Affiliated Blogs
- Arms Control Wonk
- Bloggingheads.tv
- The Havana Note
- James Fallows
- Prospects for Peace
- The Washington Note
ASP Video
Topics
User login
The Dark Side: Truth or Consequences?
During Jane Mayer's event today at New America promoting her penetrating new book, The Dark Side, a topic came up during the Q & A that I'd like to expand on--the possibility of establishing a truth commission for the Bush administration's transgressions. The idea has been getting some play recently, both from Nick Kristof in the NYT and scattered across some lefty blogs (a funny parody here, another suggestion here). The South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission is generally held up as the model for such bodies, which don't have formal judicial power but instead serve primarily as instruments for the discovery of past wrongdoings by governments.
So far, when each instance of misconduct has been revealed -- from the destruction of CIA interrogation tapes and waterboarding to extraordinary renditions and habeas-corpus-free detention of prisoners at Guantanamo -- individual solutions have been sought and some individual actors have been put forth to be held accountable. But this approach is piecemeal at best and does not get at the connective tissue and the systematization of abuses.
A truth commission, however, would provide a more holistic approach to the violations that have been committed or ordered by individuals and agencies within the government. A commission would serve as an opportunity to look back and expose where the administration started to go wrong in its decision-making process; allow those whose rights have been violated to be heard; and give Americans on the whole a chance to cleanse our national conscience--and our image abroad.
This really cannot be done by journalists alone. Jane Mayer commented today that she has "subpoena envy" as a reporter and often has to beg for documents; a truth commission would bypass this poverty of access because it would have the power to subpoena relevant individuals and organizations for their testimonies and records.
And there is still much to be uncovered. Although Mayer's new book and other writings provide important details about the different programs the Bush administration instituted in the panicky atmosphere in the aftermath of September 11, she herself is the first to admit that there is still much that is unknown. Of particular interest to Mayer is the role of physicians and psychiatrists in interrogation -- she recounts instances in her book, and in this interview with Scott Horton of Harper's, of doctors being present or at the ready during the euphemistically titled "harsh interrogations" and wonders, as I do, who these doctors are and should they be permitted the keep their licenses, having flagrantly broken the Hippocratic oath.
Not everyone agrees, of course. One prominent argument against establishing a truth commission for the Bush administration is, according to Mayer, the country's lack of political will to prosecute officials who could claim they were defending Americans against an existential threat. But with today's release of the first video from Guantanamo added to many previously disclosed examples of prisoner abuse, the time has long come to stop this abhorrent institutionalization of maltreatment of those in our custody. September 11 should not have given the government a carte blanche to warrantless wiretap, reinterpret the Constitution according to David Addington, and expand the powers of the presidency beyond Nixonian levels. Surely a truth commission would go at least part of the way toward righting the laundry list of wrongs that have been carried out in the name of national security over the last seven years.
this is an amazing article
this is the best article i've ever read in my life, excellent job katherine, i am so proud of you, you are such a good writer and an amazing person and beautiful
Just What We Need
Excellent. Let's just allow any old shysteristic rationalization to lead to a political witch hunt.. all in the name of the law, of course. I mean, how insane do you really have to be to propose this kind of abject idiocy?
Jesus X. Calderon. What a moronic concept.
I'd rather just pass go, collect $200.00, and kill all the lawyers. At least that would be serving the public interest... plus, it would be fun.
Bush Truth Squads
Get a life.
Our "truth" is what we make
Our "truth" is what we make it...
Jonah Goldberg was right, liberal facism, "truth commission" smacks directly of the 1933 Nazi party...
Seig Tiedemann !
It's the dark side alright
"Not everyone agrees, of course. One prominent argument against establishing a truth commission for the Bush administration is, according to Mayer, the country's lack of political will to prosecute officials who could claim they were defending Americans against an existential threat."
I love how your representative example of the contrary argument is that the lack of political will to prosecute those who *claim* they were defending the country is the only possible reason Bush and company might avoid justice. So those who oppose your views only do so because they are too cynical to believe your brand of justice might prevail? Shocking I know but there are people out here who really do think they were/are defending the country. But since you dismiss those claims with your followup laundry list of guilty as charged items I'm not surprised at your view that there is no reason to hold up the lynching.
Or am I just reading The Onion and didn't know it?
Nuts
You people are mentally ill and traitors. If the Left causes a revolution to explode in this country in protest of remaing America into a socialst state I hope your names will be on the lists.
"Truth Commission"
Great, just great. A way to continually fight about the past for the next four years. A truly fine notion...
How about this novel idea: we have an election, accept the results (whether McCain or Obama) and look to the future.
Leftist idiots outlawing disagreement
Oh right that crime of denying non-existent habeas corpus rights to people we are fighting in a war. I suppose we might as well throw the 4 dissenting justices in front of the commission too, since they actively sought to deny our little jihadis their day in criminal court.
Warrantless wiretapping of foreign agents? Was legal when the Clinton administration was using it in right proper dilatory fashion. Probably should get them in front of the commission too.
And now that I think of it, Kosovo really didn't have any UN figleafs covering its naughty parts and Clinton was lobbing attacks at Iraq too, so that is like double-, triple-guilty Commission material.
Those crazies advocating for military intervention in Darfur should be strung up too. Gosh with a little thought, we could get almost anyone in front of the commission!
Yep, Truth and Reconciliation Commission, definitely the way forward instead of the political process we've been following for 200+ years. Orwell's imagination had nothing on you people. But who will serve on the Commission? Perhaps we'll have all our humanities departments and newsroom editorial pages decide. Or we could just put BHO in charge of the whole thing.
This country is turning into a socialist hellhole. Yes we can!
you people seriously need to
you people seriously need to get a life
Post new comment