Classified: Senators Hide Their Votes on Arming Syrian Fighters from Public

[Catherina]

Classified: Senators Hide Their Votes on Arming Syrian Fighters from Public

Published on Thursday, August 1, 2013 by Common Dreams

Debate and positions on controversial military aid shrouded in secrecy, conjuring memories of Iraq War buildup
- Sarah Lazare, staff writer

After the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence last week passed the Obama administration's controversial plan to funnel arms to Syrian rebels fighting the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, the vote and debate remain hidden from the public under the label of "classified" information.(Image: Skyafar.net)

McClatchy reported on Tuesday:

There was no public debate and no public vote when one of the most contentious topics in American foreign policy was decided – outside of the view of constituents, who oppose the president’s plan to aid the rebels by 54 percent to 37 percent, according to a Gallup Poll last month.

In fact, ask individual members of the committee, who represent 117 million people in 14 states, how they stood on the plan to use the CIA to funnel weapons to the rebels and they are likely to respond with the current equivalent of “none of your business:” It’s classified.

Those were, in fact, the words Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., chair of the committee, used when asked a few days before the approval was granted to clarify her position for her constituents. She declined. It’s a difficult situation, she said. And, “It’s classified.”

Critics are furious at the secrecy, recalling the "classified" government meetings that drove forward the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq.

"It is really undemocratic, frankly, that important policy decisions are debated in secret and that the information on which these decisions are made are kept secret," Stephen Zunes—leading US Middle East Policy scholar—told Common Dreams.

"That is how the Iraq War was," he continued. "All these members of congress insisted there was evidence of weapons of mass destruction, and when they were questioned they said their evidence was 'classified.' We trusted the government not to lie to us, but they did."

Zunes declared that the secrecy of the proceedings is especially egregious in a case where a majority of people in the US are opposed to sending direct military aid to Syria, as a recent Gallup poll reveals.

"'Classified' has become less a safeguard for information and more a shield from accountability on tough subjects," Steven Aftergood, the director of the Federation of American Scientists’ Project on Government Secrecy, told McClatchy.

“Classification can be a convenient pretext for avoiding difficult questions,” he continued. “There’s a lot that can be said about Syria without touching on classified, including a statement of general principles, a delineation of possible military and diplomatic options, and a preference for one or the other of them. So to jump to ‘national security secrecy’ right off the bat looks like an evasion.”

The move to arm Syrian rebels comes amid Obama administration deliberation over potential direct military strikes.

Members of the US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence who refuse to reveal their position on Syrian arms include: Dianne Feinstein (D), John D. Rockefeller IV (D), Ron Wyden (D), Barbara A. Mikulski (D), Mark Udall (D), Mark Warner (D), Martin Heinrich (D), Angus King (D), Saxby Chambliss (R), Richard Burr (R), James E. Risch (R), Daniel Coats (R), Marco Rubio (R), Susan Collins (R), Tom Coburn (R), Harry Reid (D), Mitch McConnell (R), Carl Levin (D), and James Inhofe (R).

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http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/08/01-8

[GiaGiovanni]

1. Oh great

My senator's in there

[Mnemosyne]

2. Secret laws, secret courts, secret votes, spying on citizens; what country is this again? nt

[Taitertots]

3. Your post is almost word for word what I was just about to post

I was going to write secret police instead of spying on citizens.

The only word I can think of to describe the country is: Kafkaesque

[Mnemosyne]

26. Kafkaesque is becoming a pretty good description, sadly. nt

[Taitertots]

30. Kafkaesque and Orwellian....

We randomly search approx. 1,000,000 New Yorkers every year to protect their freedoms.
We preemptively attack countries (Iraq) and claim we must do it because they might preemptively attack us (With WMDs that we have and they don't).
The party that claims to support fiscal conservatism and oppose wealth distribution is the party that has consistently spent more, increased the size of government more, and directly benefits from the largest wealth distribution system in the history of mankind (Federal tax outlays).
Republicans claim higher taxes on the working poor would cause them to work harder, but higher taxes on the wealthy would remove their incentive to work.
The government passes a bill called the "Patriot" Act and uses it to create a domestic secret police system with secret court, secret laws....
People in Congress don't even read the full text of bills that they vote on.

[bvar22]

6. My thoughts and feeling EXACTLY!

Secret laws, secret courts, secret votes, spying on citizens.

We have fallen WAY down the Rabbit Hole.
I am SICK of this "Bi-Partisanship" approval for the New American Secret Police/Surveillance State.

[Mnemosyne]

27. They can shove their bi-partisanship. They have no loyalty to us and no consciences, not a

good combination as we have been seeing.

[Scuba]

7. Almost makes you think we're past the tipping point, eh?

[Mnemosyne]

28. It is chilling to think about, Scuba. How far will they go and how far are the citizens willing to

let them go before a total eruption of society? I fear for my grandchildren.

[matthews]

4. Taxpayers pick up the tab, it's actually supposed to be the taxpayer's own government.

But these feckless shits refuse to tell us what they're voting for, what they're getting us into.

This is wrong but maybe it wouldn't seem like it if they wore their crowns, ermine capes, and royal badges when they show up for work.

[Scuba]

29. Substitute "citizens" for "taxpayers" and I'm right there with you.

[Jefferson23]

5. K&R

[frazzled]

8. Almost all of the Senate Intelligence Committee meetings/hearings are closed

except for hearings on nominations, etc. I should imagine their votes are too, then. This is not some sort of unique behavior for this particular committee.

[ProSense]

10. Yeah, but oh the irony. n/t

[GiaGiovanni]

11. Not since March

http://www.rollcall.com/news/in_a_reversal_senate_intelligence_panel_to_release_vote_tallies-223388-1.html?pos=oplyh

The Senate Intelligence Committee announced that it will now disclose which senators vote for or against measures and nominations in committee, chipping away at a panel tradition of secrecy that government watchdogs say has shielded members from public scrutiny.

Intelligence Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein of California and ranking Republican Saxby Chambliss of Georgia released a statement late Thursday saying their committee will announce breakdowns of how senators voted on measures in panel markups....

...The Senate Intelligence Committee had been the only committee in Congress that did not release vote positions. The House Intelligence panel, as with all House panels, is obligated under House Rule XI to release vote records within 48 hours.

While both the Senate and House Intelligence panels have nearly identical internal rules on issuing committee reports — they say the record should include a “tabulation” of the votes — the Senate Intelligence Committee’s rules actually go further, adding that the report should include a tabulation of the votes cast “by each member of the Committee.”

Government transparency advocates applauded the new policy reversal....

[frazzled]

15. Thanks for the update

Didn't know that, and it sounds like a good policy.. I assume many of their hearings will still be closed, though, given the nature of their business.

[GiaGiovanni]

19. Welcome.

I'll bet the balance will be difficult.

[madrchsod]

9. maybe obama should read what the fuck went wrong in afghanistan...

we trained the guy and his organization who blew up the trade towers. today they are killing civilians and our troops.

obama`s legacy is getting more distant as the days grow longer

[Catherina]

12. You know what's really sad? When you read the news in Russian or French

Last edited Thu Aug 1, 2013, 11:18 PM - Edit history (1)

it's night and day from what we're reading in the US about the so-called rebels who are on film, on fucking film, eating the hearts of their victims (jurors, google for the video and watch it if you get a weasely alert), or filming their savage murder of a 14 yr old over a cup of coffee! And you get news about the UN independent panel saying "There are no good guys among Syrian rebels" but none of that is reported by our compliant media.

Instead of studying wtf went wrong in Afghanistan, we're repeating it. And it's the same people denouncing it, ahead of *fashion* and being totally ignored for the moment but in a few years, when the SNAFU blows up in everyone's face, then everyone will pretend they were against this from the *start*. Look around lol.

[truebrit71]

18. ^^^ This

[NuclearDem]

21. This. A thousand times, this.

This is going to end up backfiring, horribly. A lot of innocent people died last time, and that we refuse to learn that lesson is pissing on theirs and future victims' graves.

[Enthusiast]

25. The President appears to embrace the wrong side of history.

Curious.

[John2]

13. I have no words

for this. It speaks for itself.

[pscot]

14. K&R

[L0oniX]

16. I'm so thrilled I was able to vote on this. It's dandy that they are representing 'we the people'.

[truebrit71]

17. I'm sorry but that's just bullshit...

...a vote of this magnitude and import should not be held behind closed doors...that's not how a democracy is supposed to work..

[Catherina]

22. I agree but no one asks us or even pretends to care when we protest this!

It's total bullshit.

[dixiegrrrrl]

31. Makes me wonder why they bother to pretend at all.

I would so hope the people will vote the whole lot in teh next elections, but that is not how it works, when so many voters can be swayed by pre-election BS thanks to the distorted media.

[snappyturtle]

20. Not good....not good at all. nt

[struggle4progress]

23. Constitution, Article I, Section 5, Paragraph 3, Clause 1:

Each House shall keep a journal of its proceedings, and from time to time publish the same, excepting such parts as may in their judgment require secrecy ...

The right of Congress to keep some proceedings secret has been there from the very beginning over two hundred years ago: folk who want to get rid of it should try for a Constitutional amendment

[Enthusiast]

24. K&R. This is completely unacceptable............nt

[mick063]

32. So someone please tell me when Godwin's law can be revoked.

Half the country wouldn't blink an eye at loading people of Islamic faith into cattle cars.

[AppleBottom]

33. I'm sure that hiding their votes was done in the name of security.

As in job security and NOT national security.