rssIs Impending Holder Torture Probe a Bad Idea?
Monday, August 10, 2009 at 10:28 am
- 7 Comments
Andrew Sullivan calls the reported impending torture probe by Attorney General Eric Holder “the worst of both worlds,” arguing that investigating only those who exceeded the overly-broad bounds set by the Bush administration “risks essentially legitimizing the torture it does not prosecute.”
On one hand, Sullivan’s right that prosecuting only the individual interrogators who went beyond the torture that was actually authorized by the Bush administration — such as waterboarding, which Holder himself has admitted is torture — might suggest that what the Bush lawyers approved was legal, despite the egregiously flawed legal reasoning that backed it up.
On the other, at this point, it’s important that the attorney general start somewhere, particularly since Congress so far doesn’t seem to have the stomach to follow through with its earlier ideas of investigatory commissions that would reveal exactly how the torture policies were developed and why.
A criminal investigation of even low-level CIA interrogators who exceeded the guidelines they were given should, if done thoroughly and honestly, inevitably lead to questions about how those guidelines were communicated down the chain of command, and whether higher-ups approved the more extreme conduct. And that may be the best hope for raising the ultimate questions of how the rules were developed and whether their authors knew they were stretching the limits of the law even as they crafted them.
7 Comments
Comment posted August 11, 2009 @ 8:04 pm
“A criminal investigation of even low-level CIA interrogators who exceeded the guidelines they were given should, if done thoroughly and honestly, inevitably lead to questions about how those guidelines were communicated down the chain of command, and whether higher-ups approved the more extreme conduct:
Perhaps.
However, WE will still have to keep the pressure on to
persuade Holder, etc to expand the investigation to include the higher ups.
I think that only a few unfortunate at the bottom will be prosecuted without a lot of pressure from we the voters.
We have to make an example of the Bush criminals or it will happen again and again until we lose our most cherished freedoms.
SIGN THE PETITIONS
Demanding
both a Commission of Inquiry
and a Special Prosecutor
For All Their Crimes
at ANGRYVOTERS.ORG
Comment posted August 11, 2009 @ 9:39 pm
First, do trials that somehow make a political point really work well — for justice or politics? Once you put someone on trial, the trial is, or should be, about the defendant & the defendant's actions, not “the system.” The judge in a civilian criminal trial could, as the judges in the Abu Ghraib court martials did, forbid evidence about process.
Moreover, to count on an edifying spectacle from a trial is folly, as best I can tell. I remember when a prosecutor in LA painstakingly brought up all sorts of evidence to educate the American people & jurors about wife beating. But OJ was acquitted.
As best I can tell, there is enough evidence that Bush cronies broke the law vis a vis torture that Obama is remiss in not recommending that that be investigated. He swore to uphold the constitution & execute the laws. The oath of office doesn't include exceptions for lawbreaking by past presidents who were really really scared about terrorism and kind of intimidated by their vice presidents.
Comment posted August 12, 2009 @ 1:30 pm
Holders spineless ignoring of the bush regime lawlessness is hurting the democratic party and making a mockery of our DOJ .Falling out of love with the Obama administration is the rule rather than the moment.This is not what people voted for when we voted for change.
Pingback posted August 12, 2009 @ 5:10 pm
[...] While CCR and others are pushing for a broader investigation, some, including Andrew Sullivan, think a narrow investigation might be worse than no investigation at all, because it “risks essentially legitimizing the torture it does not prosecute.” On the other hand, Holder’s gotta start somewhere, and this may be the least politically incendiary place to do so. Says the Washington Independent’s Daphne Eviatar: [...]
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Comment posted June 3, 2011 @ 9:32 pm
America the Beautiful……..Where the law only applys to you and me.
Torture: The enemies #1 recruiting tool.
and now for a reprise we torture our own. Free Bradly Manning. The 21st Century Paul Revere
Comment posted June 3, 2011 @ 9:32 pm
America the Beautiful……..Where the law only applys to you and me.
Torture: The enemies #1 recruiting tool.
and now for a reprise we torture our own. Free Bradly Manning. The 21st Century Paul Revere
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