Behind Blue Eyes has made me aware of two major changes regarding the torture issue. We believe that both of these issues move the torture question from one of wondering what can we do to being able to expect and demand specific actions in the near future.
If there ever was a time to get on top of this issue and make our views known it is now. If you wonder how to do that I have a link below to BBE's blog and his latest of ongoing posts which detail, with links, how to make your voice known.
The first main new thing is that "House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers and Rep Jerrold Nadler, (D-NY), formally requested that Attorney General Eric Holder appoint a special prosecutor to probe and, “where appropriate, prosecute,” Bush administration officials responsible for the torture of detainees at Guantanamo Bay prison and Iraq."
The source for this information is Jason Leopold writing in the Public Record. This vital reporting can be read here.
Another place to read about this is in the Huffington Post, which has a much shorter overview article by Arthur Delaney.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/28/conyers-nadler-call-for-s_n_192479.html"In a letter to Holder, the congressmen write that memos released by the Obama administration last week confirmed that legal justifications for interrogation techniques like waterboarding came from high-up administration officials.
"During your confirmation hearings, you testified that waterboarding is torture," the letter says.
"This letter makes official our views on the necessary procedure in investigating those U.S. officials who allowed or actively instructed others to commit torture," said a statement from Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.), who along with Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) were the letter's principal authors. "Because the United States is bound by its own laws and by international treaty, we are obligated to investigate and, where necessary, to prosecute those who have violated the laws against committing torture - whether by ordering it or committing it directly."
The letter argues that there is "abundant, credible evidence of torture," that an internal justice department investigation would be hobbled by conflict-of-interest, and that the public would benefit from an investigation from an independent special counsel."
HuffPo provides a link to the PDF of the complete letter.
http://big.assets.huffingtonpost.com/HolderLetter042809.pdf
Along with this important development, BBE has turned up through Digg another explosive piece also written by Jason Leopold, this time in Antimedius.
Leopold writes, " George W. Bush's Justice Department said subjecting a person to the near drowning of waterboarding was not a crime and didn't even cause pain, but Ronald Reagan's Justice Department thought otherwise, prosecuting a Texas sheriff and three deputies for using the practice to get confessions.
Federal prosecutors secured a 10-year sentence against the sheriff and four years in prison for the deputies. But that 1983 case - which would seem to be directly on point for a legal analysis on waterboarding two decades later - was never mentioned in the four Bush administration opinions released last week."
The long and thoroughly researched article outlines in detail how the Reagan Justice department dealt harshly with the domestic use of waterboarding. This article is another must read because it shows what turning our backs on evidence can do. The recently released Bush Justice Department memos have no mention of this important precedent.
Here is the link.
http://www.antemedius.com/content/reagans-doj-prosecuted-texas-sheriff-waterboarding-prisoners-0Folks, if you have not gotten on board this and made your feelings known, this is the time to do it.
Here is the link to BBE's blog. Go there and just follow the links to make your voice heard.
http://open.salon.com/blog/behind_blue_eyes/2009/04/22/bush_attempted_to_justify_illegal_war_through_torturePlease read the links in this post. Then think about where you stand.
If you agree with this take a stand. We are going to try to get some more attention for this beyond OS by offering these links to others. So please Digg this post.
Thanks to all who have followed this issue.
It is time for justice.
Monte & BBE
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