US: Investigate Those Responsible for Authorizing Torture

Release of Justice Department Memos Underscores Need for Investigation

(New York) - The release of four US Justice Department memos detailing abusive interrogation techniques authorized for use on terrorism suspects underscores the need for an investigation into those who authorized and conducted torture and other abuse, Human Rights Watch said today.

"President Obama said there was nothing to gain 'by laying blame for the past,'" said Stacy Sullivan, counterterrorism advisor at Human Rights Watch. "But prosecuting those responsible for torture is really about ensuring that such crimes don't happen in the future."

In a statement released with the memos, President Barack Obama said that although his administration had repudiated the interrogation techniques authorized by his predecessor, his administration would not prosecute those who "carried out their duties relying in good faith upon legal advice from the Department of Justice."

Notably, the president left open the possibility of prosecuting those higher up the chain who wrote the opinions and authorized the CIA to use abusive interrogation techniques and torture.

"If the Obama administration is to adhere to the law, it is not enough to ensure that torture does not take place in the future," said Sullivan. "It must apply the law prohibiting torture to those who violated it in the past."

The memos were written by the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel to provide the legal framework for the CIA's use of "enhanced interrogation techniques" including "waterboarding," which has been prosecuted as a war crime in the United States for more than 100 years.

A 2002 memo detailed the techniques authorized on Abu Zubaida, an alleged al-Qaeda operative whom the CIA believed had information about terrorist operations that were yet to be executed. In addition to "waterboarding" and "walling" (slamming a prisoner into a "flexible false wall"), the techniques included placing Abu Zubaida in a box with what he was told was a stinging insect. The memo provides a legal analysis to justify methods that are on their face torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment banned by US and international law.

www.hrw.org

Comments

[Dohiyi]

12:55 PM on 04/17/2009

My personal opinion is that the crimes of the Bush Administra­tion were far worse than all of the crimes committed by all of the inmates in every prison and jail in the US combined. The failure to prosecute those who committed the crimes makes the entire US criminal justice system a very bad, sick joke.

But I am reasonably certain that those who run this country, including President Obama, will never prosecute Bush and his minions. One reason is that the Democratic Party's leadership was complicit in the crimes. Another reason is that prosecutin­g even a few of the most guilty would litterly tear this country apart.

There are still millions of deluded people who think Bush was a hero and that Obama is evil -- primarily the sort of people Obama said cling to their guns and religion out of fear during the campaign. Rush Limbaugh and Fox News would have a field day rallying the faithful towards armed rebellion.

While I have seen no evidence at all that Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Gonzalez, Yoo, and the others have any conscience at all, I hope they have trouble sleeping, looking into mirrors, and living with the knowledge of what they have done.

[jcorrington]

12:53 PM on 04/17/2009

Now we know...tax­es and the law are only for the little people..

[ESerafina42]

11:46 AM on 04/17/2009

I guess the Nuremberg trials were also a waste of time, since they were also about crimes that had happened "in the past" and were committed by a regime that was no longer in power.

[Boyaca]

11:35 AM on 04/17/2009

The hypocracy of the United States held up for all the world to see. Country of laws? What a joke. Obama? Change? We can now see that it is just business as usual.

[jhamm1]

11:23 AM on 04/17/2009

I think it's safe to pack up the justice department and go home. After all, legal procedings are almost always conducted in reference to something "in the past", but as Obama pointed out, "forgive and forget" always triumphs over accountabi­lity.

So, let's tear down the prisons, rip up the laws, and inform future presidenci­es that they can feel free to lie, torture, steal, ignite world wars, and enact genocide all without fear of repercussi­ons of any kind.

After all, by the time the prospect of legal proceeding­s come up, it would have all been "in the past".

[siegfried]

12:06 PM on 04/17/2009

While we're at it we might as well stop hunting for Osama bin Laden. Oops Bush did that seven and a half years ago.