American Inspector General process is broken
The problem we have with the issues of war crimes, the Geneva Conventions, and the Downing Street memo is that the very investigators we "rely on" to gather facts, are also linked with those who have engaged in the misconduct.
IG offices have been under surveillance because, among many things, their document destruction; and with tampering with evidence in advance of "no notice" visits by HQ.
In theory, the IG does have independent oversight. In practice, the IG system has been compromised. DoD/DoJ criminal investigators assigned to the DoD IG have friends who were the ones who are involved: War crimes, torture, GITMO, and Abu Ghraib.
Right now the DoD/DoJ IGs both have a credibility problem: They knew about this in 2002, but DoD is acting as if this is news in 2005. [More on the NAVY IG link to DOJ ]
The crossflow of personnel is through JTTF, CIFA, and the Ft. Huachuca interrogator school. They fall under OSD. That's why its important to find out what DoD had "removed from the FOIA request" -- so we can connect the dots. [More on what to look for.]
In other words, alot of people, even in the IG offices and Congress, have really screwed up. Because "something broke in the IG-Congressional oversight" system that contributed to the WMD-torture-war crimes problem. It relates to checks and balances, and what's not working with it. [More . . . ]
Unanswered questions in 2005 are signs of a major problem
It's important to remind the RNC that the reason there are "new questions," is because of the Downing Street Memo. Once we have the facts, then we can put together a plan of "what to do." [More . . . ]
If the oversight system by Congress and the IG was functionable, we would have a responsive government and straight answers flowing into the debates prior to the war. Right now, we still have more questions three years after the Downing Street Memo was written.
This is not a credible system of Checks and balances. The big story about Cindy Sheehan is that she's saying publicly what the government has known internally for years, and what has prompted whistleblowers to go public. The only option the government has is to spin up the smear machine; and there are plenty of lapdogs willing to oblige.
Also, government information has been classified, not for national security reasons, but to suppress the information which the Congress and the public need to make some informed decisions.
There may be some delays from DoJ IG because of conflicts within DoJ CIFA/JTTF and the investigators going easy on their counterparts in DoD. These are war crimes, and DoD/DoJ IGs have both failed to timely investigate and get this resolved. They have a problem, and they now know that we know.
CIA IG, NSA IG, DoD IG, and DoJ IG are all in this boat together: And the Downing Street Memo shows that they've all either been sitting on their rear end doing nothing; or they knew, but failed to act as they are statutorily required.
In turn, once the photos from GITMO get released, the public is going to have a new round of excuses, diversions from the IGs to explain away, "Where were you" and "what happened." JCS documents show the IGs were well aware, have not resigned, and Congress has not been kept up to date as required by the statute.
This is Nuremburg-type stuff and the IGs are part of the problem, not the solution. The next round of questions, which the IGs can't answer is, "Why didn't you [the IG] tell us [Congress] about this when you first knew about; or did you fail to timely report something for a reason that is related to malfeasance [failure to do something that should have been done: Timely report allegations of war crimes, torture, rendition]?"
No matter how you look at it, what we have [by way of current events, status, and the way the country is working] is at odds with [a] how the Constitutional system of checks and balances and [b] the "lessons learned" from the Magna Carta should leave us. There's a big gap between what "should be happening" and what is going on.
The simple answer: Simply look at the statutes; what is written is getting ignored. And the IG system is so corrupt, that they don't know how far off the mark they are, nor how involved their own investigators are in the corruption.
Keep the big picture in mind: The Constitution still exists as a viable document; there are just a lot of scrawny rats trying to get their piece of the rice bowl. Many of them will compromise their integrity in order to get their share.
They made a poor choice.
It may seem like a big job, but things are starting to get better airing, thanks to Congressman Conyers. A full inquiry into the matters would help chart a way forward: How do we strengthen the constitution; and ensure leadership makes decisions/issues information to Congress based on facts--the idea/objective behind free flow of information, open debate, and democracy--something we're "supposedly fighting for in Iraq."
Self-evidently, in light of the Downing Street Memo and lack of information from the White House and IG's, what we say we're fighting for and what is actually going on are two completely different things. Not to worry, not everyone has lost their mind.
If you're trying to figure out what to do, read this list: We need to find out what DoD is hiding.
Note to Larissa, RawStory:
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