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NYT editorial chimes in on tortue
February 22, 2005 ( politics )
American intelligence is still secretly detaining prisoners - a practice that has become embarrassing enough for the Central Intelligence Agency to fret publicly about it. And the administration continues to insist that the president has an imperial right to sweep aside the law and authorize whatever he wants. That includes flouting treaties that prohibit sending prisoners to other countries to be tortured. That abhorrent practice has become more common since 9/11 and is reported to include sending prisoners to Syria, a repressive nation counted by Washington as a state sponsor of terrorism.Members of Congress from both parties are proposing new laws on interrogations. Their intentions are honorable, and new legislation may be needed. But drafts of these measures risk endorsing some terrible practices, as well as the idea that the president can declare himself above the law. Anyway, it's too soon for new laws; we still don't know what happened and who approved it.
But that task is now way beyond the purview of the Senate Armed Services Committee, which held important hearings on prisoner abuse. Republican Congressional leaders have made it painfully clear that they will not hold a real investigation. And no inquiry by the executive branch can be credible because the stain of prisoner abuse spreads so far. The Justice Department can't do it; Attorney General Alberto Gonzales was part of the problem.
We strongly agree with the American Bar Association, which wrote to President Bush on Feb. 1 to urge the appointment of an independent, bipartisan commission with subpoena power. The bar association talked about Iraqi civilians in military custody, but we believe that a panel should look at all prisoners, all detention centers and all involved government agencies.
Only a full accounting can begin to heal the nation's image in the world, clarify the rules, punish those responsible and clear the names of the hundreds of thousands of other uniformed Americans who risk their lives to preserve human dignity and the rule of law.
Emphasis mine, go Bar Assoc!
--NYT
Posted by griffjon at February 22, 2005 07:47 PM
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