The American Spectator

Political Hay

The so-called Commission on Accountability which mysteriously appeared on the political scene a few days ago to push for show trials related to War on Terror interrogation policies is a PR hoax created by liberal philanthropist George Soros and political operatives sympathetic to the Obama administration.

The push is part of a vindictive campaign to pay back the architects of the War on Terror for making a good faith effort to defend America

To some the arrival of the Commission on Accountability, with its 19 member groups including Amnesty International USA and Human Rights Watch, suggested a significant groundswell of support in the nonprofit activist community for the proposed creation of an independent, non-partisan commission to examine the treatment of captured suspected terrorists. These groups all want Bush administration officials investigated for doing their jobs.

But the Napoleonic plotter Charles Maurice de Talleyrand's eternal aphorism that treason is a matter of dates is not lost on today's left, which, having recaptured the White House and Congress, now wants to pay back the architects of the War on Terror for daring to defend America from Islamist totalitarians.

Alas, this spanking new David Axelrod-style astroturf group was manufactured by Soros himself and Obama loyalists.

The proof was surprisingly easy to find.

That's because the domain name registration record for the group's website indicates near the bottom that the site was reserved for George Soros. It also indicates it was registered by Blue State Digital, LLC.

A BusinessWeek profile in June of last year identified Soros as a Blue State Digital client since 2006 and called the firm then-candidate Obama's "secret weapon." The firm was described as "a market research-New Media hybrid that has played an instrumental role in fostering Obamamania." Although the Obama campaign refused to discuss the firm for the article, Blue State Digital boasted that "its handiwork and technology can be seen in the more than $200 million Obama has raised online, the 2 million phone calls made on the candidate's behalf, and in barackobama.com's social network of 850,000 users, who have organized 50,000 campaign events."

The profile also noted that the firm was founded in 2004 by four former members of Howard Dean's presidential campaign. "But Thomas Gensemer, a former venture capitalist who, at 31, is now Blue State's managing partner, says he and his associates wanted to use such tools to mobilize grassroots support for progressive candidates, causes, or products," the profile states.

Blue State Digital was "tightly entwined with the campaign," BusinessWeek reported. "Joe Rospars, a 27-year-old partner, attends all of the Obama campaign' senior staff meetings, says Gensemer. Campaign insiders suggest privately that Blue State has so impressed Obama that, if he wins in November, the company could be in the unique position to play a role inside the White House."

Indeed.

Moreover, at least eight of the 19 left-leaning institutional members of the Commission on Accountability are funded by the secretive Soros.

One is Soros's foundation, the Open Society Institute, which has given away more than $5 billion over the years to various left-wing causes. The Open Society Institute has given money to seven of the Commission members. They are the Carter Center ($256,834 in 2000), the Constitution Project ($840,883 since 2001), Human Rights First ($445,000 since 2003), Human Rights Watch ($4,013,690 since 2000), Jewish Council for Public Affairs ($110,000 in 2005), National Institute of Military Justice ($255,000 since 2005), and Physicians for Human Rights ($1,224,153 since 1999).

The creation of the Commission on Accountability dovetailed nicely with President Obama's indication last week that he is open to the possibility of pursuing probes of Bush administration officials for the use of enhanced interrogation techniques.

According to a report from Byron York of the Washington Examiner, Soros joined with MoveOn, which he funds generously, to urge the creation of "a commission of inquiry to examine and report publicly on America's use of torture in the period since September 11, 2001."

Soros's proposal was included in an email sent out by his Open Society Institute. The email refers the reader to the Commission on Accountability, whose website makes the incredible claim that "[t]he report issued by the commission [to be created] will strengthen U.S. national security and help to re-establish America's standing in the world."

No, it won't. It will poison America's politics for decades to come, as former Solicitor General Ted Olson told York. It is the kind of thing a Third World banana republic does. It's a kind of slow-motion national suicide by investigation and litigation.

And Republican lawmakers would be justified in going nuclear.

Rep. Peter King (R-New York) vows to shut down Congress if any Bush-era officials are hauled into court. "We would need to have a scorched-earth policy and use procedural means to bring the place to a halt -- go to war," King told the Politico.

"If we have another 2,000 people killed, I want Nancy Pelosi and George Soros, John Conyers and Pat Leahy to go to the funeral and say, 'Your son was vaporized because we didn't want to dump some guy's head under water for 30 seconds,'" King added.

King's right. The War on Terror shouldn't become a partisan hockey puck.

And it must be noted that in America, we resolve policy differences through elections. We don't use the legal system after officials have left office to prosecute them for doing their jobs. We do not criminalize policy differences in America.

But leftist groups care little for the rule of law.

Other groups outside the Commission that are pushing for a water-boarding Inquisition include MoveOn.org, which has received untold millions from Soros, and the Center for Constitutional Rights, which has received $150,000 from Soros's foundation since 1999.

MoveOn is the more famous of the two. It has a Web-based network of more than 3 million online activists and played a significant role in helping to make Barack Obama president. Its website urges members to sign a petition demanding the appointment of a Watergate-style "special prosecutor to investigate and prosecute the architects of the Bush-era torture program."

The Center for Constitutional Rights, an anti-American public interest law firm whose website praises the Viet Cong, is headed by Che Guevara apologist Michael Ratner. The Center has filed numerous lawsuits aimed at hobbling the War on Terror and is a frequent defender of Lynne Stewart, a lawyer convicted of aiding Islamist terrorists.

To groups like the Center for Constitutional Rights, the show trial is an essential bit of political theater. The storyline is usually easy to follow. A bad guy is identified as an enemy of the public and charged with a crime against the people. All the evidence shows this and often without much ado a conviction is secured. Unlike a real trial with strict procedures, rules of evidence, and real defense counsel, a show trial is highly efficient much like authoritarianism is supposed to be.

The Center's Ratner already had a trial run. A make-believe kangaroo court composed of far-left extremists already convicted the Bush administration. It was called the "International Commission of Inquiry on Crimes Against Humanity Committed by the Bush Administration."

Ratner's witch trial could serve as a rough blueprint for a real commission.

Even if it doesn't, if the kind of commission Soros wants comes to America, the country will never be the same again.

topics:
George Soros