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The New Yorker‘s Jane Mayer & The Last Lost Detainee

By SusanUnPC on February 27, 2009 at 9:55 AM in Current Affairs

mayer_darkside120

The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How The War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals

by Jane Mayer

From “Barack’s Legal Backlash” by Larry Johnson:

Jane Mayer’s book, The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How The War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals, is must reading for the Obama team and anyone else who wants to understand the legal mayhem created by George W. Bush and company since 9-11.

When Barack Obama’s team takes over on 20 January they are going to be dealing with a serious case of legal shock.

What do I mean? The Bush Administration has been the most anti-lawyer administration in the history of the United States.

Look at the folks who held the top slots, particularly in the first term, who were not lawyers and had no formal legal training: … (Larry Johnson’s November 2008 story continues below the fold)

The video below is from the February 26th Rachel Maddow show on MSNBC, featuring Jane Mayer in a discussion about the fate of “the case of Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri, the alleged Al Qaeda ‘sleeper agent’ who is the only so-called ‘illegal enemy combatant’ imprisoned inside the United States.”

You will need to watch this video for the explanation of the quandary that the Obama’s administration has left detainee attorneys to contend with! For background, read Mayer’s article at the New Yorker titled “Al-Marri Indictment Today [UPDATED].” The UPDATE states, “According to sources familiar with the case, the Obama Justice Department indicted Marri this afternoon [February 26, 2009]. The sealed indictment was handed up by a federal grand jury in Peoria, Illinois.”


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BELOW, the continuation of Larry Johnson’s MUST-READ article, “Barack’s Legal Backlash“:

(from the top)


Barack’s Legal Backlash

Jane Mayer’s book, The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How The War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals [UPDATE 11/23/08: SCREENSHOTS BELOW OF THREE FULL PAGES FROM Ms. MAYER'S BOOK], is must reading for the Obama team and anyone else who wants to understand the legal mayhem created by George W. Bush and company since 9-11. When Barack Obama’s team takes over on 20 January they are going to be dealing with a serious case of legal shock. What do I mean? The Bush Administration has been the most anti-lawyer administration in the history of the United States. Look at the folks who held the top slots, particularly in the first term, who were not lawyers and had no formal legal training:

George Bush
Dick Cheney
George Tenet
Colin Powell
Don Rumsfeld
Paul Wolfowitz
Condi Rice

So what? The Bush Administration has pursued a variety of policies that cause most legal scholars to recoil in horror. There are some highly classified, compartmented programs instituted by the Bush Administration that, when examined by lawyers with more mainstream sensibilities, will likely be terminated. It is no surprise that an Administration so openly hostile to the law would adopt policies and engage in practices that have skirted the law and, in some cases, broken the law. It is quite clear that President Bush and Vice President Cheney treated international law and international treaties as some sort of meaningless bureaucratic burden. And they surrounded themselves with lawyers who enabled their behavior with farfetched, extreme interpretations of what was and was not legal.

Look at the list of folks they relied on for legal judgments. David Addington, Alberto Gonzales, John Yoo, and Doug Feith. Feith, described by General Tommy Franks, as not terribly bright (he used more colorful language to disparage Feith) played a critical role in persuading the non-lawyers that there was no legal obstacle to using torture and violating the Geneva Conventions. Vanity Fair put out an excellent article on this in May:

The abuse, rising to the level of torture, of those captured and detained in the war on terror is a defining feature of the presidency of George W. Bush. Its military beginnings, however, lie not in Abu Ghraib, as is commonly thought, or in the “rendition” of prisoners to other countries for questioning, but in the treatment of the very first prisoners at Guantánamo. Starting in late 2002 a detainee bearing the number 063 was tortured over a period of more than seven weeks. In his story lies the answer to a crucial question: How was the decision made to let the U.S. military start using coercive interrogations at Guantánamo?

The Bush administration has always taken refuge behind a “trickle up” explanation: that is, the decision was generated by military commanders and interrogators on the ground. This explanation is false. The origins lie in actions taken at the very highest levels of the administration—by some of the most senior personal advisers to the president, the vice president, and the secretary of defense. At the heart of the matter stand several political appointees—lawyers—who, it can be argued, broke their ethical codes of conduct and took themselves into a zone of international criminality, where formal investigation is now a very real option. This is the story of how the torture at Guantánamo began, and how it spread.

Conservatives traditionally rail against liberals for supporting “judicial” activism. Ironically, it is conservative lawyers in the Bush Administration who have themselves engaged in a vile form of judicial activism. They have encourage and justified policies and practices that, once fully exposed to the light of day, will be a permanent stain on the honor and integrity of this country. This is not the first time that politicians have ignored the Constitution and engaged in illegal activities. Democratic icon Earl Warren helped imprison in concentration camps American citizens of Japanese heritage.

I am hoping that Barack Obama and his team will recoil in horror at the attack on international and constitutional law carried out by the Bush team as they finally get a look at the “books.” Issues such as FISA, habeus corpus, and Guantanamo are the tip of a very large and dirty legal iceberg. Don’t be surprised when the media turns on Obama and circulates the story that he is jeopardizing our nation’s security by insisting that we abide by the rule of law. I frankly do not know if Obama has the courage to take this issue on. What do you think?

UPDATE on November 23, 2008 * SCREENSHOTS of THREE PAGES FROM JANE MAYER’S BOOK, THE DARK SIDE:

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

More NoQuarter articles on Jane Mayer, including her critical expose’ on the producer of the hit TV series, “24,” “ “24″ is Back!!!.” MORE ARTICLES:

George Bush
Dick Cheney
George Tenet
Colin Powell
Don Rumsfeld
Paul Wolfowitz
Condi Rice

So what? The Bush Administration has pursued a variety of policies that cause most legal scholars to recoil in horror.

  • JohnnyB

    Larry: Thanks for the heads-up on Jane Mayer’s book “The Dark Side”. Many people in W’s administration should be in jail now.

    Anyone interested in this topic must read “Chain of Command, the road from 9/11 to Abu Ghraib”, by Seymour M. Hersh, published by The Penguin Group, 2004. Shocking that we knew all of this in 2004 and nothing was done throughout the balance of W’s term.

    Now is the time for a total review and prosecution of those that broke our laws and subverted our Constitution.

  • MrMike

    Am I wrong in thinking that George Bush broke the law and violated applicable U N resolutions when he oreder the invasion of Iraq? Saddam was meeting the requirements of the AUMF and the U N when we went in. Did Nancy Pelosi shirk her constitutional duty by declaring impeachment hearings off the table?

  • mountainaires

    I can barely read this stuff. It’s bad on my blood pressure. I was outraged, and incredibly alarmed, when I first heard about the Yoo/Bybee memos; and I still am. Saw a hopeful post from Glenn Greenwald regarding these issues this morning [Salon.com]. I think Greenwald is overly optimistic about any sort of justice, but I hope I’m wrong. We’ll see; only time will tell. I’ve got Mayer’s book, and when I finish the one I’m currently reading, I’ll tackle this disturbing history of treason by the Bushies, and the lack of initiative to hold them accountable by the Obama administration. It’s so outrageous, and profoundly depressing. No justice to hold war criminals accountable for their incredible destruction; worse, a continuation of those policies.

  • Ellen D

    But will Obama do anything? You could expect that anyone touted as a “constitutional scholar” and professor would fix this.
    But will he?

  • MrMike

    Don’t be surprised when the media turns on Obama and circulates the story that he is jeopardizing our nation’s security by insisting that we abide by the rule of law. I frankly do not know if Obama has the courage to take this issue on. What do you think?

    I will be surprised, if, and when, the media turns on Obama it will be for something less arcane.
    Obama will go with the consensus, not what is right.

  • Strawberry

    Nope. He has already stated he “wants to move forward”. I’m guessing some sort of backdoor deal was made. Don’t go after Bush and his minions and the republicans will not go after all the crap stuffed away in Bam Bam’s closet.

  • JRD

    Welcome to the real world. They are all in bed with each other and laugh at the dumb voters behind our backs. No change here, move on. It`s time for a new party. They are all just career politicians. What rule of law. The only law is the law to line their own pockets.

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