But I would suggest that Obama contemplate one little thing before he decides to try to find "middle ground" on torture. It is a trap. If he continues to torture in any way or even tacitly agrees to allow it in certain circumstances, the intelligence community will make sure it is leaked. They want protection from both parties and there is no better way to do it than to implicate Obama. And the result of that will be to destroy his foreign policy.
If the man who represents the second chance this country's been given around the world to repudiate the horrors of the Bush years is revealed to have perpetuated the same horrors, his credibility and foreign policy will be in shambles. And there are many people buried in the intelligence and military establishments who would be happy to make sure that happens.
As the AP article says:
Obama spokeswoman Brooke Anderson did not have an immediate comment Friday about the drafted plans, which the two officials discussed only on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly
The article only identifies them as "US Officials" which says to me they are permanent government employees rather than transition officials. I think Digby was on the right track. They're probably spooks.
There are four main possibilities about what secret authorized interrogation techniques could mean:
- Obama is sincerely trying to end torture, but there are actual useful non-torture interrogation tactics that CIA uses which shouldn't be advertised.
- Obama is ordering torture to stop and some loophole has been left because career Intelligence types and foreign policy cynics are deceiving him into leaving them wiggle room to "do what needs to be done" since the naive occupant of the White House won't authorize it explicitly.
- Obama is ordering torture to stop to create plausible deniability for himself while knowingly leaving wiggle room for Men of Action to carry on with a wink and nod.
- Obama is trying to create the impression that torture has been halted, but has decided it is useful and necessary (which would include that he will just stop waterboarding but leave open other forms of torture which are less universally acknowledged as such, like stress positions and extremes of temperature).
Most of you (including me) would be inclined to believe it is the first. But we cannot ignore the substantial portion of the world who will believe it is any of the others.
Obama has been given a lot of slack, but not on this. America's moral credibility has not been redeemed, it is merely out on bail.
It may well be very reasonable to want to have some (non-torture) techniques that CIA keeps secret because knowledge of the technique might blunt its effectiveness, but not after what Bush has done. It is the price of his Presidency. I always thought it was numbingly stupid that enemies of America knowing about Waterboarding might allow them to prepare for it, but that's because Waterboarding is torture. You can't prepare yourself for torture. That's why we call it "torture." But for other, more subtle psychological techniques and attempts to win trust and so forth, it seems plausible at a glance that one could be trained to resist.
Obama saying "we do not torture" will not be enough to convince a large set of people. Some may give him credit for sincerity, but simply assume that the military-industrial complex really runs the show in America, and CIA is merrily torturing away while a young naive puppet President is kept in the dark. Others will assume either of the two worst alternatives. Many of these people are the hearts and minds in the Middle East America needs to win over in the battle of ideas.
The above article would have passed without comment in the Clinton era, and even in the pre-Abu Gharib portion of Bush's. No longer. Obama can't leave any wiggle room because the perception is just too fragile.
Whatever the value of any secret non-torture interrogation techniques, either they have to be declassified and published, or they need to be shelved for a future time when the World is open to believing America doesn't torture. |
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