Mark Udall's loss is a blow for privacy, but he can go out with a bang:'leak' the CIA torture report

[deminks]

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/nov/05/mark-udall-loss-privacy-cia-torture-report

America’s rising civil liberties movement lost one of its strongest advocates in the US Congress on Tuesday night, as Colorado’s Mark Udall lost his Senate seat to Republican Cory Gardner. While the election was not a referendum on Udall’s support for civil liberties (Gardner expressed support for surveillance reform, and Udall spent most of his campaign almost solely concentrating on reproductive issues), the loss is undoubtedly a blow for privacy and transparency advocates, as Udall was one of the NSA and CIA’s most outspoken and consistent critics. Most importantly, he sat on the intelligence committee, the Senate’s sole oversight board of the clandestine agencies, where he was one of just a few dissenting members.

But Udall’s loss doesn’t have to be all bad. The lame-duck transparency advocate now has a rare opportunity to truly show his principles in the final two months of his Senate career and finally expose, in great detail, the secret government wrongdoing he’s been criticizing for years. On his way out the door, Udall can use congressional immunity provided to him by the Constitution’s Speech and Debate clause to read the Senate’s still-classified 6,000-page CIA torture report into the Congressional record – on the floor, on TV, for the world to see.

There’s ample precedent for this. In 1971, former Senator Mike Gravel famously read the top-secret classified Pentagon Papers for three hours before almost collapsing and then entering thousands of pages more into the record after he couldn’t speak for any longer from exhaustion.

In fact, Udall and his nearly lone partner in transparency, Senator Ron Wyden, have received criticism for not using this floor privilege before, including very recently when director Laura Poitras, on tour for her new documentary about Edward Snowden, said Wyden and others “failed the public” by not coming out and openly saying in 2011 that the NSA had secretly re-interpreted the Patriot Act to collect every American’s phone records. In many ways, Snowden let them off the hook.

(end snip)

[TheNutcracker]

1. Do it Mark...do it!

[KoKo]

2. Terrible Loss for NSA Revelations Outing.

I wish he would do that...but, we don't know why his campaign was run so badly that he lost. Was he "pressured from outside" since he worked with Wyden about the release of those documents?

That's how it worked in the McCarthy era in America's not so distant pass.

This could put a clamp on Wyden's efforts to keep after Obama to release those reports. Obama wasn't asked about it in the Press Conference today. Understandable because it was all about the Election ....but, Obama keeps stalling on releasing this info.

[grasswire]

3. perfect

may it be so

[grasswire]

4. a U.S. marine brigadier general speaks out

Last edited Wed Nov 5, 2014, 11:22 PM - Edit history (1)

quoted in the comments section of the article above, from the Baltimore Sun:



U.S. should release full torture report

By Leif H. Hendrickson

The U.S. cannot abide torture nor pardon those who commit it.

We now find ourselves (again) with an opportunity to do the right thing. Specifically, to uphold the principles and values of our Constitution and for our chief executive to hold true to his oath of office.

The Senate Intelligence Committee's report on U.S. torture addresses the executive branch's program(s) of interrogation and the behavior of those responsible for their execution. The executive branch, playing on America's fears of terrorism, continually assured the nation that programs were providing actionable results while asking for America's "trust" in their undisclosed methods in the name of national security. But it turns out that they were kibitzing with words and interpretations to allow (or justify) what are now known and confirmed as unethical, immoral practices — torture.

Asking for our trust is an organization of the executive branch that has been found to have destroyed information on their practices of torture, illegally removed equipment from the legislative branch and conducted illegal surveillance of the legislative branch. And now, again in the interest of national security, the executive branch is redacting the Senate's report and asking citizens to once again "trust them." The subject report will either exonerate those organizations and individuals responsible for torture or provide an instrument leading to their accountability. Additionally, it will provide truth to citizens about the value of information received from torture. It should be released in its entirety.

There is nothing that could be more damaging to the fabric of our nation and its principles than pardoning those responsible for the abhorrent acts of torture, regardless of political stature or position. As our chief executive has stated, "nobody is above the law." There is no justification for torture, or the authorization to commit the act. Terrorism is, indeed, cowardly and against every principle that our nation stands for. And, those committing terrorism should rightly be brought to justice and held accountable — but within the framework of our standing values and principles of jurisprudence.

Leif H. Hendrickson is a retired brigadier general in the United States Marine Corps.

[deminks]

6. kick for the morning.