From Charlie Savage at New York Times [emphasis added]:
Gosh. Can’t understand why Obama’s approval ratings keep falling.
In any case, the heart of this matter is the Government’s “alleged” right (the President of the United States’ actually) to use the so-called “state secrets privilege” to keep victims of alleged torture from ever even having a day in court — even when one of those victims, as in this case, charges that his torture included “cutting his penis and other body parts with a scalpel and then pouring stinging liquid on the wounds.”
Good thing none of this was done by Iran. We’d be outraged…
This case was brought by the ACLU on behalf of five former prisoners who claim to have been tortured in the CIA’s rendition program. The man who says his penis was cut claims that he was repeatedly tortured during the more than six years that he was held, in three different countries (including at Gitmo), before being freed.
Unless the finding of the appellate court is overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court, the man, Binyam Mohamed, an Ethiopian citizen and legal resident of the United Kingdom, will never even get his day in court, thanks to the work of both Presidents Bush and Obama, as Savage reports. In today’s finding “a narrow majority endorsed the broader view of executive secrecy powers, concluding that the lawsuit must be dismissed without even a trial that would be limited to already-public information.”
To the Times‘ credit (for a change, no doubt thanks to the excellent reporting of the estimable Savage), the article highlights the change between Obama’s campaign positions and those of his actual administration:
Among other policies, the Obama team has also placed a United States citizen on a targeted-killings list without a trial, blocked efforts by detainees in Afghanistan to bring habeas-corpus lawsuits challenging their indefinite imprisonment, and continued the C.I.A. rendition program…
…
As a senator and candidate for the White House, President Obama had criticized the Bush administration’s frequent use of the state-secrets privilege. In February 2009, when his weeks-old administration reaffirmed the Bush administration’s view on the case, civil libertarian groups that had supported his campaign expressed shock and dismay.
For the record, here’s Savage’s description of the lead plaintiff Mohamed’s allegations, for which he’ll never have a day in court if this ruling is allowed to stand:
Mr. Mohamed was later transferred back to the C.I.A., which flew him to one of its secret prisons in Afghanistan, where he said he was subjected to loud noise like the recorded screams of women and children 24 hours a day. He was later transferred to the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where he was imprisoned for nearly five years before he was released and returned to the United Kingdom. He is now free.
No doubt Glenn Beck and the Tea Baggers will be descending upon Washington again with torches, bible and pitchforks soon to decry the activist liberal judges of the Ninth Circuit and the outrageously unconstitutional abuses of executive power by the President of the United States — right?
Thanks for posting this. Obama’s generous support for torture and other war crimes has caused me to despise him just as much as I despised Bush. I’m a one-man “anybody but Obmama in 2012” campaign.
The consistent point hammered
home by the politicians on behalf
of the oligarchs is that there now is
nothing they can not do.
Yeah, and this check and balance eviscerating ruling will be an over-simplified blip in the news cycle, while the ad nauseam dissection of everything faux news will continue.:-( Our government is now officially unaccountable for kidnapping, torture and murder – just call it a state secret. How many citizens will actually comprehend that?
Very good post.
I support President Obama and I hope that candidate Obama (who spoke out against these same tactics that President Bush) will appear. The sad thing is the first time I heard about these post 9-11 torture, foreign detainment, guarded presidential secrecy by the Obama administration was on the “John Stwert Show” on comedy central. I can honestly say no other major news organization that I have seen are reporting on these similarities in Bush and Obama policies. It is sad really. Maybe one day it will be picked up by the mainstream media and it will get the attention it deserves. Maybe one day democrats and republicans will work together for the betterment of the United States. Maybe one day skittles will really fall from the sky and we call all taste the rainbow LOL.
Hello Brad Friedman,
Only one thing to say “Goodbye USA Hello Dictatorship.”
{Ed Note: Comment deleted. Commercial spam. – BF}
Jon Stewart nailed it again last night. The new Democratic campaign slogan should be –
“We suck less than they do.”
This disgraceful decision from the Ninth Circuit eliminating judicial redress of torture and kidnapping marks the end of the rule of law in America by effectively making judicial review of violations of fundamental human rights impossible. By implication, it potentially also essentially ends the protections of the Bill of Rights for citizens as well. Apparently the learned judges agreed with former President George W. Bush who reportedly once said, “Don’t wave the Constitution in my face. It is just a piece of paper.”
I used to truly believe the United States and its Constitutional protections of human rights was a light to all nations, but now I am ashamed to see we have been turned into just another banana republic like ever other piece of shit country in the world.
What is truly scary is how many times I have caught myself saying President Bush when referring to the current President.
But, to be fair, the Justice Dept. is obliged to defend the government against lawsuits, and if the drooling mentally unbalanced fanatics placed on the bench by that psychopath George Bush decide like they did, the defendants look terrible.
President Barack Obama is actually worse than George W. Bush, since he projects an illusion of being different while continuing in the same destructive direction. Trojan-Horse-Elect Obama was presumably elected to take a different course of action. A look at his cabinet shows how fascist the Obama junta is.
If you had to pick one sign that our country has strayed far from the path, this is it. What a sad, sickening policy that is completely counterproductive to our national security- which is presumably the ultimate reason for the policy.
And Mr. Canning or anyone else in the know, re: comment #9, how obligated IS the Justice Dept. to defend our government against lawsuits?
I do have to say, #9, if President Obama had lived up to Candidate Obama’s promises and changed course, there wouldn’t be such a lawsuit in the first place. Wouldn’t that be nice.
“But, to be fair, the Justice Dept. is obliged to defend the government against lawsuits”
I don’t know what you mean by “obliged,” but the job of the Justice Department is to ensure the rule of law irrespective of who is accused. I’m certainly glad they knew they weren’t “obliged” to defend Nixon over Watergate (though he was surprised they turned against him).
Please allow me to correct the wording of the quotation I cited in Comment #8 regarding the statement made by former President George W. Bush. According to Doug Thompson who received confirmations of Bush’s statement from three persons who were present at the time, President Bush’s exact words reportedly were, “Stop throwing the Constitution in my face. It’s just a godd**ned piece of paper.”