I shall not tell a lie (unless I have to)

An interesting exchange between Adam Liptak of the New York Times and Andy McCarthy at the Corner:

Two other brief points should be made. First, Adam argues that the founding generation “thought secrecy in government one of the instruments of Old World tyranny and committed itself to the principle that a democracy cannot function unless the people are permitted to know what their government is up to.” That was hardly the blanket position of the Founders, particularly on matters of military consequence. George Washington himself said as the general in command of the first American forces, the “necessity of procuring good intelligence is apparent and need not be further urged… [U]pon Secrecy, Success depends in Most Enterprises…and for want of it, they are generally defeated.”

There may be some confusion of principle here.  Washington is probably (and I’m speculating) of the mind that secrecy during the prosecution of war is crucial.  But the issue in question is whether photos of prisoner abuse can be retrospectively released.

Here the concern would be that our future ability to wage effective war and procure quality intelligence would be threatened by transparency.

–Sam

Related posts:

  1. Tired of torture yet?
  2. Institutional responsibility

September 15, 2009 · Filed Under Obama, Sam, Torture

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  • Editors

    Jacob Bronsther is a law student at NYU, a former Fulbright Scholar to Mauritius, and a graduate of Cornell University. He has an MPhil in Political Theory from the University of Oxford.

  • Sam Gill is a consultant in Washington and a graduate of the University of Chicago. He studied Political Theory at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar.

  • Marc Grinberg is a Presidential Management Fellow with the U.S. government and a graduate of Princeton University. He earned an MPhil in Political Theory from the University of Oxford.

  • John Rood is the founder of Next Step Test Preparation and a graduate of Michigan State University. He has an AM in Political Theory from the University of Chicago.

  • Luke Freedman is a student at Carleton College, pursuing a double major in Philosophy and Political Science.


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