Robert Naiman in the Huffington Post:

“Time Is Running Out on the CIA Torture Report,” the National Journalreports:

Backroom negotiations over the release of a long-delayed Senate report on the George W. Bush administration’s use of so-called “enhanced interrogation” practices are again hitting a wall….
The Senate is set to adjourn in mid-December, but [Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Dianne] Feinstein can still hold off on submitting the report until the start of next year by obtaining a consent agreement that would allow her to file when Congress is not in session.  But the extension would only give Feinstein a few weeks of extra daylight. The current Senate will formally expire at noon on Jan. 3…. The continued fraying of negotiations has some suggesting that the White House might be intentionally stalling, in hopes that it can run out the clock on the report’s release, especially with Republicans slated to take over.

National Journal notes that outgoing Colorado Senator Mark Udall — no longer constrained even in theory by the perceived need to curry favor with power — is the last line of defense for Senate Democrats: he can declassify the Senate Intelligence Committee’s preferred version of the report by himself, by reading it into the Congressional Record, under the protection of the Constitution’s Speech or Debate clause.

More is at stake than establishing a public record on the CIA’s use of torture and its illegal attempts to hide its crimes from other executive branch officials and Congress, important though that is. The struggle over the release of the CIA torture report is a litmus test of the ability and willingness of Congress to conduct any meaningful oversight of the CIA at all.

One of the early indicators that the Obama was not going to impress was his statement that he would not aggressively investigate potential war crimes by the previous administration.*  Related links:

• David Johnston and Charlie Savage (NYT), Obama Reluctant to Look Into Bush Programs
• Adam Serwer, Investigation of Bush-era Torture Concludes With No Charges
• Glenn Greenwald, Obama’s justice department grants final immunity to Bush’s CIA torturers

* Gen. Taguba was instructed to retire in 2006, less than two years after the release of The Taguba Report but before he publicly accused the Bush Administration of war crimes.

Lt. Gen. (ret.) Daniel Bolger in the NY Times, The Truth About the Wars:

As a senior commander in Iraq and Afghanistan, I lost 80 soldiers. Despite their sacrifices, and those of thousands more, all we have to show for it are two failed wars. This fact eats at me every day, and Veterans Day is tougher than most.

As veterans, we tell ourselves it was all worth it. The grim butchery of war hovers out of sight and out of mind, an unwelcome guest at the dignified ceremonies. Instead, we talk of devotion to duty and noble sacrifice. We salute the soldiers at Omaha Beach, the sailors at Leyte Gulf, the airmen in the skies over Berlin and the Marines at the Chosin Reservoir, and we’re not wrong to do so. The military thrives on tales of valor. In our volunteer armed forces, such stirring examples keep bringing young men and women through the recruiters’ door. As we used to say in the First Cavalry Division, they want to “live the legend.” In the military, we love our legends.

Here’s a legend that’s going around these days. In 2003, the United States invaded Iraq and toppled a dictator. We botched the follow-through, and a vicious insurgency erupted. Four years later, we surged in fresh troops, adopted improved counterinsurgency tactics and won the war. And then dithering American politicians squandered the gains. It’s a compelling story. But it’s just that — a story.

The surge in Iraq did not “win” anything. It bought time. It allowed us to kill some more bad guys and feel better about ourselves. But in the end, shackled to a corrupt, sectarian government in Baghdad and hobbled by our fellow Americans’ unwillingness to commit to a fight lasting decades, the surge just forestalled today’s stalemate. Like a handful of aspirin gobbled by a fevered patient, the surge cooled the symptoms. But the underlying disease didn’t go away. The remnants of Al Qaeda in Iraq and the Sunni insurgents we battled for more than eight years simply re-emerged this year as the Islamic State, also known as ISIS.

The surge legend is soothing, especially for military commanders like me. We can convince ourselves that we did our part, and a few more diplomats or civilian leaders should have done theirs. Similar myths no doubt comforted Americans who fought under the command of Robert E. Lee in the Civil War or William C. Westmoreland in Vietnam. But as a three-star general who spent four years trying to win this thing — and failing — I now know better.

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