The Hill is reporting that Sen. Russ Feingold has written President Obama a letter asking him to put off any decisions on prosecution for Bush administration officials for torture until investigations were completed.I welcomed your statement on Tuesday indicating that you had not ruled out prosecutions of those who authorized or provided legal justifications for the interrogations. As the OLC [Office of Legal Counsel] documents make clear, the details of this program were authorized at the highest levels, which is where the need for accountability is most acute. I hope that the Department of Justice will fully investigate this matter and determine whether such prosecutions are appropriate. Second, I urge you not to rule out prosecutions of those who implemented the program. While I understand your motivation to protect those who may have relied in good faith on OLC guidance, I believe that blanket assurances are premature.
It's not an extremely unreasonable request -- wait until we find out what sort of crime, if any, has been committed before you decide if anyone should be punished. According to the report, Feingold is the second Senator to make the same request, following "Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), who this week asked Obama to wait until the intelligence panel completes its investigation into the treatment of detainees by the CIA. Feinstein estimated the committee’s work would last another six to eight months."
It's a long time to wait, but if the wheels of justice grind slow, then the wheels of justice grind slow.
1 comments:
What is even more amazing to me is when you check the dates... The White House gave their go-ahead on torture practices even before the Dept of Justice Office of Legal Counsel was given a chance to review the practice. Their mission appears to have been to rubber stamp a program that was already in practice.
Oh, and if you object to me calling it torture rather than euphemistically referring to it as "enhanced interrogation techniques" now it comes out that, as the Washington Post reported today, the Joint Personnel Recovery Agency of the United States Military called it torture in an official memorandum: "The unintended consequence of a U.S. Policy that provides for the torture of prisoners is that it could be used by our adversaires as justification for the torture of captured U.S. Personnel."
And let's not forget Repuplican Minority Leader John Boehner in a televised press conference yesterday referred to waterboarding and like techniques as "torture".
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