I've become increasingly concerned that the focus on the past, especially in Congress, threatens to distract the CIA from its crucial core missions: intelligence collection, analysis and covert action.
Panetta then falls straight into the typical "Washington speak," which would earn any of my wife's fourth grade students an automatic "F" in writing skills. Specifically, Panetta writes:
Judgments were made. Some of them were wrong.
Any fourth grade student would automatically ask Panetta "where are the subjects and objects of these sentences"? "Who made the judgments?" "What actions where taken as a result of those wrong judgments?" "Who were on the receiving end of the wrong judgments." "Which judgments were wrong?" "How and why were they wrong?" What were the consequences of these wrong judgments?" And most importantly of all -- "What has been done to ensure that similarly 'wrong judgments' are not being applied today and will not be applied in the future?"
In one regard, Panetta is absolutely correct. Our concern must focus on the future. As he stated:
In one regard, Panetta is absolutely correct. Our concern must focus on the future. As he stated:
The time has come for both Democrats and Republicans to take a deep breath and recognize the reality of what happened after Sept. 11, 2001. The question is not the sincerity or the patriotism of those who were dealing with the aftermath of Sept. 11. The country was frightened, and political leaders were trying to respond as best they could.
So, after we follow the advice our our CIA Director and national yoga instructor and take a deep breath, let's imagine a future where once again the country is frightened and our political leaders struggle to respond. What is an appropriate response?
According to the Obama administration, we have already set a standard where it is entirely appropriate for our national leaders to violate our Constitution and statutes -- it is appropriate to torture, to conduct warrantless surveillance -- to establish detention facilities that violate our obligations under international law. All of this is appropriate because our government leaders and other officials have already engaged in such conduct without consequence.
Furthermore, the failure to ensure accountability for illegal acts on the part of our government only encourages future leaders and officials to push the envelope even more because wherever the line is where we hold government officials accountable for lawbreaking, according to the Obama administration, we have yet to cross it. In many regards, this is even more frightening than another terrorist attack. For without a doubt, our nation's current adversaries cannot defeat us. They cannot force us to abandon our values, our ideals, or the core principles of our system of government. The only ones who have the ability to do that are our own government leaders and apparently they can do so with impunity.
All Panetta requests is that our leaders continue to be permitted to do so in secrecy. In his op-ed, he focuses on "shared responsibilities" between the executive and legislative branches of our government yet highlights only one.
According to the Obama administration, we have already set a standard where it is entirely appropriate for our national leaders to violate our Constitution and statutes -- it is appropriate to torture, to conduct warrantless surveillance -- to establish detention facilities that violate our obligations under international law. All of this is appropriate because our government leaders and other officials have already engaged in such conduct without consequence.
Furthermore, the failure to ensure accountability for illegal acts on the part of our government only encourages future leaders and officials to push the envelope even more because wherever the line is where we hold government officials accountable for lawbreaking, according to the Obama administration, we have yet to cross it. In many regards, this is even more frightening than another terrorist attack. For without a doubt, our nation's current adversaries cannot defeat us. They cannot force us to abandon our values, our ideals, or the core principles of our system of government. The only ones who have the ability to do that are our own government leaders and apparently they can do so with impunity.
All Panetta requests is that our leaders continue to be permitted to do so in secrecy. In his op-ed, he focuses on "shared responsibilities" between the executive and legislative branches of our government yet highlights only one.
Those include protecting the classified information that shapes our conversations.
Classification of information comes at a price. When information is classified, it is just about guaranteed that our leaders will apply less than optimal judgment and it is much more likely that government officials will apply "wrong" judgment. Our citizens would be more secure and our values better protected should we have less secrecy and more accountability.
No comments:
Post a Comment