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Power of Attorney: Can Progressive Prosecutors Achieve Meaningful Criminal Justice Reform?
Can progressive prosecutors achieve meaningful criminal justice reform? Returning guest reporter Andrew Cockburn addresses this question in his recent article in Harper’s magazine titled Power of Attorney.
Attorney Dave Clegg, running for the office of prosecutor in Ulster County, has written that prosecutors are the most powerful elected officials people probably know the least about. They are the gatekeepers to the criminal justice system. People don’t realize how the DAs decisions impact people facing the criminal justice system and the long-term consequences suffered by their families and communities.
A DA serves with broad discretion and little oversight. For decades harsh decisions by “tough on crime“ DAs have made the USA the world leader in over-incarceration. Most District Attorney races go unchallenged and DAs can remain entrenched in power for decades. DAs have been active roadblocks to justice reform efforts, transparency, and change.
Hopeful prosecutors with good ideas have been running in cities across the country. What reforms are they advocating? What kind of resistance are they coming up against? The Daily Appeal
Guest – Andrew Cockburn, the Washington editor of Harper’s magazine discusses the appearance of progressives running for prosecutors in cities as diverse as San Francisco California, Philadelphia Pennsylvania, Baltimore Maryland, Queens New York, and Ulster county New York.
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The CIA as Organized Crime: How Illegal Operations Corrupt America and the World
In 1947 Congress passed the National Security Act which led to formation of the National Security Council and, under its direction, the CIA. Its original mandate was to collect and analyze strategic information for use in war. Though shrouded in secrecy, some CIA activities—such as covert military and cybersecurity operations—have drawn public scrutiny and criticism.
In 1948 the Security Council approved a secret directive, NSC 10/2, authorizing the CIA to carry out an array of covert operations. This essentially allowed the CIA to become a paramilitary organization. Before he died, George F. Kennan, the diplomat and Cold War strategist who sponsored the directive said that “in light of latter history, it was the greatest mistake I ever made.”
Since NSC 10/2 authorized violation of international law it also established an official policy of lying so as to cover up the lawbreaking.
Guest – Douglas Valentine, author of The CIA as Organized Crime: How Illegal Operations Corrupt America and the World. Mr. Valentine’s rare access to CIA officials has resulted in portions of his research materials being archived at the National Security Archive, Texas Tech University’s Vietnam Center and John Jay College. He has written three books on CIA operations, including The Phoenix Program which documented the CIA’s elaborate system of population surveillance, control, entrapment, imprisonment, torture and assassination in Vietnam. His new book describes how many of these practices remain operational today.
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