Yes, We Tortured Some Folks. We Spied On Them, Too

Earlier this month, President Obama dropped an unexpected bombshell when he admitted, nonchalantly, that the United States "tortured some folks" after 9/11. 

The statement came as such a shock because up until that point no US President had even uttered the word "torture" in the post-9/11 sense, let alone acknowledged that it took place.

Similar to the internment of Japanese-Americans during WWII, the fact that America tortured our enemies during the "war on terror" has been such a hideous skeleton in our historical closet that we've collectively suppressed it from memory, vowing never to speak about it again.

But no matter how hard we try to whitewash our shameful past, we cannot escape it.

From the horrors of Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay to a laundry list of unknown CIA "black sites" in between, it's clear that America committed war crimes in the wake of September 11th.

We beat detainees. We water boarded and electrocuted them. We dragged them on leashes like dogs and laughed as we did it. We forced them to endure psychological hell; blindfolding them and stripping them of their clothes and then blasting deafening music into their ears non-stop until they went mad. We used sleep deprivation, isolation, darkness and barking dogs to send them over the edge. We subjected them to severe heat and severe cold and then hung them by their wrists and arms in "high stress" positions for hours on end.

We didn't just torture them, we humiliated them. We stole their humanity. 

The "them," in this case, are hundreds- if not thousands- of Arab men who were swept up in the "war on terror." While some were indeed guilty, many others were innocent, detained indefinitely and tortured despite the fact they had never been charged with a crime.

Obama's admission, although unexpected, was an important first step in coming to terms with the sins of our past. Not only was it a direct rebuke of the Bush-Cheney horrors of post-9/11 but, more importantly, it was an acknowledgement that America had done something wrong and we were finally owning up to our mistakes in an attempt to ensure they never happen again.

ON TO THE NEXT

While Obama deserves credit for coming clean about one aspect of our shameful past, he is also refusing to admit the truth about another.

For nearly twelve years, the United States has operated in secrecy as a de-facto 21st century surveillance state. Beginning with George W. Bush in the days after 9/11 and continuing deep into the second term of Barack Obama, the powers of government spy agencies have grown exponentially, while the rights of citizens have been trampled on in the name of security. 

The government's cause is noble: to protect Americans from terrorists who will stop at nothing to carry out attacks either on our soil or against our interests worldwide. However, in that pursuit of total security we have allowed our civil liberties to be eroded to the point where they are barely recognizable anymore, forcing us to question what kind of democracy we claim to adhere to.

Our cell-phones are tracked and they have been for years. Our emails and text-messages and social media posts are monitored and mined for information. Our meta-data is swept up in a digital dragnet without our approval, stored indefinitely in a vast, expansive database in the Nevada desert.

However, if it weren't for Edward Snowden all of this would remain unknown. The intelligence apparatus would continue to gobble up information in secret, while Americans would continue to live in blissful ignorance with no knowledge of the government invading their privacy and violating their 4th Amendment rights. 

WHO IS WATCHING THE WATCHMEN?

Much like Bush and Cheney lied to the public about WMDs, the present day Intelligence Community is lying to the public about spying. 

As the Snowden leaks have proven, the NSA has been monitoring the communications of everyday Americans for years now, never once acknowledging that it takes place or asking us for our consent.

They've lied about it too. 

Just weeks before the initial Snowden leaks surfaced, then-director of National Intelligence James Clapper lied under oath to Congress when he said the NSA did not "wittingly" collect any type of metadata from Americans, even though they most certainly were.

President Obama has also been less than truthful about spying. When the Snowden leaks were raging, he kept saying "just trust us." Even today, Obama continues to claim that the NSA does not read our emails or text messages, another talking point proven false by the Snowden leaks.

In terms of the stages of recovery, when it comes to spying our Government hasn't even progressed past the first hurdle. We are still largely in denial.

LONG ROAD AHEAD

One of the core philosophies of any democracy is the right of the people to self-correct and progress. All democracies are fluid, subject to change if the people deem it necessary. 

However, if we keep our sins in the dark and refuse to confront them, they drift into nothingness, exiting the collective consciousness like they never happened. This lets off the perpetrators of injustice scot-free and leaves those in power eternally susceptible to committing the same mistake in the future. 

When we torture, or spy, or do something morally unjust that goes against our ideals and principles, we must first acknowledge that it took place. Only then can we begin the long journey of self reflection that comes with repenting our sins and ensuring they never happen again.

Unfortunately, the path to enlightenment is long in the making. Establishment forces fight to the death to make sure the truth isn't exposed so that they can continue to operate with impunity, wielding the power they refuse to let go of.

It took a decade for a US President to admit we tortured some folks after 9/11, so it probably won't be until the year 2020 that a US President admits we spied on them, too.