Another libertarian for civil liberties
by digby
First we had the controversial filibuster of mostly libertarians and right wingers railing against Obama’s covert war policies. Then the left joined in. Everyone Here’s one that might actually surprise you:
From Attorney General Eric Holder’s testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee last week, we learned that the Obama administration is “struggling” with how to provide more information on its so-called targeted killing program; that senior officials have “talked about a greater need for transparency” about the program; and that we “will hear the president speak about this” in the future. After a limited document review by the Senate intelligence committee; a spirited 13-hour filibuster led by Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.); and a last-minute admission by Holder that the president does not have the authority to use drones to kill a U.S. citizen on American soil who is not engaged in combat, the White House is still bobbing and weaving on whether to share with Congress the legal opinions and memorandums governing targeted killing, which include the legal justification for killing U.S. citizens without trial.
The Obama administration is wrong to withhold these documents from Congress and the American people. I say this as a former White House chief of staff who understands the instinct to keep sensitive information secret and out of public view. It is beyond dispute that some information must be closely held to protect national security and to engage in effective diplomacy, and that unauthorized disclosure can be extraordinarily harmful. But protecting technical means, human sources, operational details and intelligence methods cannot be an excuse for creating secret law to guide our institutions.
That’s the centrist (or pragmatic progressive or whatever the hell he calls himself) John Podesta.
I don’t know what his game is, but I don’t care. Maybe his friend the president wants to be seen as being “forced” to do this for some reason. It doesn’t matter. People from every point on the political spectrum want this information released for whatever reasons and it should be released. Just proclaiming that you’re not as bad as Dick Cheney isn’t really enough.
.