I won't tar those with a different view on this issue as torture apologists. We face difficult choices. But please understand that, for some, this feels like a hurricane offshore that has already caused untold suffering, and threatens - in 4, 8, or 20 years - to make landfall again.
If this is a struggle of years, so be it. Many will point out that US complicity in torture goes back much further than the last 9 years. In moral struggles, there are critical moments to seize the initiative, to build on failure as well as success - for the future. This is one of them.
The Civil Rights Movement was waged over many decades. The NAACP came to prominence (Dave Neiwart noted yesterday) generations ago, fighting the horror of commonplace public torture and lynching. That movement has not ended.
In the fight against torture, we see, laws alone don't cut it. Like Civil Rights, this is a deep cultural and institutional battle. The growing prison reform movement ties in here as well. Fear, and a tacit cruelty, have become drivers for far too much of our national energies. We need to work patiently (not slowly) to spur our nation to recognize this tragedy, and change it.
How will Kossacks move on this?
I don't always look to Newsweekas an authority, but I will follow Booman’s leadin this case:
Though administration officials declared that CIA interrogators who followed Justice's legal guidance on torture would not be prosecuted, that does not mean the inquiries are over. Senior Justice Department lawyers and other advisers, who declined to be identified discussing a sensitive subject, say Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. is seriously considering appointing an outside counsel to investigate whether CIA interrogators exceeded legal boundaries—and whether Bush administration officials broke the law by giving the CIA permission to torture in the first place. Even if Holder takes a pass, Sen. Patrick Leahy, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, is still pushing for a "truth commission." In a democracy, the wheels of justice grind on—and the president, for good reason under the rule of law, does not have the power to stop them.
Obama is not the decider here. (For what it's worth, I do acknowledge that he is in a terribly difficult position; although I am deeply disappointed in his choices on this issue.)
I've seen Kossacks mobilize to win elections, to help those caught in natural disasters, to fight the moral fight.
How will we do this? Can we have torture fight mothership diaries, as has been done to coordinate action in other critical times?
The snowballing movement to impeach Bybee is a very encouraging sign of things to come. What else can we do? Can we get at Yoo? Disbarments?
The ugly stories have to get out, I believe, to really begin to mobilize the American people for the larger campaign here. One of the ones that hit me hardest was of a Muslim man named Dilawar, killed in US captivity early on. But there are many others, and I know many have been posted here recently. My apologies for not finding links to them right now - I need to get this diary posted; can others add links in the comments?
I should say a few provisional words about that larger campaign - for accountability yes, but also for the deeper changes in our attitudes toward criminal justice and security. Only that will give force, when the chips are down, to laws that otherwise are mere pieces of paper: empowering whistleblowers, and taking the wind out of the sails of those who would enable abuse and torment in the name of safety and security. We will need to develop ways to clarify that we are not suggesting indulgence toward terrorists and criminals, but a hardheaded realism about what will help to keep all of us safer in sustainable ways.
If I'm right about how essential the stories are, then people with access to the national stage will need to begin telling those stories. I watch very little TV. Is any of that happening, on Maddow or elsewhere?
What ideas do folks have about existing organizations, person-to-person activism, or other strategies?
I have a busy afternoon ahead, but I will try to pop back in a few times and update this as comments warrant.
We can do this. For our children, for the world, we must.