Saturday, October 23, 2010

Laundry List, Part I: The UN and Obama

Wow. I committed to writing about quite a few things earlier. This is the sort of thing that happens when I'm feeling pressed for time. I assume that I'll have forever to get to them later. I will write about all of these, just give me a minute.

To recap, a List of Things I Promised to Write About:
  • British/French differences concerning austerity measures
  • Angry, drunk witches
  • Ethical investing
  • Shiny new robots that are going to take your job and kill you
  • UN calls on Obama to investigate torture following Wikileaks dump
  • Marriage as an institutionalized incentive to gold-digging
That's quite a list there. It was a surprisingly busy Saturday on the interwebs.

I'm going to start with what I think will be the easiest: UN Calls on Obama to Investigate Torture Following Wikileaks Dump.

I noted previously that I have some pretty serious issues with Wikileaks. Issues that I'm struggling with personally. To sum up, I feel that it's completely inappropriate to modify a source in any way. Wikileaks crossed that line with its "Collateral Murder" post by taking video and inserting helpful hints namely by throwing a big line of text saying "Collateral Murder" across the footage.

Please note that I would provide the video in question or at the very least a link to it but I'm having strange issues with my Youtube account. I urge you to go there yourself and search "Collateral Murder" on your own and make your own decisions regarding it.

The question that I ask myself is "In what way is what I do different? Have I ever offered up a link devoid of editorial content?" Clearly the answer is a resounding 'no'. The difference I think is that I offer up a link. People have the tools to look at it, within its own context and make their own decisions. I in no way alter the information itself, rather by addition or subtraction. I would never edit something and then slather something as incendiary as "Murder" across it. Mostly because I don't think that I have to. I think that events speak for themselves and people will come to reasonable conclusions most of the time.

I'm moving pretty far off of the original point that I wanted to make. But this was something that has been preying on me today so I wanted to revisit it.

The point I intended to write about initially is this: "What will the Administrations response be to a call from the UN to investigate torture and other war crimes following the Wikileaks dump?"

The short answer based on behavior so far: Nothing. At. All.

At this point, the administration has dug itself a deep, deep legal hole. It has used the States Secrets Doctrine (first popularized by Bush the Younger), to protect the following:
  • The warrantless wiretapping of American citizens.
  • The warrantless detention of an American citizen on American soil, during which time he was allegedly held naked and shackled hand to foot.
  • The assassination of an American citizen removed from any battlefield, and significant to this particular case...
  • The complete unaccountability of anyone involved in torture during the Bush years.
I see no reason why the Administration would change any of that just because the UN is asking them to. Everything released by the Wikileaks dump would clearly fall under the States Secrets Doctrine. Essentially, they would insist that none of it happened. Because it was secret. And even if it did happen and even if you saw it happen or had it happen to you, there's nothing you can do about it because it didn't happen. Because it's secret.

Were the Obama Administration to launch an investigation based on the Wikileaks dump, it would have to admit that publicly available information regarding not-so-secret top secret activities were in fact not liable to the States Secret Doctrine. They would have to accept that they had to be acknowledged not only behind closed doors but in courtrooms as well.

So I don't see the Obama folding in the face of international censure anymore than Bush II did. Granted, W started this mess but Obama has been more than willing to tidy it up. And that is profoundly disappointing.

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