I know everyone was busy with the Vice President's hunting accident and all, but in the meantime there was a five hour hearing on one of the most important issues we usually discuss here at Kos. Retaliation against national security whistleblowers by the administration. In case you missed it,
James Rosen has a good summary of Tuesday's hearing here:
Spc. Samuel Provance, also dressed in Army green, said he was demoted and humiliated after telling a general investigating the Abu Ghraib scandal that senior officers had covered up the full extent of abuse during interrogations of detainees at the U.S. military prison in Iraq.
"Young soldiers were scapegoated while superiors misrepresented what had happened and tried to misdirect attention away from what was really going on," Provance said. "I considered all of this conduct to be dishonorable and inconsistent with the traditions of the Army. I was ashamed and embarrassed to be associated with it."
The article continues:
Provance made a new allegation about the Abu Ghraib controversy, saying that U.S. forces had captured the 16-year-old son of an Iraqi general under Saddam Hussein, Hamid Zabar, to pressure the general into providing information.
"I was extremely uncomfortable about the way General Zabar had been treated, but particularly the fact that his son had been captured and used in this way," Provance said. "It struck me as morally reprehensible, and I could not understand why our command was doing it."
You can see the
video from C-SPAN here. It's also re-airing on
C-SPAN 3 at 2pm ET on Wednesday.
Another great article on Tuesday's hearing here:
In an unusual move, whistleblowers from the FBI, National Security Agency, Defense Department and Energy Department were allowed to testify before the House Government Reform National Security, Emerging Threats and International Relations Subcommittee. Congressional committees usually hear from senior agency managers, not rank-and-file employees.
The whistleblowers recounted their allegations and how they were retaliated against, in some cases by having their security clearances revoked or their careers ruined. They said agency managers seemed more focused on cover-ups and retaliation than investigating allegations or addressing exposed problems.
There will be another
hearing on Able Danger specifically Wednesday, if anyone can pull themselves away from the long winded in-depth discussions of bird shot long enough....
UPDATE: If you aren't familiar with Able Danger, there are some good articles on it here and here.