Patterns via -sel-. Gorgeous macro detail and color.

Today, it’s another inane installment of the continuing saga of the GOP’s longest-running program wherein the buck stops anywhere but here.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the overwrought and not-so-dulcet tones of Kit Bond and friends, in Accountability For Thee, But Not For Me:

U.S. Senate Republican Whip Jon Kyl (Ariz.) was joined by U.S. Senator Kit Bond (R-Mo.), Vice Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, U.S. Senator Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and other senators today to express concern about recent reports that U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder intends to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate CIA officials who interrogated al Qaeda terrorists.

“We are deeply concerned by recent news reports that you are ‘poised to appoint a special prosecutor’ to investigate CIA officials who interrogated al Qaeda terrorists. Such an investigation could have a number of serious consequences, not just for the honorable members of the intelligence community, but also for the security of all Americans,” the senators wrote in a letter to Holder.

Shorter GOP: "No matter what illegal and unethical policies we may have championed or enabled, no matter what illegal activities may have been perpetrated, no matter what agencies of the federal government we have helped to corrupt, manipulate or mangle…accountability is only for the other guys. Never, ever for us."

If they were at least manning up to the need for investigations of illegality that reach however high such misconduct may have occurred, I might have the slightest glimmer of respect for them. Because, frankly, leaving line agents holding the bag for Dick Cheney, David Addington and the neocon crew isn’t exactly appropriate, now is it?

But nope, that’s not their point.

It’s bad enough that the special prosecutor mandate doesn’t seem broad enough at this juncture to encompass policy making at all levels. Because that sends a signal that if you hold power, you aren’t held to account. Only the little guy is.

Is it any wonder that so many things in this country are a mess right now when "look the other way" is considered appropriate behavior from our leadership?

I wouldn’t condone that as an excuse from my 6 year old. And I’m sure as hell not going to accept it from a sitting Senator who takes an oath to uphold the laws of this country and its constitution.

Emptywheel, Spencer, CCR, Glenn and the ALCU have more on the CIA docs.  I’m still reading through — looks like it will be a highlighter and post-its kinda week. (more…)

Outtake from Farenheit 9/11.

No idea why, but this just makes me smile:

The witnesses recently called by the special prosecutor, former government officials said, include the agency’s top officer in London and Porter J. Goss, who was C.I.A. director when the tapes were destroyed in November 2005.

Destruction of evidence is not something you should just forgive and forget.

Especially when it is destruction of evidence of criminal behavior, and where there are also hints that people at the White House viewed them prior to destruction.

And dragging Porter Goss, the bumbling "Cheney’s policies or bust!" placeholder, in to answer for it? 

All I can say is its about damned time.

For more on torture, the CIA’s role and the need for accountability, take a peek at the ACLU’s Accountability initiative.  A wealth of great information collected all in one place as a public archive.

Too many paths.  Gorgeous shot via Philipp Klinger.

UPDATE: This just in: CIA and DOJ are asking for more time before releasing the CIA IG report. Knock me over with a feather. More details as I get them.

Today, the less-heavily-redacted version of the CIA IG report on torture and interrogation techniques during the Bush Administration is due for release.  Unless, of course, there is yet another delay. 

Why I’d think there might be another attempt at delay is beyond me.  I’ll let Marcy take the Rizzo from here. And hope we see an IG report sometime before I pass from this earth.

While we wait, I wanted to note a potential victory of sorts for the rule of law from the still-as-yet-unhelmed by Dawn Johnsen OLC. Because any good news on the rule of law is worth spreading around, I thought I’d make certain you all saw this from the WSJ:

In a memorandum issued May 4, David Barron, acting assistant attorney general, said the office believes there is a "serious risk" that federal courts "would adopt a constitutional due process approach" when evaluating military commission trials, people familiar with the memo say.

Mr. Barron advised that federal courts were unlikely to require strict adherence to Bill of Rights provisions spelling out specific procedures, such as the Sixth Amendment speedy trial right, or the Miranda warning, which the Supreme Court imposed in 1966 to ensure compliance with the Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination and the Sixth Amendment right to an attorney.

But Mr. Barron advised that courts were likely to view the use of coerced statements to convict and punish defendants as violating any definition of the Fifth Amendment’s Due Process Clause, which courts have cited in establishing a baseline of fundamental rights. As a result, some officials believe a legislative fix to the Military Commissions Act should include additional rights for defendants in order to lower the chances courts would strike it down.

I’ve got a request in at DOJ for comment on several aspects of this, and will let you know if I get a response and/or any confirmation that this memo does, indeed, exist. Spencer has already done some excellent digging on the indefinite detention order angle.

Plus, Anthony Romero of the ACLU had some choice words about potentially reviving military commissions in response to the WSJ report that are well worth a read. And they have a petition going to the WH and Congress on indefinite detention. (more…)

In the back and forth on Dawn Johnsen’s OLC nomination, what gets lost in the media shuffle is why her experience in that office is so critical.

And why that office needs an experienced hand at the helm.  Now.

NOTE: Nathaniel Raymond of Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) will be at FDL at 3 pm ET/12 pm PT to chat live about the SASC report and other issues surrounding the OLC memos and torture. Hope you can join us!

Let’s see if I have the chain of events that led to this searing SASC report on American use of torture techniques on prisoners in order here

Boy, wouldn’t you love to be a fly on the wall when Jane Harman runs into John Kerry after this choice bit from Jeff Stein: According to two officials privy to the events, Gonzales said he “needed Jane” to help support the administration’s warrantless wiretapping program, which was about to be exposed by the New York Times. Harman, he told Goss, had helped persuade the newspaper to hold the wiretap story before, on the eve of the 2004 elections.

You tell me. Which language is from Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn’s seminal work The Gulag Archipelago: 1918-1956 and which is from US Department of Justice OLC memoranda issued in the last few years.

Here’s something jumping out at me on my first read through the OLC memos.

In two separate memos, both written at the request of John Rizzo (acting and then Senior Deputy Counsel for the CIA), OLC relied on representations gleaned from SERE psych determinations as a means of assessing and understanding the potential for long-term mental harm or physical risks involved in treatment.

Leaving aside the superficial Fear Factor promo potential of icky bugs in box (imagine using that technique on an arachnophobic or scorpion-stung detainee, which is why it’s been in the interrogation lexicon for quite a while) that media types are likely to latch onto for ratings push, look how the reliance on SERE psych findings colors the OLC judgment in the Bybee memo dated August 1, 2002