Posted on 12/07/2008 3:57:33 AM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
One of Barack Obama’s first acts as president should be to instruct his attorney general to appoint an independent prosecutor to initiate a criminal investigation of former Bush Administration officials who gave the green light to torture.
At Obama’s press conference on Dec. 1, he spoke of upholding America’s highest values as he introduced Eric Holder as his choice for attorney general. Holder insisted there was no tension between protecting the people of the United States and adhering to our Constitution.
A few months ago, Holder was even more explicit. “Our government authorized the use of torture, approved of secret electronic surveillance against American citizens, secretly detained American citizens without due process of law, denied the writ of habeas corpus to hundreds of accused enemy combatants and authorized the use of procedures that violate both international law and the United States Constitution,” he said. “We owe the American people a reckoning.”
The day of reckoning is fast upon us.
If Obama and Holder want to adhere to our Constitution and uphold our highest values, they must pursue those in the Bush Administration who violated that Constitution, broke our laws, and tarnished our values.
Read the words of Lt. Gen. Antonio M. Taguba, who investigated the Abu Ghraib scandal for the Pentagon. “There is no longer any doubt as to whether the current administration has committed war crimes,” he concluded. “The only question that remains to be answered is whether those who ordered the use of torture will be held to account.”
Despite Taguba’s words and reams of documentation supporting his statement, there has been little discussion about holding officials accountable for their design and implementation of the torture program.
We need to make it clear, just as we do in cases with the most minor offenses, that actions have consequences. To simply let those officials walk off the stage sends a message of impunity that will only encourage future law breaking. The message that we need to send is that they will be held accountable.
A popular refrain in Washington these days is that criminal prosecutions would be an unnecessary look backward. Some argue that in order for the new administration to move forward, presidential pardons should be granted and a Truth Commission assembled to investigate the circumstances that gave rise to the brutal interrogations and deaths of prisoners in Afghanistan, Iraq, Guantanamo Bay and CIA black sites around the world.
But pardons would be the final refuge for an administration whose egregious violations of human rights have, for all too long, gone unpunished. And a Truth Commission is not applicable.
This is not Latin America; this is not South Africa. We are not trying to end a civil war, heal a wounded country and reconcile warring factions. We are a democracy trying to hold accountable officials that led our country down the road to torture. And in a democracy, it is the job of a prosecutor and not the pundits to determine whether crimes were committed.
Criminal prosecutions are not about looking to the past; they are about creating a future world without torture. They will be the mark of the new dawn of America’s leadership and our new era of accountability.
Prosecuting these officials would help the United States regain its moral standing in the world and to prove our commitment to upholding international human rights standards.
In his first nationally televised interview, President-elect Barack Obama made this promise: “I have said repeatedly that America doesn't torture. And I'm going to make sure that we don't torture.”
The best way to do that is to prosecute those who designed the torture policies.
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Michael Ratner is president of the Center for Constitutional Rights and author of “The Trial of Donald Rumsfeld: A Prosecution by Book.” He can be reached at pmproj@progressive.org.
> One of Barack Obama’s first acts as president should be to instruct his attorney general to appoint an independent prosecutor to initiate a criminal investigation of former Bush Administration officials who gave the green light to torture.
I agree. He should provide head start for the 2010 Republican land slide.
Pretty hard to deny something that never applied before.
In the banana republics and Africa that is how they do it when the new regime takes over.
Fine.
Let's start with criminal investigation of Obama pal Bill Ayers and the rest of his terrorist gang, for every crime known to man, including terrorism, rape, and working as agents of foreign governments to bring down the lawful government of these United States, for starters.
I think the last thing that Obama will do....is start some never-ending prosecution of Bush officials or appointees. This would simply be negative headlines each day...with the media folks asking what next....rather than facing the Obama positives. Plus you’d have another case where everyone in the military and intelligence services would say “no” when assigned any tasking by the leadership that was questionable in terms of legality. You can’t run an organization....built on court-fear or legal-jeopardy. If this is the Obama plan, then its Rome all over again...and we are looking at the end of our civilization.
I almost hope Zero tries it - it’ll give him something to look forward to when HE leaves office. Sauce for the goose, you know.
Well you can stop right there. When we see that old Birth Certificate we will start to get an idea that the Constitution has any meaning for the Obama Administration.
I have a feeling that if anyone ever saw the birth certificate, there wouldn’t be an Obama administration...
One of Barack Obama’s first acts as president should be to instruct his attorney general to appoint an independent prosecutor to initiate a criminal investigation of former Bush Administration officials who gave the green light to torture
Does the phrase Bite Me resonate with you?
America happens to be under attack and at War with Islamofacists intent on killing every American citizen, destroying our Nation and destroying civilization. Maybe YOU think we should kiss their behinds, I don’t nor do must citizens that want to see America survive.
Very appropriate article from The Progressive. This is another way to encourage only a select few to serve in public office.
Yes, let the criminal investigations begin. They should all be concluded by 2016.
And he should do so publicly and make it perfectly clear to the American People that His policies have kept us safe and if Obama was to CHANGE any of those policies and we subsequently get attacked on our soil then that is DIRECTLY the OBAMA problem.
What possibly can Obama say to the families of those that perish on that fateful day? Something like I guess George W. Bush was right simply won’t cut it I don’t think.
“Bear any Burden Pay any Cost”
Self-righteous idiots like this guy are willing to bet that it would be YOUR loved ones killed in a terrorist attack, not their own.
Yeah, Your right Rat logic .... Just accuse Bush of doing something wrong and say that you will clean it up... Sure some of your Wackoo base gets a little nuts about it but so what they will neve turn on your. Seems to me only the Conservatives really ever hold their people to account anyway so on the Faux show trials.......
I’m not so sure. This is something obama said he would do, and I imagine his supporters would love it if he carried out this campaign promise. This is not going to be the government we’ve known. In obama’s words, CHANGE HAS COME TO AMERICA.
They couldn’t hate him any worse, so in the interests of the country, Pres. Bush should issue a blanket pardon to everyone in his administration for his two terms of office. Otherwise, he and VP Cheney will be making their lawyers richer for the next 10 years.
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