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Tariffs are a good example of the fact-free abandon of today’s Republican Party.

CASEYVILLE — The Caseyville Police Department announced today that its annual Charity Poker Tournament successfully raised $16,000 for The BackStoppers Inc., a nonprofit organization that provides financial assistance to families of fallen first responders. The event, held over the weekend, was supported by a variety of local sponsors and participants. "We could not have accomplished this without the support of the sponsors and players of this event," the Caseyville Police Department stated. This year's sponsors included Morrison Plumbing, Heating, Air & Electrical, AAIC Inc., Anheuser-Busch, Budweiser Guns 'N Hoses, and many more. The tournament, which has been held for four consecutive years, aims to support The BackStoppers Inc. through community engagement and contributions. "We are really proud of this number and hope to continue to grow this event for years to come," the statement continued. The local businesses tha

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A man accused in a deadly marijuana deal in St. Louis County was arrested Tuesday in Kansas after more than a year on the run.

The Planetary Democrats, a European legal association, wants to create a global parliament that would represent the interests of the nonhuman world.

Layers is a collection of tissue collages by Alex Paradowski that utilizes the translucent nature of tissue to form abstract images. Depth, movement, and degrees of opacity are achieved by […]

The post Layers by Alex Paradowski appeared first on Explore St. Louis.

A History of Racism is a series of various types of artworks that illustrate the history of racism in the United States. Some of the artworks in this series are […]

The post A History of Racism by Michael Faris appeared first on Explore St. Louis.

Running from April 11, 2024, to Jan. 12, 2025 at the World Chess Hall of Fame, Clash for the Crown explores the histories of the World Chess Championship and the […]

The post Clash for the Crown: Celebrating Chess Champions appeared first on Explore St. Louis.

Japanese people have used silk to create items of clothing and decorative works of art for hundreds of years, ever since the cultivation of silkworms was introduced to Japan from […]

The post Shimmering Silks: Traditional Japanese Textiles appeared first on Explore St. Louis.

Senate Select Committee on Intelligence’s Report of the Central Intelligence Agency’s Detention and Interrogation Program

Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (screenshot)

The U.S. keeps too many secrets about its actions in the aftermath of 9/11. There’s no better example of this than the CIA’s torture program, which can trace its beginnings to a still-classified September 2001 memorandum of notification signed by President George W. Bush. This memo granted the agency “unprecedented authorities” to capture and detain suspected terrorists.

The outgoing Biden administration should commemorate the 23rd anniversary of the terrorist attacks by ordering the declassification of the Senate’s report on the CIA’s torture program. A fitting date for the declassification to be completed is Sept. 11, 2026 — the 25th anniversary of the attacks. This would not only help the public hold the government accountable for abhorrent human rights violations but would counter overwhelming evidence that the CIA has become too powerful for oversight.

The CIA knowingly destroys torture evidence

The late Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., initiated what would become the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence’s Torture Report — arguably the most consequential congressional report ever compiled — after word emerged that the CIA had destroyed key evidence of its torture program.

The initial Senate investigation began in 2007, after Feinstein and her committee received a briefing from then-CIA Director Michael Hayden. The briefing concerned a 2005 order by CIA official Jose Rodriguez, who ran the agency’s torture program, to destroy 92 videos of agency officials waterboarding Abu Zubaydah. Rodriguez ordered the destruction of the evidence even after he and his then-chief of staff “repeatedly sought permission to have the tapes destroyed but were denied.” (His chief of staff at the time was Gina Haspel, who went on to run the agency despite her own concerning record on torture.)

Rodriguez later justified his behavior, saying that “the heat (from destroying the videos) is nothing compared to what it would be if the tapes ever got into the public domain.”

The Department of Justice investigated the destruction of the videotapes at least twice, but no charges were ever brought.

Congress tries to document abuse

The Senate Intelligence Committee voted to broaden its investigation beyond the videotape destruction in 2009, with Senate staff ultimately reviewing over 6 million pages of records across five years and producing the 6,700-page report.

This mammoth achievement was accomplished in spite of the CIA 1) misleading Congress and the White House about the program, 2) pushing misleading narratives about the torture program to the media, and 3) spying on Senate staff who were attempting to conduct oversight of the program. (After first denying it even happened, former CIA director John Brennan eventually apologized for the spying, but the agency and responsible officials faced no meaningful disciplinary measures).

The Senate Intelligence Committee shared the report with several federal agencies and the Obama White House with the eventual hope that it would be public. But a byzantine — and ultimately ineffective — effort to have the report declared a federal record subject to the Freedom of Information Act and eventually disclosed to the public failed under President Obama’s watch.

Litigation brought by members of the public has also proved unsuccessful. As recently as this summer, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia upheld the classification of the full report as a legislative branch record exempt from disclosure by the Constitution’s speech or debate clause.

The final report is still secret, but the conclusions from the 500-page, highly redacted executive summary are so damning they demand further disclosure. The findings include:

• The CIA’s own officers found torture to be ineffective and the agency failed to adequately evaluate its techniques.
• The CIA lied to lawmakers about the brutality of its program and the conditions of detainees’ confinement.
• The Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel did not independently verify or conduct independent analysis of the CIA’s claims.
• The CIA’s management of the torture program hindered other national security missions.
• The CIA’s torture program damaged the United States’ global standing.

Is the CIA too powerful for oversight?

Additional bits of information about the torture program have come to light through Freedom of Information Act lawsuits. These revelations include:

• Photos of torture and abuse at Abu Ghraib prison.
• Detainee transcripts of torture.
• Information on conditions that led to the death of detainee Gul Rahman at a CIA black-site prison in 2002.
• Torture cables that were either authored or authorized by Haspel.

These piecemeal disclosures are not enough.

For the public to effectively self-govern, it must be able to engage in meaningful public debate about U.S. actions. It cannot do so if agencies like the CIA are allowed to flout congressional oversight and willfully destroy important documentary evidence with no meaningful consequence.

President Biden has the opportunity to make a difference. He should do what President Obama did not, and mandate the declassification of the torture report. In so doing, he could help show the CIA is not more powerful than Congress, the White House, or the best interest of the public.

***

More resources

Researchers and journalists should visit the following for reputable information on torture:

• The Rendition Project
• The National Security Archive’s Torture Archive
• The ACLU’s torture court cases website
• Carol Rosenberg’s reporting on Guantanamo Bay for both The New York Times and the Miami Herald

On This Day, Sept. 11, 1982…John Mellencamp, then known as John Cougar, had the #1 album in the country, with his fifth studio album American Fool. It was his first…

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JERSEYVILLE - The security presence at Jersey 100 schools has increased this morning following reports of social media messages concerning threats of school shootings in Missouri. The Jersey County Sheriff’s Office announced the details of a concerning “trend” in a public service announcement released Tuesday night. “Earlier this evening, the Jersey County Sheriff's Office (JCSO) received information from concerned parents about messages that were circulating on social media (to include Snapchat) among students in our school district,” the Sheriff’s Office announced. “The messages involved threats of school shootings at certain Missouri schools. The JCSO interviewed several students, who indicated that they began receiving those messages the day prior, September 9.” Most of the students interviewed confirmed they had seen a list which only contained schools in Missouri - while one student claimed to have heard a rumor of a list

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The Work of Art: The Federal Art Project, 1935–1943 presents a remarkable group of artworks that reflect the creative efforts of artists working under difficult circumstances. During the Great Depression, […]

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Dallas-based artist Tamara Johnson is known for her witty, hypernaturalistic sculptures depicting ubiquitous household objects, from colanders, hair clips and garden hoses to an array of buffet treats, brought together […]

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Reporters Robert Townsend and Laura Barczewski will anchor weekends, and report during the week.

Moments when you are no longer able to speak for yourself can spur confusion among a spouse, siblings, and children about who has the final say. These can help.

On this day, September 11, 2024, we look back on significant events that have shaped our history. The most impactful event of this date stands out prominently: the September 11 attacks in 2001, a series of coordinated terrorist attacks carried out by the extremist group al-Qaeda, which had a profound impact on the world. On September 11, 2001, four commercial airplanes were hijacked. Two of these planes were flown into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, leading to their collapse. A third plane hit the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, while the fourth plane, United Airlines Flight 93, crashed into a field in Pennsylvania after passengers attempted to overcome the hijackers. The attacks resulted in nearly 3,000 deaths and significant global repercussions, including the launch of the War on Terror and the invasion of Afghanistan. While the September 11 attacks dominate the historical significance of this date, there are other notable events spanning various categorie

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