The Misdirection = Always watch the unseen hand!!

[L. Coyote]

The Misdirection
Scott Horton - http://harpers.org/archive/2008/07/hbc-90003281

Last week the House Judiciary Committee conducted two further hearings into the formulation of Bush Administration torture policy. In the second, John Ashcroft was questioned and some significant progress was made. Ashcroft acknowledged that the White House had effectively co-opted the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC), and that its opinions were no longer being issued at arm’s length. While reiterating some absurd fantasies about torture (starting with the indefensible proposition that waterboarding has always been fine), he stated that it was “not hard” to rescind the original torture memorandum because it was a shoddy product.

Ashcroft failed to present a comprehensive account of the origins of the torture memo but, as Salon’s Mark Benjamin quickly noted, he did undermine the narrative that Michael Mukasey, John Yoo and others have used to support the OLC memos—namely that they were a good-faith effort to answer legal questions. In fact, as we are likely to learn in greater detail soon, many of the torture techniques encompassed in the Bush Administration’s “Program” were in active use before the first OLC memo was sought. These memos were not prepared to dispense advice because the green light was already lit. Rather, they were made to order after the fact, to furnish a “golden shield” against criminal prosecution. As Jane Mayer recently demonstrated, the “Torture Team” members were focused on their criminal culpability almost from the outset.

However, the hearings have been undermined by a careful campaign that merits some examination.

Professional magicians and confidence artists share a few professional techniques, and one of them is known as “the misdirection.” At a key moment when a stunt is being pulled off, the artist will arrange a diversion to insure that the viewing public’s attention is focused elsewhere. The trick can then be pulled off with minimal risk of discovery. Watching Republican witnesses and committee members perform in Congressional committees in the past few weeks, it pays to be conscious of this practice. In an effort to avert attention from White House practices—especially its torture and surveillance policies–Bush Administration friends and emissaries on the Hill focus on carefully prepared and coordinated diversions. Their objective is plain enough: run out the clock, confuse the audience which is trying to follow a complex series of facts and figure out what this is all about, and help keep the public in the dark about what went on.

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[MichiganVote]

1. Oh but they can't recall or remember anything. That's what we do...

pay dirty morons like this to lie to us in public about their own misdeeds.

Disgusting.

[L. Coyote]

2. Rep. Darrell Issa tops the list of stooges doing Bush's bidding.

Again and again at oversight hearings he has read from the Junta script.
Issa also has been involved in the obstruction of justice and is a likely criminal target.
Issa passed false information about Carol Lam to the press, to lay down some lies as cover for her firing.
And he repeated the same lies at the oversight hearings, as if he had not been caught in his lie.