*1. Thou shalt not torture:* Torture of every horrific sort in these years seems to have beenremarkably ineffective <http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/cia-torture-report/senate-report-finds-cia-interrogation-tactics-were-ineffective-n264621> in producing useful information for the state. Even if it were provedeffective <http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/22/opinion/sunday/did-the-torture-report-give-the-cia-a-bum-rap.html> in breaking up al-Qaeda plots, however, it would still have been both a desperately illegal (if unpunished <http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/31/us/holder-rules-out-prosecutions-in-cia-interrogations.html>) act and a foreign policy disaster of the first order.
*2. Thou shalt not send drones to assassinate anyone, American or not:* The ongoing U.S. drone assassination campaigns <http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175936/tomgram%3A_engelhardt,_the_national_security_state_%22works,%22_even_if_nothing_it_does_works/>, while killing individual terrorists, have driven significant numbers of people in the backlands of the planet into the arms of terror outfits and so only increased their size and appeal. Without a doubt, such drone strikes represent a global war of, not on, terror. In the process, they have turned the president into our assassin-in-chief <http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175551/> and us into an assassin nation. *3. Thou shalt not invade another country:* D'oh! *4. Thou shalt not occupy another country:* By the way, how did that work out the last two times the U.S. tried it? *5. Thou shalt not upgrade thy nuclear arsenal:* The U.S. has now committed itself to atrillion-dollar <http://thediplomat.com/2014/01/us-to-spend-1-trillion-on-nukes/>, decades-long upgrade of its vast arsenal. If any significant portion of it were ever used, it would end human life as we know it on this planet and so should be considered a singular prospective crime against humanity. After years in which the only American nuclear focus was on a country -- Iran -- with no nuclear weapons, that this has happened without serious debate <http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175933/tomgram%3A_james_carroll,_the_pentagon_as_president_obama%27s_great_white_whale/> or discussion is in itself criminal. *6.* *Thou shalt not intercept the communications of thy citizens or others all over the world or pursue the elaboration of a global surveillance state based on criminal acts*: There seems to be no place <https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/02/19/great-sim-heist/> the NSA has been unwilling to break into in order to surveil the planet. For unimaginable reams <http://www.wired.com/2012/03/ff_nsadatacenter/all/> of information that have seemingly been of next to no <http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175901/tomgram%3A_engelhardt,_entering_the_intelligence_labyrinth/> actual use, the NSA and the national security state have essentially outlawed privacy and cracked open various amendments to the Constitution. No information is worth such a price. *7. Thou shalt not be free of punishment for crimes of state:* In these years of genuine criminality, official Washington has become a crime-free zone <http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175833/tomgram%3A_engelhardt,_knowledge_is_crime/>. No matter the seriousness of the act, none -- not one committed in the name of the state in the post-9/11 era, no matter how heinous -- has been brought into a courtroom. *8. Thou shalt not use a massive system of secret classification to deprive Americans of all real knowledge of acts of state:* In 2011, the U.S. classified 92 million documents <http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175570/tomgram%3A_engelhardt,_the_national_security_complex_and_you/> and the shroud of secrecy over the business of the “people’s” government has only grown worse in the years since. Increasingly, for our own “safety” we are only supposed to know what the government prefers us to know. This represents, of course, a crime against democracy. *9. Thou shalt not act punitively toward those who want to let Americans in on what the national security state is doing in their name:* The fierce <https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/02/18/destroyed-by-the-espionage-act/> and draconian <http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175500/tomgram%3A_peter_van_buren,_in_washington,_fear_the_silence,_not_the_noise/> campaign the Obama administration has launched against leakers and whistleblowers is unprecedented in our history. It is a growing challenge <http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175856/tomgram%3A_peter_van_buren,_rip,_the_bill_of_rights/> to freedom of the press and to the citizen’s right to know. *10. Thou shalt not infringe on the rights of the citizenry to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness:* Need I even explain? Tom Englehart -- --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups ""Minds Eye"" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
