Ted Galen Carpenter — The Real Problem with Gina Haspel's CIA Nomination

The German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche expressed the cautionaryadmonition: “Beware that, when fighting monsters, you yourself do not become a monster.” Too often, we have ignored that warning. Gina Haspel’s defenders assert that her behavior conformed to procedures that senior CIA officials (and presumably the Bush White House) had approved. The international community rejected the “just following orders” defense that defendants invoked at the Nuremberg trials. Haspel’s defense is no more valid or persuasive. We should not accept a female version of the Marquis de Sade to lead the CIA. A refusal to do so would be a modest, but important, first step in reclaiming America’s soul.

The foundation of liberalism is the rule of law regarding human rights and constitutional liberties. I would say that the real problem with respect to liberalism is failure to observe the rule of law, along with failure to hold those violating the law to account.

Liberalism is idealistic, whereas politics and economics are realistic. This leads to paradoxes of liberalism that affect liberal democracy.

Good article. Worth reading the whole thing.

The National Interest
The Real Problem with Gina Haspel's CIA Nomination

Ted Galen Carpenter | senior fellow in defense and foreign policy studies at the Cato Institute and a contributing editor at the National Interest

Also

A Chilean reports on women torturers under Pinochet.

Counterpunch
It’s Time the United States Accounts for Its History of Torture

Ariel Dorfman

Article originally appeared in the Los Angeles Times

Mary Dejevsky — The British Government’s response to Sergei Skripal proves we’ve learnt nothing from the Iraq War

On Iraq, the UK’s version of “the facts” was embraced by pretty much all our political establishment and many of our allies – with the honourable exception of the French, the Germans, the late Charles Kennedy and his little band of Lib Dems, and – yes, let it not be forgotten – the leader of today’s Labour opposition, Jeremy Corbyn. It was a version that proved to be disastrously wrong. Yet a combination of Tony Blair’s persuasive powers, naïve acceptance of the need for national unity, and an exaggerated sense of the UK’s importance led us down this fatal path. Those who dared to object – including the million who took to the streets – were dismissed as deluded and unpatriotic.

Tony Blair is still walking free and thumbing his nose at the world with no show of remorse over the havoc that he and G. W. Bush wreaked.

Now they want to do it again?

This is what happens when there is no accountability.

Independent (UK)
The British Government’s response to Sergei Skripal proves we’ve learnt nothing from the Iraq War

Mary Dejevsky 

Dara Lind — The real reason Trump pardoned Joe Arpaio

Both Trump and Arpaio believe that maintaining “law and order” is more important than adhering to the technicalities of actual law.

This is known as the difference between the rule of law and the rule by men. Go figure where this leads. If you came up with authority rather than liberty, you would be right.

VOX

The real reason Trump pardoned Joe Arpaio
Dara Lind

UPI
Trump pardons former Maricopa County Sheriff Arpaio

Danielle Haynes

Bill Mitchell — Neo-liberalism has compromised the concept of a citizen

This is the key failing of neoliberal capitalism, as well as any social, political and economic system based on individualism. The assumption of homo economicus as rational utility maximizer by nature is wrong. This assumption underlies the so-called "laws of economics" that are supposedly similar to the laws of (19th century) physics based on atomism. Human being are not like atoms and don't behave like atoms.

The more correct conception is homo socialis, in the Greek of Aristotle, zoon politikon, that was developed millennia ago. For Aristotle the end or goal (telos) of humans is living a good life in a good society. Then question becomes what is a good life and what is a good society, and how do they relate to each other to result in a full human life.

The rule of law and rights are fundamental to this, along with the recognition of universality along with individuality, that is, all people share the same nature as human persons even through each is unique as an individual.

Bill Mitchell – billy blog
Neo-liberalism has compromised the concept of a citizen
Bill Mitchell | Professor in Economics and Director of the Centre of Full Employment and Equity (CofFEE), at the Charles Darwin University, Northern Territory, Australia

Justin Ling — Canada considers 'preventative detention' in wake of Ottawa attack

Details of those new powers have yet to be released, but justice minister Peter MacKay indicated to reporters that they will include measures to allow the preventive detention of suspected would-be terrorists.

“We’re examining all those sections of the criminal code, and all measures under the law that will allow us, in some instances, to take pre-emptive measures,” he said.

The Guardian
Canada considers 'preventative detention' in wake of Ottawa attack
Justin Ling

Peter Radford — When is a contract a contract?

It used to be comforting to think that the saying “one rule for the rich, another for the poor” was just that: a saying. We could all pretend that America was a land of equal laws, even though we all knew deep down that rich folk can always get away with stuff we can’t.

Now, in these years of crisis, we are exposed to the ugly truth far too frequently. Big business and rich people have one set of laws. The rest of us another. In their laws a contract is inviolate. To break it you have to have extreme extenuating circumstances and/or a well paid lawyer. In our laws a contract is a suggestion. To break it you have to be a creditor who has friends amongst the elite and/or a well paid lawyer.

Real-World Economics Review Blog
When is a contract a contract?
Peter Radford

Lord Keynes — Coercion is the Basis of all Market Societies

This is a simple point, but important. All capitalist systems or systems based on markets – or indeed human society of any sort – require law and order and ultimately force and coercion to back up the law and the enforcement of the law.

Social Democracy For The 21St Century
Coercion is the Basis of all Market Societies
Lord Keynes

Jon Perr — Yoo Too, President Obama?

Back in December 2005, John Yoo was asked if any law or treaty could prevent the President of the United States from torturing someone, "including by crushing the testicles of the person's child." Yoo, then head of President Bush's Office of Legal Counsel at the Department of Justice, responded, "I think it depends on why the president thinks he needs to do that." To put it another way, the American people just have to take the President's word for it.

That's what makes the revelations in the Obama DOJ's white paper on lethal strikes targeting American members of Al Qaeda so disappointing--and so disturbing. President Obama or an unspecified "informed, high-level government official" will decide if an American citizen anywhere in the world represents an "imminent" threat to the United States, even if no evidence of a planned attack exists. With no oversight from Congress or review from the equivalent of a FISA court, the President and his team will act as judge, jury and executioner.

Crooks & Liars
Yoo Too, President Obama?
Jon Perr

Sandy Levinson — Is America Governable? The tapes

John Roland, a dedicated libertarian who runs Constitution.org and has placed many important documents of American constitutional history on the Internet. He taped all of the sessions at the conference held last week at the University of Texas Law School last week and has been kind enough to make them available to one and all. I am grateful to him for his generosity. You can find each of the eight sessions, seven panels and Larry Lessig's Friday luncheon talk below. With some trepidation, I am opening this for discussion, the trepidation coming primarily from the fact that the topics of the panels were certainly far ranging and it will be more difficult than usual to have a truly coherent discussion. Still, I hope that those of you who have the patience to work through any or all the sessions find them as interesting as they were for the participants and live audience.

If you watch nothing else, you should look at the Larry Lessig's talk at least long enough to see the astonishing card passed out to all newly-elected Democratic members of Congress relating to how they should spend their days.

Balkinization
Is America Governable? The tapes
Sandy Levinson | W. St. John Garwood and W. St. John Garwood, Jr. Centennial Chair in Law, University of Texas Law School

Randy Wray — Breaking News: OCC And Fed Endorse Bank Fraud

The US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and the US Federal Reserve agreed today that for now and forever they would not hold banks accountable for illegal activities related to stealing homes from Americans.

http://www.rianovosti.com/business/20130108/178635935/US_Foreclosure_Settlement_Angers_Wall.html

They made clear that the rule of law is no longer a rule of law in the United States.

Economonitor | Great Leap Forward
Breaking News: OCC And Fed Endorse Bank Fraud
L. Randall Wray | Professor of Economics, UMKC

Amerika

Five alleged al-Qaeda conspirators accused of aiding the 9/11 hijackers all say they were tortured for years while in CIA custody, but sitting in a military courtroom on Monday, they all heard a judge insist that “torture” is not “relevant” to their cases.

Critics of the Bush administration’s torture program have long argued that it could taint prosecutions with evidence obtained under duress, which is exactly what defense attorneys have argued on behalf of defendants....

After a brief investigation, the Obama administration took a pass on prosecuting officials over the Bush administration’s torture program. As one of his first orders of business in 2009, President Barack Obama issued an executive order banning torture techniques popularized by the Bush administration, although Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney said last year that he would return to “enhanced interrogation techniques which go beyond those that are in the military handbook right now.”

The Raw Story
U.S. military judge: ‘Torture’ is not ‘relevant’ in Guantanamo cases
Stephen C. Webster

"It couldn't happen here."

It is happening here.

And not just at Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib or Bagram.

The United States holds tens of thousands of inmates in long-term solitary confinement. Is this torture?

The New Yorker
Hellhole
Atul Gawande, March 30, 2009

Wikipedia — Torture and the United States

Washington's Blog — Breakdown of the rule of law

Economists have thoroughly documented that failure to enforce the rule of law leads to a loss of trust … which destroys economies....

Indeed – as we’ve extensively documented – the rule of law is now as weak in the U.S. and UK as many countries which we would consider “rogue nations”....

This is a sudden change. As famed Peruvian economist Hernando de Soto notes: "In a few short decades the West undercut 150 years of legal reforms that made the global economy possible."

Read it at Washington's Blog
The Main Driver of GDP Growth: A Strong Rule of Law
Washington's Blog

Bill Moyers interviews James K. Galbraith — Zero Hedge

JKG: An extraordinary concentration of wealth is an extraordinary concentration of power. Favorite Adam Smith quote (the only short sentence): "Wealth is power, as Mr. Hobbes says."

Read an excderpt and watch the videos at Zero Hedge
Bill Moyers and James K. Galbraith Talk About the Financial Crisis and John Kenneth Galbraith
Submitted by ilene

Not what you'd expect to see at Zero Hedge. Good for them.

The videos were posted at Jesse's.