A Timely Request
According to this article in today's Washington Post, 56 House Democrats have signed a letter to Attorney General Michael Mukasey urging an independent counsel be appointed to investigate whether top White House officials have violated US and international law by approving torture in interrogating detainees.
In a letter to Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey, the lawmakers cited what they said is "mounting evidence" that senior officials personally sanctioned the use of waterboarding and other aggressive tactics against detainees in U.S.-run prisons overseas. An independent investigation is needed to determine whether such actions violated U.S or international law, the letter stated.
"This information indicates that the Bush administration may have systematically implemented, from the top down, detainee interrogation policies that constitute torture or otherwise violate the law," it said. The letter was signed by 56 House Democrats, including House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) and House Intelligence Committee members Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) and Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y).
The request was prompted in part by new disclosures of high-level discussions within the Bush administration that reportedly focused on specific interrogation practices. Some of the new detail was contained in a report last month by the Justice Department's inspector general, which described a series of White House meetings in which the controversial tactics were vigorously debated.
I think it highly unlikely that the current Attorney General (who probably still doesn't understand that water boarding is considered torture in the civilized world) will appoint an independent counsel for such an investigation. After all, that investigation would involve just about everyone in the White House, from the president on down, if the Justice Department inspector general's report is accurate, and these are the very people who gave Mr. Mukasey this dream job.
But the very fact that 56 congresscritters have called for such an independent investigation should make it clear to the next administration that this is not something that should be swept under the rug in order to "let the healing begin."
Numerous human rights groups have been calling for such an investigation for several years. Jennifer Daskal, senior counterterrorism counsel for Human Rights Watch, said the request by House members will be significant even if the request for a special counsel is refused.
"The fact that so many representatives have called for the investigation helps lay the groundwork for the inevitable reckoning and accounting that the next administration is going to have to do regarding this administration's practices," Daskal said.
Exactly so. If we are ever to heal from this shameful period in our history, the boil will have to be lanced and cleansed of the infection. We saw what happened when we used a simple band-aid the last time.
[Note: The text of the letter (in pdf format) can be found here.]
In a letter to Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey, the lawmakers cited what they said is "mounting evidence" that senior officials personally sanctioned the use of waterboarding and other aggressive tactics against detainees in U.S.-run prisons overseas. An independent investigation is needed to determine whether such actions violated U.S or international law, the letter stated.
"This information indicates that the Bush administration may have systematically implemented, from the top down, detainee interrogation policies that constitute torture or otherwise violate the law," it said. The letter was signed by 56 House Democrats, including House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) and House Intelligence Committee members Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) and Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y).
The request was prompted in part by new disclosures of high-level discussions within the Bush administration that reportedly focused on specific interrogation practices. Some of the new detail was contained in a report last month by the Justice Department's inspector general, which described a series of White House meetings in which the controversial tactics were vigorously debated.
I think it highly unlikely that the current Attorney General (who probably still doesn't understand that water boarding is considered torture in the civilized world) will appoint an independent counsel for such an investigation. After all, that investigation would involve just about everyone in the White House, from the president on down, if the Justice Department inspector general's report is accurate, and these are the very people who gave Mr. Mukasey this dream job.
But the very fact that 56 congresscritters have called for such an independent investigation should make it clear to the next administration that this is not something that should be swept under the rug in order to "let the healing begin."
Numerous human rights groups have been calling for such an investigation for several years. Jennifer Daskal, senior counterterrorism counsel for Human Rights Watch, said the request by House members will be significant even if the request for a special counsel is refused.
"The fact that so many representatives have called for the investigation helps lay the groundwork for the inevitable reckoning and accounting that the next administration is going to have to do regarding this administration's practices," Daskal said.
Exactly so. If we are ever to heal from this shameful period in our history, the boil will have to be lanced and cleansed of the infection. We saw what happened when we used a simple band-aid the last time.
[Note: The text of the letter (in pdf format) can be found here.]
Labels: Torture
posted by Diane at 8:52 AM
2 Comments:
If we are ever to heal from this shameful period in our history, the boil will have to be lanced and cleansed of the infection.
Indeed. Thank you, Diane.
WoWo here...Ruth and I had a *lovely* weekend, and now she's off to Corpus Christi.
Ruth: just looked in my backpack saw your bird book and umbrella, darnit. I'll be happy to FedEx 'em to you in Corpus, or back to Sherman...just let me know!
Luckily, I'm visiting a birder, and know the birds here pretty well in any case - and have tons of umbrellas. I'll get back together with the book and umbrella again without all that trouble. But thanks.
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