Franz Kafka MBA.

Project Syndicate:
Dixon then told me a revealing story of one of his clients, Majid Khan, a so-called “high-value detainee” who was held for three years in CIA “black sites.” Khan was tortured, Dixon said, though “the government would say that what happened to him is an ‘intelligence source or method.’”

Because Dixon has a security clearance, he cannot discuss those classified “sources and methods.” On the other hand, Dixon continued, “When the government does something to [Khan] that they say is classified, they have disclosed to him classified information. But since he doesn’t have a security clearance, there is nothing that prevents him, unlike me, from saying to the outside world, ‘This is what they did to me.’ Nothing prevents that – except for the fact that he is physically in custody.”’

The “logical conclusion,” according to Dixon, is that Khan “must be detained for the rest of his life – regardless of whether he is ever charged with a crime – because if he was ever released, nothing would prevent him from disclosing this information.

Majid Khan – and there are many more like him – is a classic product of the Bush administration’s disregard for the fundamental principles of the rule of law. Unfortunately, Obama’s administration, for all its lofty rhetoric, appears too willing to perpetuate it.