"And remember in the United States there are no secrets, only delayed disclosures."

 In his book The Black Banners: How Torture Derailed the War on Terror after 9/11, former FBI interrogator, Ali Soufan,  writes in great detail about the interrogation techniques he’d been using since he’d joined the FBI in 1997.  As a native Arabic speaker from Lebanon who’d gone to school in the US, he started tracking al Qaeda already in graduate school and was put on the anti-terrorist unit after the initial rotation period in the FBI.  He gained a lot more knowledge of al Qaeda - their members, their funding, their training techniques, their communication networks, etc. - while interrogating suspects in the USS Cole bombing in Yemen.  When he interrogated detainees he got their cooperation quickly by letting them see how much he already knew about them and that lying was useless.  He also treated them with respect.  These techniques got the US volumes of intelligence.  

But after 9/11, the CIA was given control over interviewing detainees.  The CIA had very little interrogation expertise.  That wasn’t how they got information before this, so they hired a psychology professor as a contractor who introduced what came to be known as Enhanced Interrogation Techniques (EIT).  Coercive techniques and torture.  A few times Soufan got to interrogate detainees after 9/11 and was able to get useful information, but the high-value detainees were reserved for the CIA interrogators.  They basically got compliance, not cooperation.  Detainees told the CIA what they wanted to hear.  Often lies that fit the CIA narrative.  Not  useful information.  There were attempts by the FBI and inside the CIA and the military to block the EIT program, but it was supported in the White House.

Soufan writes:

“Mark Fallon, a New Jersey native from a family of law enforcement officials, found himself in a position he had warned his staff members about during their orientation. ‘Even if I give you an illegal order,’ he told them, ‘you can’t follow it.  You are bound by the Constitution.  Remember that at Nuremberg we prosecuted Nazis who claimed just to be following orders.  And remember in the United States there are no secrets, only delayed disclosures.  One day, whether one year away or ten years away, people will be looking at what we did, so make sure you act with the utmost integrity.’”

In the book, Soufan argues persuasively, backed up by Senate reports,  that the insistence on EIT to interrogate al Qaeda meant that the kind of intelligence the FBI interrogators had been collecting was lost and attacks that could have been foiled were not foiled, and finding Bin Laden was delayed by years.  

I think this same lesson applies to Senate Republicans. Their refusal to keep Trump accountable allows him to continue to damage our government, our position in the world, and is endangering our democracy by eroding trust in government.  

I cannot comprehend their reasons for  staying silent in the face of Donald Trump’s attempts to overturn the election and to defy the advice of scientists on COVID.  

But I do know that like the decision to supplant traditional interrogation techniques with EIT, the Senate’s refusal to do its Constitutional duty to be a check on the presidency is tearing this country apart.  Allowing President Trump to do further damage to our government and our country in the final 60 days will cause unnecessary additional harm.  

Early on I proposed a statue to honor the first six Republican Senators willing to join the Democrats to force Trump to follow the law and the Constitution.  But despite separating immigrant  children, infants even, from their parents; despite encouraging white supremacists, despite the lies and lack of any kind of plan on COVID, and now despite Trump's attempt to overthrow the election, there still aren't six Republican Senators with courage and integrity.  

Even Trump underestimated what he could get away with.  He just said he could could shoot somebody on 5th Avenue and not lose his supporters.  At least 150,000 to 200,000 Americans are dead because of Trump's lies and inaction on COVID 19.  Those deaths belong to the Republican Senators too, who did not perform their constitutional duty to be a check on the presidency.  

I repeat Mark Fallon’s words:

And remember in the United States there are no secrets, only delayed disclosures.  One day, whether one year away or ten years away, people will be looking at what we did, so make sure you act with the utmost integrity.’”

The children and grandchildren of the Republican Senators will one day  know that their once powerful parents and grandparents  did not show integrity or courage in one of America’s darkest periods.