Thursday
May142009
Mr President, Torture Still Matters: Obama Puts Away The Abuse Photographs
Thursday, May 14, 2009 at 10:19
Related Post: Video - Obama Decides Not to Release Photographs of Detainee Abuse
Related Post: Bush Official Zelikow Condemns Torture Programmes
Related Post: FBI Agent Ali Soufan Testifies on Torture
This may be one of the most difficult articles I have ever written. For when I heard last night that President Obama had decided to withdraw White House consent for the release of photographs of the abuse of detainees, my reaction was dismay and, yes, revulsion. Having declared in his Inaugural Speech that the US would never again separate security from values, having signed an Executive Order "banning" torture, having promised to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility, here was Obama --- faced with the recognition of the past --- refusing to allow that acknowledgement.
And he was doing so, ironically, horribly, with the same rationale that the Bush Administration used for eight years whenever it did not want the political inconvenience of knowledge, let alone debate, of its actions: because "national security" demanded that we did not hear or see.
But first, to keep this post on an analytic rather than emotional level and to provide essential context, this is not a case of the White House volunteering the photographs and then retracting. The release of the pictures has been ordered by a United States District Court hearing a case brought by the American Civil Liberties Union.
So there is an Alice-in-Wonderland quality about Obama's opening words, "These photos are associated with closed investigations of alleged abuse of detainees". The President invokes the legal process to say that his Administration has to defy...the legal process.
(What's more, Obama's assertion is either a lie or a misstatement. Later, he indicated that the photographs related to an investigation, started "long before" he took office, which has always been completed by the Pentagon with "appropriate actions taken". So there is no "ongoing" legal investigation within the military.
Obama did refer to the "chilling effect" that these photographs might have on future investigations of detainee abuse. Even if such investigations are being contemplated, and there is no indication that this is case, this is a red herring. The photographs in question pertain to past enquiries and would have no standing in any prosecution of unrelated incidents.)
The second Obama rationalisation was that "these photos are not particularly sensational. especially when compared to the painful images we remember from Abu Ghraib". If this was an issue of whether the release of the photos is to satisfy voyeurs of torture, this might be relevant --- nothing to see here, folks, move along.
But that is not the issue. Abuse is abuse, irrespective of its "sensational" appearance (indeed abuse such as extended sleep deprivation is quite banal). A person does not have to be hooded and standing on a box in a crucifix position for the act to qualify as torture.
But Obama was saving his headline rationale for last: releasing the photographs would "inflame anti-American opinion and put our troops in danger". No need for subtle readings here: if you make me accept the court decision, our boys will be killed.
I'll give the President the benefit of the doubt, as Juan Cole does, that he has been persuaded of this by the US military and that this isn't an emotional fig leaf. But let's be clear: any insurgent or "extremist" who wants to shoot at or blow up American troops already has more than enough pretext from the last eight years: he/she can invoke what is already known or suspected about the torture and abuse in Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantanamo Bay, and secret CIA "black sites" around the world.
So instead you have to presume that Obama believes that others who are not currently fighting US forces will be prompted to do so by these photographs. Yet, if the pictures in question are not "sensational", if they do not match up to the horrors of Abu Ghraib, why would they provoke such a decision?
That logic leads to one of two conclusions: either the photographs are innocuous, and Obama is blowing smoke about "anti-American" reaction, or they are so horrific that they will provoke previously non-violent individuals to a murderous response. (For the sake of humanity, I hope it is the former.)
To be blunt, if not yet emotional, Obama's reasons are flimsy and at times illogical. So, since the President is normally quite intelligent and logical, the statement is more of a cover-up than the actual reason behind his decision.
So what did happen? Obama gave in to pressure.
In part, the pressure came from the public bubble of Washington politics. The Dick Cheney roadshow may be a distortion, even a fabrication, of what actually happened in the Bush years, but his banging away --- assisted by an array of broadcasters and newspapers --- at the risk to "national security" of the torture investigations finally put a dent in the White House. It is no coincidence that, 24 hours before Obama's statement, the former Vice President's first attack in an interview with Fox was on the release of the photos.
That, however, is only one pressure --- and probably a less important pressure --- that buckled Obama.
The ultimate "winners" in this sordid battle are US military commanders, supported by top officials at the Central Intelligence Agency. CIA Director Leon Panetta had already let it be known that he objected to any more disclosure of photographs, and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates fired his own volley on Wednesday. While generals kept their mutterings private, the gist of their opposition came out in suitably-placed media pieces.
While those commanders did put out the word that their troops would be endangered by the publicity over the photos, they had other considerations. The US military is still detaining insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan. The CIA and military are still working with allied countries, such as Pakistan, who have their own methods of interrogation.
Public exposure of what occurred in the past could conceivably limit, apart from Obama's necessary reference at the end of his statement that "the abuse of detainees...will not be tolerated", what measures could be taken in future. Inquiry and investigation raises that the prospect that military and intelligence officials are, in theory at least, legally accountable.
In this continuing War on Terror, that's still not an acceptable risk. Instead, the story has to be maintained that torture was only, in Obama's words, "carried out in the past by a small number of individuals". The "chain of command", both political and military, has to be put beyond scrutiny.
This is not to say, of course, that the "enhanced interrogation" goes on, at least not in the form sanctioned by the Bush Administration from 2002 to 2005. It is to say that the risk of a system of oversight, prompted by a full recognition of what occurred in those years, must not be taken.
Related Post: Bush Official Zelikow Condemns Torture Programmes
Related Post: FBI Agent Ali Soufan Testifies on Torture
This may be one of the most difficult articles I have ever written. For when I heard last night that President Obama had decided to withdraw White House consent for the release of photographs of the abuse of detainees, my reaction was dismay and, yes, revulsion. Having declared in his Inaugural Speech that the US would never again separate security from values, having signed an Executive Order "banning" torture, having promised to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility, here was Obama --- faced with the recognition of the past --- refusing to allow that acknowledgement.And he was doing so, ironically, horribly, with the same rationale that the Bush Administration used for eight years whenever it did not want the political inconvenience of knowledge, let alone debate, of its actions: because "national security" demanded that we did not hear or see.
But first, to keep this post on an analytic rather than emotional level and to provide essential context, this is not a case of the White House volunteering the photographs and then retracting. The release of the pictures has been ordered by a United States District Court hearing a case brought by the American Civil Liberties Union.
So there is an Alice-in-Wonderland quality about Obama's opening words, "These photos are associated with closed investigations of alleged abuse of detainees". The President invokes the legal process to say that his Administration has to defy...the legal process.
(What's more, Obama's assertion is either a lie or a misstatement. Later, he indicated that the photographs related to an investigation, started "long before" he took office, which has always been completed by the Pentagon with "appropriate actions taken". So there is no "ongoing" legal investigation within the military.
Obama did refer to the "chilling effect" that these photographs might have on future investigations of detainee abuse. Even if such investigations are being contemplated, and there is no indication that this is case, this is a red herring. The photographs in question pertain to past enquiries and would have no standing in any prosecution of unrelated incidents.)
The second Obama rationalisation was that "these photos are not particularly sensational. especially when compared to the painful images we remember from Abu Ghraib". If this was an issue of whether the release of the photos is to satisfy voyeurs of torture, this might be relevant --- nothing to see here, folks, move along.
But that is not the issue. Abuse is abuse, irrespective of its "sensational" appearance (indeed abuse such as extended sleep deprivation is quite banal). A person does not have to be hooded and standing on a box in a crucifix position for the act to qualify as torture.
But Obama was saving his headline rationale for last: releasing the photographs would "inflame anti-American opinion and put our troops in danger". No need for subtle readings here: if you make me accept the court decision, our boys will be killed.
I'll give the President the benefit of the doubt, as Juan Cole does, that he has been persuaded of this by the US military and that this isn't an emotional fig leaf. But let's be clear: any insurgent or "extremist" who wants to shoot at or blow up American troops already has more than enough pretext from the last eight years: he/she can invoke what is already known or suspected about the torture and abuse in Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantanamo Bay, and secret CIA "black sites" around the world.
So instead you have to presume that Obama believes that others who are not currently fighting US forces will be prompted to do so by these photographs. Yet, if the pictures in question are not "sensational", if they do not match up to the horrors of Abu Ghraib, why would they provoke such a decision?
That logic leads to one of two conclusions: either the photographs are innocuous, and Obama is blowing smoke about "anti-American" reaction, or they are so horrific that they will provoke previously non-violent individuals to a murderous response. (For the sake of humanity, I hope it is the former.)
To be blunt, if not yet emotional, Obama's reasons are flimsy and at times illogical. So, since the President is normally quite intelligent and logical, the statement is more of a cover-up than the actual reason behind his decision.
So what did happen? Obama gave in to pressure.
In part, the pressure came from the public bubble of Washington politics. The Dick Cheney roadshow may be a distortion, even a fabrication, of what actually happened in the Bush years, but his banging away --- assisted by an array of broadcasters and newspapers --- at the risk to "national security" of the torture investigations finally put a dent in the White House. It is no coincidence that, 24 hours before Obama's statement, the former Vice President's first attack in an interview with Fox was on the release of the photos.
That, however, is only one pressure --- and probably a less important pressure --- that buckled Obama.
The ultimate "winners" in this sordid battle are US military commanders, supported by top officials at the Central Intelligence Agency. CIA Director Leon Panetta had already let it be known that he objected to any more disclosure of photographs, and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates fired his own volley on Wednesday. While generals kept their mutterings private, the gist of their opposition came out in suitably-placed media pieces.
While those commanders did put out the word that their troops would be endangered by the publicity over the photos, they had other considerations. The US military is still detaining insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan. The CIA and military are still working with allied countries, such as Pakistan, who have their own methods of interrogation.
Public exposure of what occurred in the past could conceivably limit, apart from Obama's necessary reference at the end of his statement that "the abuse of detainees...will not be tolerated", what measures could be taken in future. Inquiry and investigation raises that the prospect that military and intelligence officials are, in theory at least, legally accountable.
In this continuing War on Terror, that's still not an acceptable risk. Instead, the story has to be maintained that torture was only, in Obama's words, "carried out in the past by a small number of individuals". The "chain of command", both political and military, has to be put beyond scrutiny.
This is not to say, of course, that the "enhanced interrogation" goes on, at least not in the form sanctioned by the Bush Administration from 2002 to 2005. It is to say that the risk of a system of oversight, prompted by a full recognition of what occurred in those years, must not be taken.
Reader Comments (2)
"These photos are associated with closed investigations of alleged abuse of detainees”. The President invokes the legal process to say that his Administration has to defy…the legal process.
(What’s more, Obama’s assertion is either a lie or a misstatement. Later, he indicated that the photographs related to an investigation, started “long before” he took office, which has always been completed by the Pentagon with “appropriate actions taken”. So there is no “ongoing” legal investigation within the military."
Where is the "lie or misstatement"? He said that the photos relate to "closed investigations" as in the investigations have been completed which is why there aren't ongoing legal investigations. Furthermore, he said that the photos were "investigated long before I took office -- and, where appropriate, sanctions have been applied" suggesting that those responsible for the specific incidents received some sort of punishment (which differs from the CIA issue where no sanctions have occurred that I'm aware of).
The real contradiction or outright lie is one that you readily identify: if the photos are "innocuous" then why not release them. His spokesperson (and others before him includig Seymour Hersh) apparently offered a contradictory take to this view, suggesting that they are not.
John,
My apology --- I took "closed" to mean "not public" as opposed to completed.
S.