick and his scary friends prance in and out of the looking glass, sculpting facts and figures to justify some pretty startling misdeeds.

If you can listen to military experts condemn torture as ineffective (other than for recruiting terrorists) and still harbor beliefs that Cheney has kept us safe, well....maybe you'll be interested in this new bridge he's selling. The fact that this comes in the first months of a new presidency just makes it bigger news.

Cheney framing the issue in terms of security just doesn't hold water, in my opinion. We were told over and over to be afraid of "what message we were sending to the enemy" and to unite behind the administration. Of course, back then his message came from some bunker in the basement. Now that we have a new president, he's kind of chatty.....there's a brand new Dick in the mirror!

[Bruupo]

"Now that we have a new president, he's kind of chatty..."

Exactly, despite only months ago having summed up his estimation of the value of public opinion in it's entirety as "...so what".

Now public opinion suddenly matters to him.

[azureblue]

what matters to Cheney is CYA. He knows what he did and he sees the train coming right at him..

[helpusa]

Horror of all horrors is the thought that some people have that Dick may be drumming up business for a possible presidential run. Could he possibly have that kind of nerve, YES HE COULD.

[snoopjohnny]

Horror is the right word for that little nightmare.

[apolloguide]

We win and now we must surrender like the good doormats we are.

[apolloguide]

We are guessing what these photos depict. They will never release the horrid cruelties and spiritually embarrassing stuff. You notice it went from hundreds of photos down to 40 in less than a fortnight. This release scenario is a careful psyop to blunt the possible outrage and to play to the religious base who support torture and buy the government line that opposition to torture is "overblown". We are being successfully numbed by the spin doctors. "Strike while the iron is hot" has passed and what we are being subjected to now is just more softening of our firm resolve which became increasingly clear when the numbers at the demonstration continued to diminish.

What we are fighting over to get access to are the milder pictures which will create the highly orchestrated response in the American people (Ned Flanders) that
"See, they are not so bad. They just pricked him with a pin. had him stand out in the cold, piled him on top of another guy, just scared him with a dog, dropped water on him and he immediately confessed to the Sharon Tate murders. Place him in a cell with Charlie Manson..." Throw another braat on the grill... Enjoy your summer... Tune out...

[missouriwatcher]

This call from Dick Cheney to release more CIA memos is a sham. He knows that it isn't going to happen if it compromises the identities and missions of agents, which such a declassification of intelligence would almost certainly do. On the other hand, I am not happy with Pres. Obama back-peddling on promises for a more open government, getting us out of the messes in Iraq and Afghanistan, the environment, and a myriad of other issues. Our new president put forth the flag of truce to the republicans; but in no way should it become a flag of surrender. If they do not want to work together on developing fair policies, forget them!

[GreatNews27]

Once again we are proving ourselve to be barbarians. If the shoe fits...........

[zull2]

If I were one of the guys being tortured in those photos, I wouldn't want them released. We all know the horrors of the torture that was committed by our own government, and by extension, ourselves. If we have to see pictures of it to feel outraged, then we are truly screwed.

The reason I wouldn't want those pictures seen is because the media wants them way too badly. They want to take all the pictures and put them on a big clickthrough on the front page of their respective websites, put a big "parental discretion advised" sign on top, and watch their hits blow up just like they did when they plastered the original Abu Ghraib pictures across the internet. More hits equals more ad revenue. Big media companies making money on torture. The fact is, releasing the photos won't put Bush in jail. Sorry to dispel that illusion for anyone. We all know what happened, releasing the photos to the media only benefits the media itself.

[Azur]

America, the world is watching you and remember many of us opposed the war on terror. You must do the right thing now. Take steps to safeguard your military by all means, but war crimes must be punished.

[BrettonWoods]

The world has known about US torture from at least 2003. Nobody cares about this except the families of the victims. Barack Obama thought to make cheap political hay from this. Cheney called his bluff on this. Barack has backed down as he knows many Democrats as well as Republicans would go to prison for torture.

[Rog49Thomas]

For some the date is 1947 - the founding of the School of the Americas.

Ask the good folks down south of the border.

It's a whole new twist on the "teach a man to fish parable".

[helpusa]

Why should Democrats be afraid, or go to prison for torture, it's Bush/Cheney and the Republicans that were in charge all the way in 2002 to 2006. Pelosi is being scapegoated and even some Democrats are playing into this. Why is it so unfeasible that Pelosi and the Democrats were lied to by the Republican Executive Branch and Congress and the CIA who behaved like doormats to Bush during the whole time. Gingrich is out their pinning the blame on Pelosi and the media and all the Sunday shows are giving him all the time he wants. AMERICA THE NOT SO BEAUTIFUL. Madness continues.

[mudshark12]

All of this back & forth between Cheney and Obama over torture makes me want to throw up 4 or 5 times!

[Yumay]

Your mother, father, sister, brother, cousin,etc., are wearing a US military uniform or perhaps traveling abroad for the summer and everyone knows they are American.
Do you really want those loved ones to pay the price for showing America's torture days to the world anew?
Bush and bunch were stupid by making the world hate us. Now you think Obama should make the world hate us all over again?
I'm beginning to think the far right and far left have similar grey matter capacities. Sorry, but those pics should be in hiding from the world for several years but declassified only for jurors at Cheney and company's trials.

[apolloguide]

Anyone who can afford an airline ticket in this economy and is stupid enough to go overseas deserves what they get. It has never been about hating our country; it IS about the very commercial American army which gleefully goes abroad and kills people for the benefit of the Houston oil cartel. Remember we are all fighting a war on the commercial class which resides in the penthouses and uses the Israelis as bait to inflame the oppressed and battered citizens of Iraq and Afghanistan. Then when they climb out of the rubble and attempt to fight back they get hit with an even bigger hammer.

[MomfromTexas]

And don't forget, President Obama is going to the Middle East next month. We need to worry about his safety, as well.

[pechka]

(Heavy sigh)

You either tell the truth, or you don't.

Eventually all of the lies will be uncovered.

Just too late to help anyone.

[foxymama]

Alice in Wonderland throught the looking glass.

[Infostream]

They're acting as if by not showing the photos the torture never happened. In reality you have a choice between showing the photos in an attempt to regain some trust and respect for the USA from the rest of the world, or not showing the photos and telling the world nothing changed except a more articulate figurehead, still protecting Bush's immoral acts.

We're on an even slower timetable than Bush's to withdraw from Iraq, increasing troop levels into Afghanistan and supporting Cheney's suspension of Habeus Corpus for "enemy combatants" (the neat trick is we don't have to prove they are the enemy, we can just abduct them, wouldn't want the world thinking the US believes in the rule of law).

When Obama was running I kept telling people on the fence "if nothing else he will re-set the opinion of the rest of the world about us, they'll be waiting for a sign that we're not still Bush/Cheney". Now they have their answer - nothing has changed except lip service to say torture is wrong, just not wrong enough to prosecute anyone or expose the horrors to the light of day.

Given most Americans are still in denial about the real reasons anti-American terrorism exists, I guess Obama's charm will convince America this is OK, but you can bet in the Madrasas it's a different story.

[kitkatborn]

This is beginning to bear an uncanny resemblance to a macabre soap opera. Thanks for pointing that out , Mr. Shearer.