Here’s a terrific brief piece by former CIA agent Philip Giraldi that helpfully treats the passive, sclerotic Senate Intelligence Committee as just as complicit in the Bush-Cheney torture program as the CIA. Their oversight was curiously blindfolded when the torture program was set up, even if the CIA also misled them. Then some real perspective:
Curiously, neither side in the argument is even suggesting that the Justice Department lawyers, CIA senior managers, and White House officials that authorized the torture should be held accountable in any way. Also lost in the shuffle are the interests of the American people. I am sure most Americans agree that the proper role for an intelligence agency is to identify and respond to genuine threats in a measured fashion that is both appropriate to the level of the danger and, within reasonable limits, ethical. Secret prisons and torture chambers are the hallmarks of a police state, not a constitutional republic. Most Americans would probably also agree that intelligence activities should be overseen by elected officials who believe in the same thing—and that magnifying threats to make an argument for reducing constitutional liberties and committing crimes against humanity is not appropriate for any government agency.
The fact that this torture program occurred in a constitutional republic, and that the representatives of all of us did not object to it at the time, and now seek cover for themselves, will go down in history as one of the darkest failures in American democracy. The institutions were there – but the will and the courage were not. The blame lies ultimately with the president who signed the order for torture, the president who then refused to hold anyone to account for torture, and the American public for widespread denial and indifference. And yes, it’s 2014. And we still do not have the definitive report on what happened.
The Dish 