Accountability?

The voters now get to say what happens next. Congress is now in recess until after the midterm elections on November 7. And Senators and Members up for reelection bear accountability for what they have done or failed to do while in Congress. The Financial Times' Holly Yeager wrote a good summary of the situation, published on 9/29, from which I'll quote briefly:

Republican leaders in Congress gave a final push on Friday for last-minute accomplishments, hoping that action on military spending, a fence along the US-Mexico border and other security measures would give them a boost . . .
The focus on national security does not come as a surprise to Democrats. But while Republicans have tried to paint their rivals as weak on defense, the party has shown new confidence on the topic in recent days.
A majority of Democrats in both chambers voted this week against legislation that sets out new rules for the treatment of terrorism suspects, arguing that the legislation neglected basic rights, permitted torture and weakened America's standing in the world.
. . . Opinion polls show Democrats have a strong chance of capturing the 15 seats they need to take control of the House, and, perhaps, the five more they need to control the Senate as well. Voters continue to list the war in Iraq as a top concern, explaining Republican attempts to talk about the unpopular conflict in the broader context of the "war on terror."

Detainee treatment bill is the worst yet - Watching these crucial debates and party-line votes in the House and Senate was very painful. The differences are clear. Republicans focus on what they term simplistically as "getting the bad guys." The Democrats focused on what is much more a core American value, "getting the right bad guys, and protecting those who are not bad guys." The contest was stark and the eventual outcome was extremely disappointing. The lawmakers will, no doubt, be held accountable in the courts because the legislation is so clearly unconstitutional. But then it will be very late for those rotting in the secret prisons I feel will be re-instituted by the CIA.

More details about the detainee legislation are available in the following two stories.

1. New York Times Detainee bill "shifts power to the President" says this 9/30 Scott Shane & Adam Liptak.
2. Financial Times analysis of the Senate bill reveals details that critics say "threaten the country's moral authority," according to this 9/28 story.

Blogosphere response - One of my favorite bloggers, fierce "betmo" posted a very thorough expose on the detainee treatment bill titled "Absolutely Disgusted." My sentiments, exactly!

Democrats opposed the bill for several reasons, but one of the primary objections centered around its failure to provide for the protection of innocent detainees. The probabilityity of the innocent being wrongly detained with no recourse is not a remote academic question. The Financial Times carried a report on Pakistan's so-called "bounty market." The 9/28 story by Tom Burgiss details possible instances of people being wrongly detained because someone turned them in, merely to collect the $5000+ bounties. Quoting from the article,

Bounties offered by the US for suspected terrorists have created a black market in abductions in Pakistan, according to a report published on Wednesday.
People have been seized by Pakistani police, border guards and bounty hunters eager to claim rewards offered for suspected terrorists, evidence compiled by human rights organisation Amnesty International shows.
Many were handed to Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence, which in turn passed at least 369 detainees to American operatives, writes Pakistan's president, Pervez Musharraf, in his book In the Line of Fire, also published this week. Amnesty's report says people abducted in Pakistan account for about two-thirds of the 759 past or present inmates at Camp X-Ray, the US military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. The report on Pakistan: human rights ignored in the "war on terror" found "hundreds of people have been arbitrarily detained."

Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense cannot been held accountable by the voters, unfortunately. He is the one who will have primary responsibility for implementation of the new detainee law after it signed by (OCP) our current president. Seemingly oblivious to everyone, the man is like "the energizer bunny." He just keeps on keeping on, despite numerous calls for his resignation. As long as OCP is happy that is all that counts. Frank Cesno, CNN interviewer, wrote a summary of his recent talk with Rumsfeld. To quote,

Outside, they're calling for his head. Politicians, authors and columnists, and a few former generals. They are an angry, noisy bunch. They say he should have quit or been fired long ago. They say he's to blame for what is happening now in Iraq, didn't listen, and must be held to account.
The man they're talking about, of course, is Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, a living, breathing lightning rod for criticism and frustration over the war in Iraq.
. . . But the 74-year-old Rumsfeld -- who is just three months away from becoming the longest-serving secretary of defense in U.S. history -- isn't paying attention to the clamor. For him, the criticism outside is like noise from the highway, annoying but something you get used to.

Tags: Bush iraq islam security terrorism war articles current affairs news politics.

My "creative post" today at Southwest Blogger is about the return from ISS Space of Soyuz travelers Ansari, Vinogradov and Williams.