Torture, "The Future," Truth Commission (Column & TV clip)
Ari Melber
Below is a link and text to my Politico column about upholding the Constitution, and a YouTube link to a recent television debate I did on the topic. Thanks for your interest, Ari
Bush Administration's Torture Memos Debate Continues
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xx0zUPPrZVM
Time is now to uphold constitution
Politico - Washington,DC,USA By ARI MELBER | 4/23/09 4:30 AM EDT (Photo: AP) Washington’s war criminals are finally nervous. |
Washington’s war criminals are finally nervous.
The newly released torture memos, in their brutal detail, have demolished the core argument of the Beltway’s torture defenders.
Everyone from President Barack Obama to former Vice President Dick
Cheney has said the torture issue is about “the past.” But that makes
no sense. Just read the memos. They clearly raise huge security
questions about which rules govern our future counterterrorism efforts.
Can executive branch opinions simply override any federal statute or
constitutional precedent? What is the duty of government officials who
receive “legal” guidance that flatly contradicts the law? Can
presidents use secret memos to run a two-branch government, squashing
court oversight by declaring programs are for “national security” or
“state secrets”?
And the big one: Are there any measures or consequences to prevent these abuses?
It is now incumbent on all three branches of government to address
those questions with investigations, oversight and accountability. That
is the only way to deter future crimes and provide future officials
with guidance on their duties. So far, however, few in government are
providing strong leadership.
The president deserves credit for ending torture and releasing the
memos. His repeated suggestions that enforcing the law is less
important than “unity” or “looking forward,” however, are unacceptable.
And this week, he floated a mixed message by saying he did not want to
look “backwards,” while also welcoming an independent “further
accounting” of torture by Congress or an independent commission.
Over in the Senate, Judiciary Committee Chairman Pat Leahy (D-Vt.) says
he supports an independent commission to investigate government
misconduct. The idea drew endorsements from The Washington Post, former
military and diplomatic officials from both parties and bipartisan
legal organizations such as the Constitution Project. The group’s
policy counsel, Becky Monroe, told me that “in order to truly move
forward, we need a commission to fully investigate all of our practices
regarding the detention, treatment and transfer of detainees.”
Leahy has given several speeches about the commission idea. He held a
hearing on it last month. He issued another statement on it this week.
He launched an online petition at BushTruthCommission.com. His
reelection committee has even raised money off the proposal, telling
supporters that a “meaningful way” to support a commission is to donate
to Leahy’s campaign. “It’s safe to say Sen. Leahy will not let the idea
of a truth commission slip through the cracks,” reads one fundraising
e-mail, promising that Leahy “will not rest until we have fully
investigated the Bush-Cheney administration’s eight-year assault on the
rule of law.”
But it does not take this long to introduce a bill. At this point, Leahy is starting to look like a profile in procrastination.
After the release of the torture memos, I asked Leahy’s office to
confirm if he would introduce a bill and when. In response, an aide
reiterated that he is still talking about the idea with colleagues and
experts. There was no answer, however, on when an actual bill might
arrive.
For leadership in real time, you have to visit the House. In January,
Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-Mich.) introduced
legislation for an independent commission. Last month, he published a
541-page report, “Reining in the Imperial Presidency,” outlining
recommendations to restore the rule of law, including his past advocacy
of a special prosecutor to investigate waterboarding. (New York
Democratic Rep. Jerrold Nadler, the first member of Congress to call
for impeaching Judge Jay Bybee, co-sponsored Conyers’ legislation
calling for an independent, nonpartisan commission.)
Conyers renewed his call for accountability last week. “As Americans
digest the awful revelations in the Bush-era [Office of Legal Counsel]
opinions, our nation faces a critical choice — what will we do to
ensure that abuses like those described in these memos are never again
ordered by our leaders or justified by our lawyers?” he asked.
Conyers renewed his call for independent investigations and
prosecutions: “If our leaders are found to have violated the strict
laws against torture, either by ordering these techniques without
proper legal authority or by knowingly crafting legal fictions to
justify the torture, they should be criminally prosecuted. It is simply
obvious that, if there is no accountability when wrongdoing is exposed,
future violations will not be deterred.”
It is so obvious, in fact, that we should stop entertaining the
political fiction that upholding our Constitution is only for people
obsessed with the “past.” As the revelations of torture and
surveillance pile up, the future will be full of legal confusion and
lawless temptation until we independently investigate these failures
and enforce our laws.
Ari Melber (www.arimelber.com), a correspondent for the Nation, writes a regular column for POLITICO.