Torture Accountability

(The Nation)  Attorney General Eric Holder chose not to take the counsel of the Republican partisans who have been campaigning in recent weeks to avert an accountability moment with regard to the Bush-Cheney administration's torture regime.

But that does not necessarily mean that an accountability moment will come.

For that to happen, Holder -- and, by extension, President Obama -- must stop being so cautious about laying the groundwork for the prosecution of wrongdoings.

They must, as well, be far more explicit in spelling out the purpose and point of the investigation into the use and abuse of so-called "harsh-interrogation" techniques by the Central Intelligence.

For now, Holder has opened what he refers to as a "preliminary review" into whether some CIA operatives broke the law in their coercive interrogations of suspected terrorists in the years after the September 11, 2001 attacks.

"As a result of my analysis of all of this material, I have concluded that the information known to me warrants opening a preliminary review into whether federal laws were violated in connection with the interrogation of specific detainees at overseas locations," Holder said in a statement issued by his office. "The department regularly uses preliminary reviews to gather information to determine whether there is sufficient predication to warrant a full investigation of a matter. I want to emphasize that neither the opening of a preliminary review nor, if evidence warrants it, the commencement of a full investigation, means that charges will necessarily follow."

Let's be clear: it is good that Holder has decided to take a more serious look at the use of torture during the Bush-Cheney years.

But he has done so in a disturbingly cautious manner that is described by the American Civil Liberties Union as "anemic." That runs the risk of encouraging the campaign by Missouri Senator Kit Bond and a handful of senators -- working in conjunction with conservative broadcast and print outlets -- to narrow the scope of any inquiry to such an extent that it will yield little in the way of accountability.

As with the battle to defend insurance-industry control over the healthcare system, Republican partisans in Congress are going to fight hard to block any inquiry that might expose and hold to account members of the Bush-Cheney administration.

Bond, in particular, has made it his mission to thwart anything akin to a real investigation.

Taking the lead in the campaign to block an investigation of officials who initiated, authorized and encouraged the use of torture, Bond has shown no qualms about using his position as the ranking Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee to protect partisan allies and prevent checking and balancing of executive excess. He has little to lose; after an undistinguished Senate tenure, the man who was once boomed as a Republican presidential or vice presidential prospect is a lame duck senator who will leave the Capitol after the next election.

But Bond is determined to finish his career with a partisan flourish.

And he is in a position to do so.

As a senior Republican senator with close ties to key players within the intelligence establishment -- both at the CIA and among independent contractors associated with the agency, Bond was the key signer of a last-minute missive urging Attorney General Eric Holder to drop plans to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the use of torture during the Bush-Cheney years.

The other signers of the letter, all Republican senators, are Alabama's Jeff Sessions, Arizona's Jon Kyl, Georgia's Saxby Chambliss, Texan John Cornyn, Oklahoma's Tom Coburn, Utah's Orrin Hatch, Iowa's Chuck Grassley and North Carolina's Richard Burr. With the possible exceptions of Hatch and Grassley, all are among the more rabidly partisan members of the senate's Republican caucus. Bond has traditionally been a more responsible member of that caucus. But with this letter, he positions himself as the key point person in the struggle to prevent the inquiry Holder has initiated from getting anywhere.

Bond and his compatriots argued that the appointment of a special prosecutor would "have serious consequences not just for the honorable members of the intelligence community, but also for the security of all Americans."

In fact, the appointment of a special prosecutor should have serious consequences primarily for dishonorable members of the Bush-Cheney administration - including former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, former Vice President Dick Cheney and, perhaps, former President Bush. Creating a false conflict between the rule of law and national security, Bond and his co-signers argued in their letter to Holder that, "It is ironic that the Obama administration, which has delayed justice for the victims of September 11 by suspending the trial of (Khalid Sheikh Mohammed), may soon be charging ahead to prosecute the very CIA officials who obtained critical information from him." The absurdity of this argument is that it suggests the primary focus of an investigation will be on low-level or even mid-level Central Intelligence Agency operatives.

For it to be meaningful, the investigation can and should focus on the people who authorized the use of torture and who outlined how it should be applied. Those are high-level players in the Bush-Cheney administration, not "honorable members of the intelligence community." The only place at which low-level CIA operatives might become targets of an investigation - or perhaps face prosecution - would be if followed their own personal agendas.

The Center for Constitutional Rights offers a proper perspective:


Responsibility for the torture program cannot be laid at the feet of a few low-level operatives. Some agents in the field may have gone further than the limits so ghoulishly laid out by the lawyers who twisted the law to create legal cover for the program, but it is the lawyers and the officials who oversaw and approved the program who must be investigated.

The attorney general must appoint an independent special prosecutor with a full mandate to investigate those responsible for torture and war crimes, especially the high-ranking officials who designed, justified and orchestrated the torture program," the center said in a statement. "We call on the Obama administration not to tie a prosecutor's hands but to let the investigation go as far up the chain of command as the facts lead. We must send a clear message to the rest of the world, to future officials, and to the victims of torture that justice will be served and that the rule of law has been restored.


The point of any inquiry has to be to identify those who set the torture policy -- deliberately violating the US and international laws, refusing to share information with Congress and lying to the American people -- and hold them to account.

Holder needs to spell this out.

So, too, does President Obama.

It is essential to confront the spin from Kit Bond and compatriots immediately and aggressively.

If Holder and Obama pull their punches, they will give opponents of accountability the opening they need to thwart it.


By John Nichols:
Reprinted with permission from The Nation

[noloyalisti]

This is the part of the article I like:

The Center for Constitutional Rights offers a proper perspective: Responsibility for the torture program cannot be laid at the feet of a few low-level operatives. Some agents in the field may have gone further than the limits so ghoulishly laid out by the lawyers who twisted the law to create legal cover for the program, but it is the lawyers and the officials who oversaw and approved the program who must be investigated.

Let's go get Cheney, Bybee and John Yoo!

[noloyalisti]

Whether or not American lives were saved (that is the claim of Cheney the war criminal, anyway) has NOTHING to do with it. And it does not matter when it happened: ALL crimes are investigated after the fact. That is why we have courts and due process.

We could not impeach the SOBs but maybe this is even better.

[lucasnico]

by notblue August 26, 2009 11:03 AM EDT
The libs that frequent these posts conveniently forget that both sides are complicit, in fact leading dems were briefed no less than forty times over the course of two terms. It is a slippery slope to go back five years after the fact out of politics and change the game in hindsite. After 911 both sides of the isle were willing to do what it took to win this war. This in no way will help America and it's cause, in fact from now on any action taken in defense of this country will be done in apprehension as if the political winds change fear of future prosecution will be ever present.

Briefed?? Tried lied to. Win the war? A war that should have never been....that Bush declared we had won years ago. Thank God we have a leader who does not act on apprehensions.

[noloyalisti]

Don't pretend that the Dems are the same as the GOP Mafia. When you start repeating the Faux News lies, we all know it now. We live by the Rule of Law, whether you like it or not. Otherwise we end of being the same as the terrorists like Cheney and Bybee and Yoo.

I hope they all go to jail for their crimes.

[WiseWidget]

Our government is too corrupt to deal with anything that involves laws or morals. It is time to vote these incumbents out of office and be done with them. Then we can give them a fair trial and hang 'em high.

[ramos1129]

I am no fan of Bush/cheney/Rice/Gonzales but there is a big downsize to this investigation. That is that once the full details are made public, our enimies will have all the excuse they want to mistreat our guys should they become POWs. While I would want the above people to be held accountable, the matter should be dropped for the reason given.

[HenryDorsettCase]

I disagree. If we do nothing to prosecute those responsible for the atrocities we've committed, then yes, our POW's will be subjected to the same or worse. If we turn over Bush and Cheney to the Hague, then we have proved to the world that we don't condone what they've done and will punish any American government official who breaks international law, the same as any other international citizen.

[GuyfromUSA]

Maybe you all should go back and watch the video of your fellow Americans jumoing 1000 feet to their death to keep from burning alive or the hundreds of firefighters that went in and never came out. It's appaling to me that you're even from the same country as I am.

[HenryDorsettCase]

If you could actually read (oh that's right, you're a Republican, you wait for Rush Limbaugh to tell you what to think), you would have read "9/11 did not justify that, no matter how unjust the killing of thousands in the Trade Towers. If we allow ourselves to become evil in order to fight evil, evil has already won b/c we compromised our principles into becoming just like those who committed those atrocities on 9/11." And it is just as appalling to me that a Nazi like you can live in the United States and not have his tongue break off when he lies that he actually believes in freedom. You want a police state? Then go live in Russia, China, or Burma and you can torture, kill and terrorize to your heart's content. As for the rest of us here in the good old U.S.A., we'll be living free and able to hold our heads up in pride in front of the rest of the world. In the meantime you will be bloodied with the entrail of your victims, proclaiming that you finally got that Arab to confess he was actually responsible for every evil in the world. Thank God your "comrades" are now out of office and in total disarray. If there is any justice in this world, your political party will be stained with the blood of your atrocities for all time.

[GuyfromUSA]

Why don't we send them to nice hotel, feed them , let them have a shower and maybe they'll talk. Then after the next attack we'll do the same thing and maybe one day you clowns will wake up.

[HenryDorsettCase]

Hmmm....so you think that there's no way to interrogate a terrorist without torturing him and abusing his human rights? So as an extention of your beliefs, if you are pulled over for a traffic stop and the cop asks you if there are drugs in your car and you tell him no, he has the right to knock you to the ground, stomp your ass and torture you until you admit you have drugs in your car? Or how about your boss when you're late with a project? Does he have the same right to waterboard you and find out if you screwed up? In your world, all of these things are possible because when you allow torture for one thing, you allow torture for all things. I'm sure glad I don't live in your world and I wish you would stop living in mine.

[HenryDorsettCase]

The fundamental premise that this country is based on is freedom for the people and the Bill of Rights (protecting us from unwarranted prosecution and brutality under a police state). We also heartily agreed with the world when the Geneva Convention was established. That is what set us apart from many other countries throughout the world and made the United States a "gold standard" in how people should be treated and governments should be run. We're not a perfect country, we make mistakes but we also have the capacity to fix those same mistakes. By pursuing a policy of torture, false imprisonment, denial of representation, secrecy in the name of "the Homeland" and dismantling of civil rights protections from a government spying on its own people (like Russia, China, North Korea or Burma), we have violated our own standards. 9/11 did not justify that, no matter how unjust the killing of thousands in the Trade Towers. If we allow ourselves to become evil in order to fight evil, evil has already won b/c we compromised our principles into becoming just like those who committed those atrocities on 9/11. C'mon Americans, we ARE better than that, aren't we? Then no matter how embarassing, galling or humiliating it will be, the arrest and prosecution of George W. Bush and Richard Cheney at the Hague World Court is absolutely necessary to wipe the stain of hypocracy from our country. It would also serve as a warning to each and every President in the future that no one is above the law. No President can justify torture and revocation of civil rights just because we have been attacked. We admitted we were wrong to imprison Japanese Americans in WWII. We are big enough to admit our leaders were wrong to pursue the policies they did after 9/11. Should we have pursued Osama Bin Laden to avenge those who were murdered? Absolutely. Should we have arrested suspected terrorists and interrogated them? Absolutely. But should we torture them to get information? Absolutely not. Because if we can agree to break our principles whenever it suits us, then we might as well dismantle the Constitution and establish a Police State with total government control of what you think, do and say. Walk the talk America! We stand for freedom and the pursuit of justice. And to prove to the world that we mean it, we send George W. Bush and Richard Cheney to prison for violating some of our most sacred principles. The world would stand in awe of us, cleansed of our hypocracy and an example to the world of true freedom and justice.

[JenMoreland]

Just another way to spend taxpayers money. Not that we need something else to pay for. Am I mistaken, aren't these the very people who want to kill us citizens, who kill their own people, and teach children to do the same? No I don't think anyone should be held accountable for obtaining information to prevent deaths of US people. I could care less how they obtained this information. We have more important issues to worry about. After all it is a WAR!

[HenryDorsettCase]

Okay...let's take your "I could care less how they obtained this information" posture and go a little further. Is it OK to sodomize children to get information? No? OK, how about beating a 14 year old girl to death with a baseball bat to get information? No? Well then WHO decides what torture is allowed and what is not? And when we have a "torture policy" in place, who is to say that a politician a few years down the road will extend that same policy to question you about your tax return and whether you didn't report all your income? Would you prefer to be waterboarded, have your children killed or have your husband sodomized in front of you? Don't you see how this can set a dangerous precedent and your "I could care less" attitude fosters the ability for criminal government officials to break the law and violate human rights to keep YOU safe? What happens when it's not YOU they are keeping safe but YOU they are torturing? Or your child they are torturing? Allowing torture at all is like saying, "Well it's OK to gas Jews in Germany, but don't do it in MY back yard!" How ridiculous is that?

[SpiderJackson]

I have recently retired after 24 years of serving this great nation in the Greatest Military in the World. It amazes me when people forget that this nation is at war, and those that received harsh interragtions are enemy combatants that would kill you and your family without blinking an eye.

A veteran is someone who, at one point in his life, wrote a blank check made payable to 'The United States of America ' for an amount of 'up to and including his life.
That is Honor, and there are way too many people in this country who
no longer understand it.

To quote one of the best actors of our time, Jack Nicholson in his role "A Few Good Men,"

"We use words like honor, code, loyalty. We use them as the backbone of a life trying to defend something. You use them as a punchline. I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom I provide and then questions the manner in which I provide it. I would rather you just said "thank you," and went on your way. Otherwise, I suggest that you pick up a weapon and stand a post. Either way, I don't give a damn what you think you are entitled to."

I am glad that I served to defend and prtotect this nation and the U.S. Constitution, so every one here can have the Freedom of Speech to express themselves. It is amazing to read and determine Ron White was correct when he said, "You Can't Fix Stupid!"

I had friends in the Twin Towers, and I hope everyone takes a moment to Pray to God, that we stand up to Radical Ideologic Terrorists across the Globe to protect those being killed because they Do Not have the Freedom of Speech, we have in the United States.

God Bless America!

[misha256]

You forget that Jack Nicholson's character wound up being arrested and read his rights for misconduct at the end of the movie. This would seem to be a poor example of the results you believe are justified. However it is the example of what may yet occur; the triumph of the RULE OF LAW.

[blitzder]

The people killed in the twin towers tragedy, were people from 80 different countries. The whole world lost people on that day, not just Americans.

The people guilty of that awesome crime, killed themselves. America does not need to torture anyone. The criminal fanatics died that day. The only reason this torture is going on, is to justify the billions going to Cheney's crooked cronies.