How sad. Philip Mudd, President Obama's nominee to lead intel at the Department of Homeland Security has withdrawn. Because he was worried about the questioning he would receive by Congress. Because of his participation in torture. Seriously!
The New York Times:
A White House aide said the president was well aware of Mr. Mudd’s links with interrogation programs that the Obama administration has described as torture. Still, the aide said Mr. Obama had complete confidence that Mr. Mudd was the best person for the Homeland Security post.
But the aide said Mr. Mudd had become increasingly concerned that his nomination would lead to another angry political debate in Congress over torture.
Um. Complete confidence. Links to torture. But can't have any angry debates about that! Um.
Several Republican lawmakers expressed anger over Mr. Mudd’s withdrawal. Senator Christopher S. Bond of Missouri said the nomination had become "the latest political casualty of a terror-fighting program no one in Congress objected to until it became politically risky."
Good to know that Republicans are still fully in favor of war crimes. Angry that they would be an issue! And Dodd is right on point: torture only becomes such an issue when it becomes politically risky. Did I mention- um? But kudos to the Democratic lawmakers who were going to make crimes against humanity an issue!
Meanwhile, the Times has another disturbing story:
The Obama administration is considering a change in the law for the military commissions at the prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, that would clear the way for detainees facing the death penalty to plead guilty without a full trial.
The provision could permit military prosecutors to avoid airing the details of brutal interrogation techniques. It could also allow the five detainees who have been charged with the Sept. 11 attacks to achieve their stated goal of pleading guilty to gain what they have called martyrdom.
Sounds like a winner all around! The "detainees" get martyrdom. The U.S. gets to execute people! The details of U.S. war crimes get covered up!
The proposal would ease what has come to be recognized as the government’s difficult task of prosecuting men who have confessed to terrorism but whose cases present challenges. Much of the evidence against the men accused in the Sept. 11 case, as well as against other detainees, is believed to have come from confessions they gave during intense interrogations at secret C.I.A. prisons. In any proceeding, the reliability of those statements would be challenged, making trials difficult and drawing new political pressure over detainee treatment.
But torture is okay when the victims opt for "martyrdom," and our government approves!
David Glazier, an associate professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles who has written about the commission system, said: "This unfortunately strikes me as an effort to get rid of the problem in the easiest way possible, which is to have those people plead guilty and presumably be executed. But I think it’s going to lack international credibility."
That's probably a fair assessment...