Recent reports that U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder is considering appointing a prosecutor to investigate illegal torture carried out during the Bush administration is a positive sign, especially given President Obama's desire to avoid what he has called "a backward-looking" inquiry. When Holder began studying the brutal acts carried out in America's name, some of them even exceeding the horrors authorized in the infamous Justice Department torture memos, he reportedly said it "turned my stomach." In "Tortured Logic," a video released by the ACLU today, you'll hear well-known people like Oliver Stone, Rosie Perez and Philip Glass, among others, read from those chilling memos, which were disclosed as part of ACLU litigation:
While it is encouraging that Holder now understands that there were serious crimes committed that demand investigation, press reports say that he envisions an investigation narrow in scope that would focus only on low-level interrogators and contract employees. This is deeply troubling.
There is ample evidence already in the public domain that the widespread and systemic torture of detainees was authorized at the highest levels of the Bush administration. This evidence comes from congressional reports, the torture memos themselves and even the boastful admissions of officials including former vice president Dick Cheney, who has been aggressively forthright in his defense of waterboarding. But notwithstanding all this evidence, there are still those who would reduce the authorization of these crimes by government officials to discretionary policy decisions. This cannot be the case in a nation where the rule of law means anything.
It is a core premise of our democracy that in America, no one is above the law, regardless of rank or position. Going after those who carried out illegal orders while shielding those who actually gave the orders goes against the most fundamental American ideals of fairness. To date, the highest-ranking officer to be prosecuted for detainee abuse is a lieutenant colonel who was acquitted. Yet there is simply too much evidence of high-level orders to justify limiting criminal investigations to the field. In this country, we investigate crimes — no matter how powerful the suspected perpetrators — and, when appropriate, we prosecute those who broke the law. The American system of justice would be rendered meaningless if we were to start compromising our principles and laws simply because enforcing them might be politically messy, inconvenient or even painful.
We cannot move forward confidently knowing that the abuses of the past will not be repeated by future administrations as long as everyone knows that crimes were committed and that the powerful who perpetrated and enabled those crimes get off scot-free. A failure to prosecute those responsible for torture — those who authorized it, those who legally sanctioned it and those who carried it out — would essentially serve to ratify illegal behavior by government officials. The attorney general should appoint a special prosecutor who will follow the facts where they lead, whether it be to prisons overseas or to the halls of power at home.
Visit www.aclu.org/torturedlogic to share the video with a friend and to send it to Attorney General Holder with a note urging him to conduct a full investigation of torture under the Bush administration.
Follow Anthony D. Romero on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ACLU
How about if you can afford to pay off the other persons attorney, you get better treatment, --- and that is what is considered the 'real fairness' in the whole system.
In other words, you are saying corruption pays, I will not argue that this is the case, we are seeing the results with the collapse of our country.
my sons pops feels the same way, that is why he destroyed his kids lives, ask his son.
No one hesitates to bring charges against the poor and powerless. They can bring up their defenses at a trial if they want one or take the plea deal.
It should be the same with the rich and powerful. But, somehow people are weighing the political implications and looking at their possible defenses before investigating and bringing charges. They don't do it for my clients and I don't think they should do it for rich and powerful people either.
If they have defenses, they can bring them up at trial or take a plea deal, same as my clients do.
your right no one hesitates to bring up charges against the poor or powerless.
They can bring up their defenses at trial--- wrong, my attorneys forbid me to bring up a defense,because it would have lapped on to another case which was coming up, which was a high profile murder case, I had been so psychologically beaten up and the attorneys told me if I mentioned it, because the area was racially bias where I was at, they would go after me, it was never mentioned.
Too many attorneys are bought off.
or get them richer. Wars were fought for the people not a chosen few. Maybe our soldiers wake up to the fact that they jeopardizing their lives for this, no jobs, no healthcare.
I got a better idea. If you dont want to be waterboarded dont be a terrorist !
This really ticks me off. You get liberal hollywood to project this to the average American while liberal hollywood is tucked away, with millions of dollars in the bank and living thier sheltered lives we could only imagine.
MATT DAMON SUCKS !
google my name to knwo what really happens..
JosieG6
I will speak out again and again..
immigrationdetaineestories google it at wordpress
Not crimes against any red or blue people...merely against humanity at large.
Hardly important.
In war there will always be interrogations, there will be techniques used to have people talk and give information – no matter the side. The question is when it becomes excessive, even criminal. The next question, is when we have our soldiers conduct themselves, intentionally raping, intentionally doing other acts --- what is going to happened when they come home, and now use the same on their dates, families, and community?
The answer of course to the question is anyone they come up against in private life, stands a chance at being a target and will be an insidious aspect in our own society, and no doubt there are American’s which have experience this already, in their own homes, and in their own communities. This type of mindset does not happen over night.
Bang...tango Down
Seems, some of the people were innocent, UtahPatroit. So, lets talk about Utah's 9/11. The day which hundreds of Americans from the South were slaughtered outside of Cedar City/ St.George Utah, at the hands of 'faithful' Utah-ians. Men, women, children,slaughtered, point blank range. Felt the same why too, right?
Seems you and johnsopinion need a different point of view, the people like Mitchell and Jessen wouldn't do and construct the horrors they did.
you all have too many passive-aggressive males, who drink too much, and are too compromised and then fill themselves with 'how great they are', while they abuse their wives and children, so they can reap the rewards of "THE LORD TAKES CARE OF HIS OWN', or translated, the sick bunnies who go along with abuse get the silver coins.
Add this mindset to the list that already includes racism & McCarthyism.
Our justice system is all ready meaningless. It is to protect the aligned and the elite.
My best friend lives in the past. He is 'tortured' by every conceivable slight that
he perceives has ever been done to him. It wracks his mental acuity. Sometimes
he can't function because of the intense feelings of wanting to blame someone
else for his current troubles and having been wronged by everyone. He doesn't
take responsibility for who and where he is today. He sees a psychiatrist.
I see each day as a new adventure, no matter what it brings. I look FORWARD to
the day revealing new ideas, bringing new wonders into my life and I love living.
I have been unaffected by 'the recession' or by G.W.Bush or by GM's troubles or
or the fact that I haven't had a raise in 5 years but I am better off financially than I
have ever been in the last 50 years. Those things don't matter in the grand scheme
of things.
I am blessed. You are too if you just change your Point Of View to what you have
and not what you don't have. It can be done.
opinions like yours, are ones to be disregarded. Your post was intended to be abusive.
so,what is the issue of not being allowed to respond the Johnsopinion who is out in left field.
Johnsopinion, you have been a member since Aug. 2008 and have only one friend to date.
enough said.
and fighting to change the system, I am dear, but the system is corrupt, as I am sure you are well aware.
Physical torture is a tool of dictatorships; physical torture is the province of those governments that live in fear of being overthrown; physical torture is a tool of survival for regimes that are illegitimate.
Our government as a whole does not fall in any of those categories and we should be grateful to ACLU and other institutions and individuals who fight to keep our democracy intact. Nothing should prevent our Attorney General Eric Holder as the nation's top law-enforcement officer to bring to justice those who violated the foundation of the republic for which we stand.
Have one exhausted, physically and psychologically the torture whether physical or psychological is of a more intense nature.
(And if memory serves, the impeachment failed.)
I'd like to see a video that features people from all political persuasions represented. Our establishment media has tried to portray this rule of law issue as a liberal only issue so we MUST show Americans that this issue is not just something that interests liberals. They need to know that there are conservatives and moderates, Republicans, Democrats, Independents, Greens, etc. who are demanding accountability. We must break through the media filter.