My letter to the CIA

Central Intelligence Agency
Office of Public Affairs
Washington, D.C. 20505

Gentlepeople:

The nightly news tonight reports that former Vice-President Dick Cheney has requested that you, the CIA, declassify & release documents attesting to torture’s efficacy.

I am writing you in the same capacity as former VP Cheney: I am a citizen of the United States.

For once, I am in agreement with Mr. Cheney: yes, please declassify & release these documents.
ALL of them.
Please, declassify and release any and all documents related to “enhanced interrogation”, domestic surveillance, “extraordinary rendition”, and any and all other programs undertaken under the general rubric, “The Global War on Terror”.
Now. Today.

The Declaration of Independence asserts that,

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed..."

I note that in modern legal parlance, “consent” implies “informed consent”.
A government that hides behind the cloak of “state secrets” cannot claim to derive its just power from the consent of the governed!

I note that there is a name for a government that asserts unlimited executive authority to spy on and detain its own citizens: Police State!

I'll mail it tomorrow.