Accountability

These guys did some very very bad things.

The interrogation methods, meanwhile, were brutal — the report includes graphic details of "near drownings," beatings, and week-long sleep deprivation sessions that sometimes continued after prisoners had begun to hallucinate. Confusion and poor record-keeping kept CIA oversight and leadership in the dark about the program's operations, and staff with "no relevant experience" were put in charge of sites. In 2002, a detainee died of suspected hypothermia while "partially nude and chained to a concrete floor;" later, CIA leaders admitted they had "little or no awareness of operations" at the site in question. The CIA downplayed the harshness of "enhanced interrogations" and dodged investigations by the White House and Congress, withholding information from top officials. According to one email, it did not initially brief then-Secretary of State Colin Powell on the program details, because the White House was concerned he would "blow his stack," and it refused to say where its detention facilities were located or where it was negotiating to build new ones, in two cases telling local officials not to talk to US ambassadors about the negotiations.

But, you know, it's never a good time to "look backward." 

President Obama banned enhanced interrogation after taking office in 2009, but he was leery of prosecuting anyone involved in it during the Bush administration, saying that "we need to look forward as opposed to looking backwards." Years earlier, a CIA officer had also decided to destroy interrogation tapes that allegedly showed waterboarding; in 2010, the Justice Department completed an investigation of that incident and decided not to file charges. The Senate's reporting, however, grew out of a 2007 probe on the tapes' destruction. 

It's so bad, in fact, that the ACLU is recommending that the closest thing we can expect to accountability in this case would be if President Obama were to issue pardons. 

Today the Senate Intelligence Committee will release its report on torture during the Bush years, and we will all be reminded of what we allowed to be done in our name. With that event as a backdrop, Anthony Romero, the executive director of the ACLU, has written to President Obama, asking him to grant pardons to the torturers as a means of telling the world, and enshrining in history, the American ideal that torture is something we do not do.

I don't know about that but it does sound like President Obama would have fit in pretty well on that Eric Garner grand jury. 

According to a recent interview with the NY Daily News, at least two key eyewitnesses in the July 17 choking death of Staten Island resident Eric Garner at the hands of police described a very troubling environment when they were each interviewed by the grand jury for NYPD Officer Daniel Pantaleo.

While it's generally assumed that the grand jury in such a case would have taken its job with the the utmost seriousness, Ramsey Orta, 22, who filmed the tragic homicide, and Rodney Lee, 37, who manages the beauty store Eric Garner was killed in front of, painted a picture of an often condescending and generally uninterested collection of people who seemed to have little interest in indicting Officer Daniel Pantaleo.

Meanwhile, Saints receiver Joe Morgan did some very very bad things. He was held accountable.

Though the specific reason for Morgan's release is unclear, the fourth-year backup has clearly been in the doghouse this season. He was suspended by the team for two games earlier this year for an undisclosed reason. And even when on the active roster, he has been used sparingly.

Then this past Sunday, it appeared that both Payton and quarterback Drew Brees corrected Morgan for assignment errors. At one point, Payton chased down Morgan on the sideline to yell something to him. At another point, cameras caught Brees appearing to suggest that Morgan should have come back to the ball on a deep route.

So, there you go.  Justice.