Obama must prosecute Bush-era torture enablers-International law allows no exceptions (Amnesty Intl)

[kpete]

Opinion
Obama must prosecute Bush-era torture enablers
International law allows no exceptions.

By Larry Cox, executive director of Amnesty International USA
from the June 15, 2009 edition

Washington - With Dick Cheney and the infamous torture memos making headlines, President Obama and our nation face a choice. Should they prosecute or protect those responsible for the torture of detainees in secret CIA detention centers? If our leaders wish to steer our country back to the right side of the law, they must act immediately and unequivocally to prosecute.

The problem is that leading senators want the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence to complete its investigation into the treatment and interrogation of detainees (which could take between four and six months), before any prosecution is launched. Yet such a delay would potentially risk running out the clock on certain types of prosecution.

The federal Anti-Torture Act, for example, is subject to a statute of limitations after only eight years. For the prosecution of crimes committed in the months leading up to September 2002 – when Bush administration lawyers produced the first of the "torture memos" that purported to make torture legally permissible – that expiration date is spring 2010.

But there is no need to wait that long. There is already ample evidence that shows the previous administration concocted, approved, and implemented a torture policy. What's more, there is no legal imperative holding the Department of Justice or federal prosecutors back from launching a criminal investigation, beginning with the task of identifying who is responsible for the crimes that have already been documented.

more:
http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0615/p09s01-coop.html

[Solly Mack]

1. K&R

[katandmoon]

2. Obama is very selective in the laws he obeys. Sound familiar?

[Uncle Joe]

3. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, kpete.

[Bluenorthwest]

4. If only Dick Cheney were gay

then Obama would simply have to enforce the law....
All I hear is that he has no choice but to follow the law, no matter how heinous, but he sure seems to feel the rest of the law is optional.

[Senator]

5. Instead, He's Driving The Torture Getaway Car. n/t

[snot]

6. If these laws work the way most do, it would be considered legal malpractice NOT to file suit NOW

in order to make sure the statutes of limitations DON'T expire before you've had a chance to investigate; plus, once you've filed, you have enhanced powers to require access to the evidence.

[Senator]

15. Not exactly legal malpractice, but...

...it can amount to http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSTRE53H1Y020090418">a war crime in itself.

--

[ima_sinnic]

7. funny how he MUST "defend the law" in some cases, and ignore it in others, eh?

I will not be voting for that one again, and I won't be falling again for slick "democrats" with meaningless campaign slogans and even more meaningless "credentials" as "constitutional scholars."

[Gregorian]

8. The Bush administration murdered nearly a million human beings, some say.

Here we are discussing upping the bail to $20 million for Broeder, Tiller's murderer. And we talk about torture, like it may have happened, and if so it may be a bad thing. But what about attacking a country and killing it, along with a million of it's people. Maybe a million is wrong. Half a million. A hundred thousand. A thousand. A hundred.

All I can do is sit here and wonder just what is wrong with the human race. How is torture the topic of discussion when something far greater is sitting in the same room?

[Vidar]

9. I agree, but Obama doesn't.

[Demeter]

10. Obama Is Too Busy Getting His Own Prosecution Material Started

I just don't get it.

[Mnemosyne]

11. Damn straight! KnR n/t

[bobthedrummer]

12. K&R#19

[The Hope Mobile]

13. K & R nt

[Wednesdays]

14. K&R

:kick: