Mukasey's Bizarre Reason for Hiding Info from Congress

by D. Cupples |  Just last Saturday, the Justice Department announced that it will join the CIA inspector general's investigation of the CIA's 2005 destruction of torture tapes (possibly obstruction of justice).  This gave the public the impression that Attorney General Michael Mukasey might avoid his predecessor's apparent error of putting the Bush Administration's political agendas above the pursuit of justice.

Today, Mukasey severely weakened that newly created impression by telling bipartisan leaders of the   House and Senate Judiciary Committees that he would not, in fact, share information about the investigation.  His reason is bizarre.

The Washington Post quoted Mukasey:

"'This policy is based in part on our interest in avoiding any perception that our law enforcement decisions are subject to political influence,' Mukasey wrote to [House Judiciary Chairman John] Conyers and the others. 'Accordingly, I will not at this time provide further information in response to your letter, but appreciate the Committee's interests in this matter.'"

Oddly, Mukasey doesn't seem afraid that his stonewalling will make him appear politically motivated to protect the Bush Administration's political image.  Another consideration: because Justice Department lawyers were involved in the torture-tape issue, Mukasey's desire to keep the investigation secret could make him appear politically motivated to protect his own agency.

Given the Bush Administration's fondness for secrecy, Mukasey might be safer by airing on the side of disclosure.

Memeorandum has other bloggers' reactions: TPMmuckraker, Think Progress, The Mahablog, The Carpetbagger Report and Greatscat!

*BN-Politics used the photograph(s) in this post under a Creative Commons license that allows commercial use and sharing. Before copying the photo(s), follow the link to the owner's page and consult the licensing terms.  Photo owners do NOT necessarily endorse views expressed in this post.

Other BN-Politics' Posts:

* Bush Demands Freedom to Torture, Retired Generals Disagree

*CIA Lawyers Authorized Destruction of Tapes?:  The Plot Thickens  (Updated)

* CIA Destroyed Evidence of Torture Sessions

* Stories Coming about Selective Political Prosecution of Siegelman?

* Justice Department: Weapon Against Political Enemies?

* White House Whines About Oversight

* Republican ex-AG Thinks DoJ Selectively Prosecuted

* How Just is our Justice Department? Ask ex-USA Paul Charlton

Comments

[nabalzbbfr]

Let me point out a hypothetical scenario as to why information about aggressice CIA techniques (**NOT** torture) needs to be kept highly classified. Consider the following scene described in Mario Puzo's novel "The Godfather":

The two Capone men were bound hand and foot and small bath towels were stuffed into their mouths to keep them from crying out. Then Brasi took an ax from its place against the wall and started hacking at one of the Capone men. He chopped the man’s feet off, then the legs at the knees, then the thighs where they joined the torso. Brasi was an extremely powerful man but it took him many swings to accomplish his purpose. By that time of course the victim had given up the ghost and the floor of the warehouse was slippery with the hacked fragments of his flesh and the gouting of his blood. When Brasi turned to his second victim he found further effort unnecessary. The second Capone gunman out of sheer terror had, impossibly. swallowed the bath towel in his mouth and suffocated. The bath towel was found in the man’s stomach when the police performed their autopsy to determine the cause of death.

Now reimagine this scene with two Al-Qaeda operatives, say Abdul and Mohammed. Now the CIA can reenact the above with a **virtual** simulation of the above scene with a virtual Abdul as subject and the real Mohammed as horrified observer, and in another room the same with the roles of A and M interchanged. In virtually no time at all, A and M are singing like birds. And as former CIA agent John Kiriakou recently recounted, once they started singing they will continue to keep singing, without any further prodding. Moreover the reliability of their information can be cross checked against each other. On the other hand, once it became known to Al Qaeda that this was only a virtual simulation, this technique would become completely ineffective.

[Damozel]

Oh dear.

[D. Cupples]

There are procedures by which the DoJ and CIA can share (and have shared) "classified information" with Congress -- WITHOUT the info becoming public.

That's what they did in 2002-03 when briefing congressional leaders about "harsh interrogation methods."

[Taylor Hicks]

“BUSH HAS TURN THE WHITE HOUSE INTO A DEN OF THIEVES”
President Bush, Vice President Cheney and their executioner Lieutenant Rove have disregarded the values so cherished by the Republican Party. Their ideology have been to channel millions of dollars to those party members who have pledged total absolute loyalty to the Bush administration. This includes creating/channeling campaign funds for their elections, making appointments of the undeserving and/or unqualified boot lickers to high Federal offices and awarding large military/government contracts to thousands of companies that are owned directly or indirectly by his supporters. Many of these contracting companies are sham organizations and/or have no accountability.

We in the “South Eastern States” have surely suffered the most from the presidency of Bush. We are facing a very serious dilemma; we have a new strain of government corruption that is immune to the antibodies of the justice system as defined by the constitution which incudes: (a) Election fraud, (b) political favors for illegal campaign contributions (large oil companies, Tobacco Companies, Gambling Casinos, etc.), ( c) corrupt Bush appointed U.S Attorneys that spend millions of dollars profiling high ranking Democrats so that their offices can be freed up for a Bush operative and (d) Bush appointed U.S. Judges that removes the threat of a political comeback by giving maximum sentences with appeal denials and highly restricted/screened prison correspondence.

[Raphael]

Here you can see Mukasey's testimony at the Oversight Hearing from Thursday:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SPdd5fxzG0

[D. Cupples]

Thanks for the tip!