Feds Want To Keep Torture A Secret

Cohen: Administration Wants 'Interrogation Methods' Kept Secret From Suspects' Lawyers

(CBS)  Attorney Andrew Cohen analyzes legal issues for CBS News and CBSNews.com.

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If you feel you must give the Bush administration credit for its latest legal pivot in the war on terror, give it credit for having the cojones to actually tell a federal trial judge that the "interrogation methods" (what some reasonable people call "torture") it has used on terrorism suspects is so vital to "national security" that the recipients of it may not tell their own attorneys what’s been done to them.

In a late October filing in a case involving Majid Khan, one of the 14 "high-profile" terrorism suspects transferred recently from secret U.S. prisons to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the feds asked U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton, in Washington to forbid Khan from sharing with his attorneys the details of the treatment he has received at the hands of his American captors and their allies.

Those attorneys had asked the court for some sort of access to Khan, and at least some of his colleagues, so they could begin to work with them on offering a legal defense.

The Justice Department told Judge Walton that "extremely grave damage" could be caused to national interests if the men are allowed to disclose to their own attorneys what happened to them after they were apprehended. Those interrogation methods are "secrets," the government said, so they may not be shared with our enemies through their public dissemination in civilian cases brought on behalf of the men. Remember, too, that the White House and Congress this fall passed a law that seeks to block the courts from even considering those civilian cases.

Not yet comprehending the gall of this argument? Think of how you would feel if your local district attorney asked your local judge to block you from telling your lawyer that you were beaten by the cops when they arrested you. Think about how that might shape your ability to present a legal or factual defense. Think about how that might otherwise shape your ability to communicate with your lawyer. And think about how you'd perceive that judge if he were to grant that DA's request.

The federal courts may have bought this line in 2002, when the judicial branch was scared witless and into submission by executive branch bluster. But it's going to be a very tough sell in 2006, now that the judiciary has finally begun to find its spine and check the executive branch's worst excesses in the name of fighting the war on terrorism.

The feds in court anyway have played the "national security" card so often, and in so many similarly inapt situations, that judges are beginning to tune it out. This is likely to be one of those times.

On the Surreal-Meter, the White House's "keep it quiet" argument reminds me of the case of Mustafa Ait Idr, one of the terror detainees at Gitmo. Years ago, Idr was brought before the Combatant Status Review Tribunal, the first-step procedure our government created to begin to vet the detainees to determine who had done what to whom and why. Idr was accused of associating with a "known al Qaeda operative" so he reasonably enough asked the judge to tell him who the operative was.

"Give me his name," Idr told the court, and then I can tell you if I know him or not. The judge told him: "I do not know."

Then, the record shows, Idr said this: "I asked the interrogators to tell me who this person was. Then I could tell you if I might have known this person, but not if this person is a terrorist. Maybe I knew this person as a friend. Maybe it was a person that worked with me. Maybe it was a person that was on my team. But I do not know if this person is Bosnian, Indian or whatever. If you tell me the name, then I can respond and defend myself against this accusation."

And then, the record also shows, the CSRT presiding officer responded: "We are asking you the question and we need you to respond to what is on the unclassified summary."

In the Idr case, military officials were asking a terrorism suspect to tell them if he knew a man whose name they would not give him. It's a riff on the old military-drill question that tormented many a poor grunt. "How long is a piece of string, private?" the drill sergeant would ask before ordering his stammering victim to do pushups (or whatever other punishment) for not knowing the answer to an impossible question. Of course, it was counted against Idr, too, when he refused to answer his impossible question.

In the case of Majid Kahn, government officials are telling the court that a terrorism suspect may not talk to his own attorney about key elements of his own defense — elements that have nothing to do with the crime charged but which are instead based upon the suspect's own personal experiences at the hands of his captors after his capture.

And that's a riff on the administration’s shopworn — and ultimately self-defeating — penchant for tormenting these detainees, both literally and figuratively, while trying to cloak its own legally questionable (and routinely questioned) conduct.

Does anyone out there think it is still a secret that the U.S. government has interrogated terrorism suspects in an aggressive manner?

Do our leaders truly believe that al Qaeda doesn't already know about "water boarding" — which our Vice President recently re-endorsed just around the time that his Justice Department was making this argument before Judge Walton?

Everyone understands why the feds don't want future suspects to know in advance what interrogation techniques will be used on them. But if those same feds aren't already coming up with new, improved and more productive interrogation techniques, they aren’t doing their jobs.

The truth is that whether or not the feds prevail with their argument before Judge Walton or the federal appeals courts, they will pepper Kahn with the same kangaroo-court questions with which they peppered Idr.

The government sure gets you coming and going if you are a terrorism suspect — no matter whether there is evidence that you are guilty of anything sinister or not.

[getcentered]

Why does the Bush administration want no oversight over its terrorism operations?
I don't get it!!

Oversight is needed so the people can see mistakes and correct them. Obviously the White House doesn't think it makes mistakes.

It seems to me that our neo-con representatives are still drying off from their swim in "the pool of self-righteousness".

Alberto Gonzalez and ALL in the White House would walk over our Constitution soon after spiting on it.

[random_radar]

I am on the "no fly" list. I am a white middle-class American citizen who has never been accused of any crime. I can't get on an airplane without special permission from a security official.

When I ask why, they tell me it is a secret. There is nothing I can do to defend myself and no recourse to clear myself. If you think the government only mistreats legitimate foreign terrorists, you are wrong. In fact, you are very stupid.

I am an American citizen and I am being treated the same as the Gitmo detainees.

[kesac4650]

I am always amazed when some writer of opinion, passes off his opinion as fact. And then, there are those who buy the opinion, hook line and sinker.
The "torture" that Mr. Cohen speaks of, is something that our Special Forces personell practice on themselves as part of their training. It leaves them unharmed for any further duties. They lose no skill that they ever had before, unlike medeava tortures that left persons broken in mind and body for life.
Middle Ages tortures were used to ellicit a confession. The interrogations of today are used to gather information, to prevent further Terrorist attacks. Brian Ross, ABC's Chief Investigative Reporter, has told us that he knows of a dozen plots that were interrupted, and thousands of lives saved. He told of these things on Fox, and not on ABC. Why does one network with hold these things gathered by their own reporter?
Mr. Cohen's article is as much nonsense as Kieth Olbermann's pretense that our military foes are promised writs of Habeas Corpus, even thought the Constitution specifically excepts them from any such right.
Some people will tell us anything to sabotage this Administration.

[usawatchman]

tucson23

What the problem is for a lot of these people is

COMMUNICATION

The FREE PRESS used to be the people who kept the government IN CHECK...
Reporters were constantly looking for this CORRUPTION...

NOW the FREE PRESS is left up to the people..

One of the problems is
ALL of the NEWSPAPERS
ALL of the TELEVISION STATIONS
ALL of the RADIO STATIONS
ALL of the CABLE COMPANIES

are owned by the same people

WE NEED TO BREAK THEM UP...

[clestes-2009]

This is sickening. It will take years to undo the damage the Bush admin has done to this country's laws.

[ressigmann]

tucson23 "stupidest among us (the religious)"

Spoken like a truly uninformed tasteless liberal.
The Republicans who caused most of the recent troubles for the party are generally speaking liberals who call themselves Republicans.
The problems with our education system are lack of discipline and the useless outcome based education. And the philisophical underpinnings upon which our natiton was built was conservative Christian philosophy.
"it would be peculiarly improper to omit in this first official act, my fervent supplications to that Almighty Being who rules over the universe" (First inaugural address of George Washington, and he was also president of the convention that drafted the constitution).
"And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion...reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle". (George Washington Farewell address).

[tucson23]

I feel the need to point out that these abuses were all known to be going on before the election of 2004, yet the "good" people of America decided to re-elect this government. It points up one important fact--that a majority of Americans are so stupid that they can't recognize abuse of power and downright anti-American views when they see them. The only explanation that makes sense is that there has been a complete failure of the educational system to teach the fundamental philosophical underpinnings on which this nation was built.

The Neocons take advantage of the dim-wittedness of the people in order to further their economic agenda, and nothing else--all the talk about "Family Values" is merely a way to dupe the stupidest among us (the religious) to provide the numbers of voters they need to win elections--because if they campaigned on their economic agenda alone, they would never win the support of the poor and middle-class (who far outnumber the rich).

All we're seeing now is that the moral bankruptcy of the Neocon worldview is being laid bare. Those who truly understand the values that made America great did not support this admistration from day one. But for every one of them, there's and idiot and a half out there voting away everything this nation stands for--and actually claiming that those who disagree are anti-American.

If we don't fix our educational system, we are doomed as a nation.

[kaliveotin]

The compassionate conservatives and moral majoritee have finally shown thier true colors,
They don't believe in the United States,and are imposing a "New world order" of corporate oppression. They oppose workers rights, environmental concerns, and civil liberties because these things all get in the way of thier
greed and averice. Argueing for torture and warrantless wiretaps of Americans just two of dozens of vivid examples of Unamerican unconstitutional expressions of this republican administration. The people of the U.S. want thier
government to reflect thier values, not fascism.

[usawatchman]

GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES and FRIENDS
are EXEMPT from the LAWS that we PEASANTS have to live UNDER

or is it maybe for a few $$$ you can buy some justice in their Court

how can it be I didn't see their WISDOM

===
You know someone facing charges
you know someone in jail
you know someone who isn't ONE of the above ELITE...!


I just heard JUDGE ROBERTS, call my case before his / our court


A DOG

That is right... when the people are before the
UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT
the LAST PLACE a government gives a people a chance for justice..
and
a case where the government employees COMMITTED CRIMES
in order to gain the upper hand in the COURT ROOM..

They didn't see any VALUE of such a case

So they called it a DOG and went on to more important matters

UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT
James B. Veasaw v. Cari M. Domingues,et al.
No: 05-1467

Watch this COURT in the NEXT MONTHS... YEARS

YOU WATCH what this Court thought was more important

than CORRECTING a CORRUPT GOVERNMENT,

and IT'S OWN COURTS

The COURTS and GOVERNMENT are CORRUPT


We may have to take up ARMS and
run those CRIMINALS out ONE BUILDING AT A TIME
MY Constitutional rights were VIOLATED
by the highest court in the land (and those below it)

WE NEED IMPEACHMENT OF SOME OF THESE JUDGES
in the SUPREME and other US COURTS



PEOPLE, CAN YOU FEEL THE EARTH TREMBLE...

[usawatchman]

I bet that isn't the only thing these CRIMINALS want to keep quite...!
GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES and FRIENDS
and FRIENDS of FRIENDS
are EXEMPT from the LAWS that we PEASANTS have to live UNDER
You know someone facing charges
you know someone in jail
you know someone who isn't ONE of the above ELITE...!
I just heard JUDGE ROBERTS, call my case before his / our court

A DOG

That is right... when the people are before the
UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT
the LAST a government gives a people a chance for justice..
and
a case where the government employees COMMITTED CRIMES
in order to gain the upper hand in the COURT..

A DOG

We may have to take up ARMS and
run those CRIMINALS out ONE BUILDING AT A TIME
==

MY Constitutional rights were VIOLATED
by the highest court in the land (and those below it)

==
The COURTS and GOVERNMENT are CORRUPT
==

WE NEED IMPEACHMENT OF SOME OF THESE JUDGES
in the SUPREME and other US COURTS

UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT
James B. Veasaw v. Cari M. Domingues,et al.
No: 05-1467

Securities and Exchange Commission was giving away and/or selling Govt. jobs, and Government employees commit CRIMES against the people
Government employees (SEC DOL EEOC) commit CRIMES
in order to GAIN the upper hand in the Court room
Perjury, mail/wire fraud, conspiracy, obstruction of justice,
tampering with evidence...etc and the COURTS
(US SUPREME COURT!) were helping them it COVER UP..!

[susanhelit]

How can they call themselves Americans?

[webdepot]

I can't believe the audacity... The Government might just as well execute them all... why bother with the kangaroo court where:
They cannot see the evidence against them
They cannot confront their accusers
They are not entitled to a civilian lawyer
They cannot have access to the courts
and now they can't even describe their torture to..... anyone..

Justice for All is taking one hell of a shellacking in this corrupt administration..
They should all, Bush, Cheney, Rummy, Rice, Gonzalez, and Ashcroft face a trial in the world court.

[getcentered]

Why does the Bush administration want no oversight over its terrorism operations?
I don't get it!!

Oversight is needed so the people can see mistakes and correct them. Obviously the White House doesn't think it makes mistakes.

It seems to me that our neo-con representatives are still drying off from their swim in "the pool of self-righteousness".

Alberto Gonzalez and ALL in the White House would walk over our Constitution soon after spiting on it.

[searingtruth]

"When everything is secret, everything is legal."
SearingTruth

"Who would submit accusation in permanence of guilt."
SearingTruth

"Law without justice is simply tyranny."
SearingTruth

"Innocence is muted by cruel withdrawal of voice."
SearingTruth

"War crimes must be punished."
SearingTruth

"Republicans are in a unique historical position. They are the first group of people raised on this land, who call themselves Americans, that openly proclaim the virtues of torture, secret prisons, extrajudicial abduction, universal surveillance, and dictatorial government."
SearingTruth

"They destroyed with reckless abandon, and then plead for mercy."
SearingTruth

"And then, in the face of truth, they wept and fled in lament of their own misfortune."
SearingTruth

"It's time to empty our secret prisons. Let us free the innocent, and justly convict the guilty."
SearingTruth

"One of the most fundamental precepts of justice is that everyone, under every circumstance, be treated equally."
SearingTruth

"My fellow citizens, the truth is that the Constitution fails to defend itself, enduring only in the brave hearts of those who would uphold it."
SearingTruth, A Future of the Brave

A Future a the Brave - www.searingtruth.com

[itchybrain]

This is totally surreal! Yet, I'm sure some of the usual twits that defend the president and his henchmen will once again explain how the war on terror trumps our humane treatment of the suspects. These are the same types of people who watched their neighbors taken away by the SS and looked the other way.

The rise of fascism in this country must be killed in the cradle before we all become victims. These are dangerous times.

[observantx]

This is getting to be more Animal Farm/1984 than I thought possible.

The government%u2019s question. %u201CAre they your coconspirator in the plot?%u201D
Your answer. %u201CWho is this %u201Cthey%u201D I am supposed to have plotted with?

The government%u2019s reply. %u201CThat%u2019s a secret. We can%u2019t tell you who it is. The law says we don%u2019t have to tell you. You are required to answer the question%u201D

The government%u2019s question. %u201CWhen was the plot to have been carried out?
Your answer %u201CPlot about what?%u201D

The government%u2019s reply. "That%u2019s a secret. We can%u2019t tell you about it. The law says we don%u2019t have to tell you. You'd better answer the question%u201D

This exchange undoubtedly occurs while you are strapped to an inclined board while water is being poured on your face.

[sanfelz]

I remember when there were conservative Republicans who railed against unbridled government power and against government duplicity. Now they support and encourage encroachmnets against individual rights and constitutional guarantees.
This has been going on since Reagan/Bush and Iran-Contra. They just shrug their shoulders and deny knowledge of anything. They became everything they were supposed to prevent.

[usawatchman]

I bet that isn't the only thing these CRIMINALS want to keep quite...!


We may have to take up ARMS and
run those CRIMINALS out ONE BUILDING AT A TIME

===========

"culture of corruption." insinuates CRIMES have been COMMITTED
and NOW people need to go to JAIL...

MY Constitutional rights were VIOLATED
by the highest court in the land (and those below it)

==========
The COURTS and GOVERNMENT are CORRUPT
==========
It better NOT be BUSINESS a USUAL

WE NEED IMPEACHMENT OF SOME OF THESE JUDGES
in the SUPREME and other US COURTS

UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT
James B. Veasaw v. Cari M. Domingues,et al.
No: 05-1467

Securities and Exchange Commission was giving away and/or selling Govt. jobs, and Government employees commit CRIMES against the
people (me and others) Perjury, mail/wire fraud, conspiracy, obstruction of justice, tampering with evidence...etc and the COURTS
(US SUPREME COURT!) were helping them it COVER UP..!
=============
Do you know why they call it CIVIL COURT ?

Because Gentlemen thought there had to be
a better way to settle disputes other than with VIOLENCE

When the COURTS are CORRUPT
You no longer have a CIVIL SOCIETY

You now have a TYRANNY..

[dredre2k]

Bush and his Neocon Friends are just trying to get us all one step closer to the United States of Fascism. HOPEFULLY the new Democratic Majority will undo or prevent any laws that will legalize torture, ban writ of habeas corpus, warrantless wiretapping, detention camps... all the things that make Bush and the (outgoing) Republican majority look like the Nazi Party.