The Washington Post reports (via the Washington Monthly blog) that the White House is set to disclose more torture materials, which will probably put the lie to the Cheney induced meme that torture worked, so what’s the problem.
Government officials familiar with the CIA’s early interrogations say the most powerful evidence of apparent excesses is contained in the “top secret” May 7, 2004, inspector general report, based on more than 100 interviews, a review of the videotapes and 38,000 pages of documents. The full report remains closely held, although White House officials have told political allies that they intend to declassify it for public release when the debate quiets over last month’s release of the Justice Department’s interrogation memos.
One of my fond hopes, though it is still only a hope, is that Obama is managing the roll out of this material so as to allow pressure for investigations and prosecutions to build up over time. I keep recalling FDR’s admonition to a group of folks pushing him to take action on their behalf: “I agree with you, I want to do it, now make me do it.” It makes political sense for Obama to seem to come to these prosecutions reluctantly.
So, I ask myself, if I wanted to help that process along, and I were Obama, how would I do it? It certainly wouldn’t hurt to add fuel to the fire every time it starts to smolder. If you want to truly get something behind you, why not dump everything at once and be done with it? On the other hand, if you want to build support for prosecutions, why not give it out in pieces, with each piece of evidence more damning then the next. So I am somewhat hopeful that Obama has scheduled another evidence dump at a time well calculated to keep this issue front and center.
It doesn’t hurt, of course, that Dick Cheney is so eager to keep this issue on the front pages. If he has a lawyer the guy must be having daily heart attacks. Cheney is practically inviting a special prosecutor.
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