Torture and the Rule of Law

Dear Friends,

The Department of Justice will not permit disbarment or other sanctions against John Yoo, Jay Bybee and others in the Bush Administration Department of Justice even though the Department of Justice Office of Professional Responsibility found that those lawyers engaged in professional misconduct.  The findings were overruled by David Margolis, the most senior nonpolitical attorney in the Justice Department.  He also served in the Bush Administration Department of Justice.  For a longer report see TPMMuckracker (here).

Today Keith Olbermann interviewed Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson who was Colin Powell's chief of staff when Colin Powell was the Secretary of State.  Keith leads into the interview by reporting how the recently released reports from the Department of Justice about the torture memos clearly show that former Vice President Cheney has been lying about many things including whether or not torture works.  Colonel Wilkerson makes a very clear and impassioned case for the fact that Former Vice President Cheney's enhanced interrogation techniques are torture, that torture does not work, that torture is bad for our troops and our national defense, that torture is wrong and that torture "damages our very soul".  You can listen to the interview here.



In that interview Colonel Wilkerson suggested that to hear a full debunking of former Vice President Cheney's positions on torture and on the Obama Administration's failings with respect to keeping us safe, we should listen to the interview of General and former Secretary of State Colin Powell on Face the Nation and interview of General Patraeus on Meet the Press next Sunday.  I plan to view those interviews.
 
So how are we doing today?  The Obama Administration is continuing to refuse to hold accountable those members of the prior administration that broke the law and did great damage to our country.  That is not change we can believe in and it certainly doesn't give me any hope.

In his interview with Keith Olbermann, Colonel Wilkerson said that in some polls 53% of Americans still believe that torture is warranted in some circumstances.  It is never warranted or acceptable or legal.  
Why isn't President Obama explaining that to the American people?  Why do we have to rely on Colonel Wilkerson or presumably General and former Secretary of State Colin Powell and General Patraeus?  These are people who know and should be listened to, but they are not the President of the United States.  I suspect that President Obama recognizes that if he were to publicly make the case against torture that he would come face to face with the question of why he refuses to even investigate torture by the prior Administration.  Torture was done in our name by the Bush Administration.  We should be outraged and demand that the criminals that ordered, condoned and carried out the torture be brought to justice.

Thanks for reading and please comment,

The Unabashed Liberal