In case you haven’t figured out, I’ve been swamped this week (I drove to CO to help my mom pack up her house so I’ve been packing boxes for the last several days). Thanks to bmaz for minding the liquor cabinet (and more importantly, for keeping on top of the news).
In the meantime, there have been two unfortunate developments in torture accountability. First, the House approved Lieberman’s amendment withholding torture photos from FOIA. With the House’s approval, it becomes virtually assured that we will see neither the remaining Abu Ghraib abuse photos, nor some of the photos in CIA’s FOIA.
And so Congress becomes fully complicit in covering up Bush’s crimes.
In addition, Judge Royce Lamberth ruled against the ACLU’s efforts to force the government to release unredacted Combatant Status Review Tribunal transcripts. As you’ll recall, the government released slightly less redacted CSRTs earlier this year. We learned what we already knew–that KSM had lied under torture (though we learned one subject he lied about–Osama bin Laden’s location). In the guise of protecting sources and methods (methods that, most people acknowledge, include torture), the government is withholding unredacted CSRTs.
Between the two events, the government–with the Court’s and Congress’ help–continues to bury the evidence of Bush’s torture program.