{"id":12712,"date":"2018-11-13T12:02:27","date_gmt":"2018-11-13T17:02:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/?p=12712"},"modified":"2018-11-13T12:02:27","modified_gmt":"2018-11-13T17:02:27","slug":"beltway-bs-on-speaking-truth-to-power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2018\/11\/13\/beltway-bs-on-speaking-truth-to-power\/","title":{"rendered":"Beltway BS on “Speaking Truth to Power”"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Future of Freedom Foundation<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Beltway Baloney on “Speaking Truth to Power”<\/h1>\n

by James Bovard<\/p>\n

Lying and piety go together in Washington like ham and eggs.<\/strong> After 9\/11, a profusion of government falsehoods on Iraq and other topics ravaged official credibility. The political class responded with an endless profusion of promises to \u201cspeak truth to power.\u201d Unfortunately, there are far more Washingtonians praising honesty than there are honest politicians.<\/strong><\/p>\n

According to Wikipedia, \u201cSpeaking truth to power is a nonviolent political tactic, employed by dissidents against the received wisdom or propaganda of governments they regard as oppressive or authoritarian.\u201d Ironically, that phrase has become one of the favorite accolades in the least trusted city in America.<\/strong><\/p>\n

When seven-term congressman and low-watt Republican functionary Porter Goss was nominated in 2004 to become CIA chief, Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) endorsed him after he promised to \u201calways speak truth to power.\u201d Fat chance: after he was confirmed, Goss speedily sent a memo to CIA employees muzzling them, declaring that their job was to \u201csupport the administration and its policies in our work.\u201d Goss bungled the CIA so badly that the Bush administration heaved him out less than two years later. Columnist Walter Shapiro observed, \u201cNormally under Bush, promoted-above-your-abilities incompetence is not a firing offense unless, of course, you drown an entire city.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSpeaking truth to power\u201d had a starring role in the 2005 Senate coronation of John Negroponte, America\u2019s first director of National Intelligence. While working as Reagan\u2019s ambassador to Honduras, Negroponte perennially denied that the Honduran regime was committing vast atrocities, despite its killing of tens of thousands of its own citizens. (Honduras was aiding the Nicaraguan Contras at the time.)<\/p>\n

Yet, when the Senate Intelligence Committee held his confirmation hearing, he was treated as if he were Diogenes waiting to carry his lamp into the White House. Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) talked about Negroponte\u2019s record breeding \u201ca tough and disciplined man with self-esteem and with the willingness to make decisions and to tell truth to power, which I think is key in all of this.\u201d Sen. Jon Corzine (D-N.J.) filibustered: \u201cIt seems to me that it is almost imperative that the director of national intelligence \u2014 what\u2019s the term? \u2014 speak truth to power or whatever the phrase is will be absolutely a requirement.\u201d Senator Mikulski also recycled the \u201cspeak truth to power\u201d bromide while kowtowing to the nominee. The Democrats on the committee approved Negroponte at the same time they permitted Republicans to thwart their investigation into whether the Bush administration deceived the nation regarding intelligence on Iraq. (Negroponte was confirmed by the full Senate in a 98-2 squeaker.)<\/p>\n

Mike McConnell, a retired admiral and prominent defense contractor, took Negroponte\u2019s place in early 2007. McConnell never wearied of proclaiming in congressional testimony and TV interviews, \u201cMy job is to speak truth to power.\u201d This claim was rarely challenged, allowing McConnell to preen to greater credibility. In reality, his job was to frighten Americans who sought the truth about government. McConnell helped frighten Congress into submission with bizarre tall-tales, as when the Bush officials falsely claimed that al-Qaeda could imminently attack Capitol Hill \u2014 coincidentally when Congress was considering legislation to expand and extend NSA wiretaps on Americans.<\/p>\n

When Michael Hayden was nominated as CIA chief in 2006, Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) vouched that Hayden would \u201cspeak truth to power.\u201d But Hayden profoundly misled Congress regarding the CIA\u2019s torture program, and his credibility was demolished in the 2014 Senate Intelligence Committee report on the enhanced-interrogation program.<\/p>\n

From 2010 to 2016, James Clapper served as director of National Intelligence. He scored a \u201cspeaks truth to power\u201d honorific when Defense Secretary Ash Carter awarded him the Distinguished Civilian Service Medal. He is much better known for his false 2013 congressional testimony denying that the National Security Agency collected data on millions of Americans. Legal experts marked the day earlier this year when the statute of limitation expired for indicting Clapper for perjury. Law professor Jonathan Turley observed, \u201cThe problem is not that the perjury statute is never enforced. Rather it is enforced against people without allies in government.\u201d<\/p>\n

The torture scandal<\/b><\/p>\n

When James Comey was nominated as FBI chief in 2013, the ACLU and Human Rights Watch protested his role providing legal buttressing for Bush-era torture. But Comey worked the media so well that people probably thought he copyrighted \u201cspeaks truth to power.\u201d But, from misrepresenting the FBI\u2019s ability to crack an Apple iPhone encryption, to falsely promising transparency after the Orlando Pulse nightclub massacre, to perpetuating often deceptive FBI interview practices, he failed to live up to his hype.<\/p>\n

The \u201cspeaks truth to power\u201d surge hit new high-water marks this spring with the nomination of Gina Haspel to be CIA chief. Haspel was notorious for her role in the Bush-era torture scandal. She was perhaps best known for sending out an order to destroy 92 videotapes of waterboarding. As an ACLU analysis noted, \u201cIn 2004, one year before the tapes\u2019 destruction, a judge ordered the CIA to \u2018produce or identify\u2019 records relating to the treatment of detainees in CIA custody. That order came as a result of a legal challenge by the ACLU. One year later, a federal judge in a separate case ordered the government to search for video or audio recordings of detainee interrogations. In clear defiance of the courts, the CIA destroyed the tapes.\u201d<\/p>\n

As acting CIA chief, Haspel had discretion to determine exactly what details from her 33-year CIA career would be disclosed to Congress. The public heard about her meeting Mother Teresa but details on her linchpin role in the torture scandal were sparse.<\/p>\n

Many of her supporters recited the \u201cspeaks truth to power\u201d accolade as if they were trained seals waiting to earn a treat. At the brief Senate Intelligence Committee hearing to confirm Haspel, Sen. Roy Blount (R-Mo.) threw Haspel a soft ball: \u201cTalk about your sense of obligation to present those facts and to speak truth to power at a moment when it matters.\u201d Haspel replied, \u201cTruth to power is one of CIA\u2019s most important missions.\u201d (She also assured senators and the television audience that \u201cmy parents gave me a very strong moral compass.\u201d) Haspel initially dodged making criticisms of the torture program but eventually conceded that \u201cthe program ultimately did damage to [CIA] officers.\u201d After the committee hearing, she sent a letter to senators assuring them, \u201cI have spent my life speaking truth to power.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shortly before the vote on her nomination, the Senate Intelligence Committee \u201crestricted access to a classified memo that Democratic staff put together, detailing Haspel\u2019s role in advocating for torture and later destroying related evidence,\u201d The Intercept<\/i> reported. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) complained of an \u201cA to Z\u201d coverup of Haspel\u2019s torture record.<\/p>\n

There was an uproar by liberal activists, libertarians, and others about the CIA\u2019s withholding of Haspel\u2019s record. That did not stop Sen. Richard Burr, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, from announcing during the Senate confirmation vote, \u201cGina has also the courage to speak truth to power, and she has demonstrated that courage time and again.\u201d Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), the ranking Democrat whose public support for Haspel clinched her confirmation, portrayed himself as an innocent victim of Haspel\u2019s stonewalling: \u201cI wish she had been more open with the American public during this process.\u201d Then he declared, \u201cMost importantly, I believe she is someone who \u2026 will speak truth to power.\u201d Perhaps Haspel will speak truth after she finishes destroying all the evidence of federal criminality.<\/p>\n

Actual truth-speakers <\/b><\/p>\n

Praising nominees\u2019 candor seeks to make Americans believe that honesty has a snowball\u2019s chance in hell inside the Beltway. But people who speak truth to power tend to end up fired, exiled, shafted, or imprisoned:<\/p>\n