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Prosecuting Torture Authorization

Arianna Huffington over at the Huffington Post has said in her post about the First 100 Days in the Obama Presidency:

Torture accountability. Obama has said he wants to look forward and not back, and it’s reasonable for him to not want his agenda sidetracked by torture commissions and investigations. But the way we respond to the revelations about the Bush administration’s use of torture isn’t merely a question of policy; it a question of morality. The minute the president starts framing the issue as a matter of right vs wrong, his choices will be clear. Because if there is one thing Obama cannot afford to abandon it’s the moral high ground. And he can trust the American public to walk and chew gum at the same time — to be able to support a national health care plan, a new energy plan, the reforming of our education system, and at the same time support accountability for those who undercut our fundamental values.

I’ve also written about the accountability problems inherent with the issue of not prosecuting torture criminals inside the Department of Justice in terms of allowing torture as standing legal precedent. Additionally, the American Bar Association has indicated a strong unwillingness for the violation of internationally criminal laws (PDF) – not to mention our own constitutionally-protected human rights – yet strangely has no position on whether it go unpunished. Here is recommendation to override executive order of July 27, 2007 on so-called “torture policy” (emphasis mine):

This resolution relates to a dispute about a legal position, namely whether the July 20 Executive Order violates the humane treatment standard of Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions. We believe it does.

There’s also a drive to disbar John Yoo and impeach 9th Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Jay Bybee. On April 9, 2008, the National Lawyers Guild called for the disbarment of John Yoo, calling his positions “war crimes” (emphasis mine):

Congress should repeal the provision of the Military Commissions Act that would give Yoo immunity from prosecution for torture committed from September 11, 2001 to December 30, 2005. John Yoo should be disbarred and he should not be retained as a professor of law at one of the country’s premier law schools. John Yoo should be dismissed from Boalt Hall and tried as a war criminal.

There is no ambiguousness in the legal profession’s collective opinion of the John Yoo memos authorizing the use of waterboarding and their belief it was torture. In an April 18, 2009 editorial by the New York Times, they lay out a plausible scope of Bybee’s legal betrayal of the Geneva Convention and its collective damage on the legal system. Even so, the Department of Justice has offered no guarantee it won’t happen again (but should).

Judge Bybee is so far resisting an invitation by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy to appear and provide an explanation for himself. Key Senators have called for impeaching Jay Bybee, such as Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO), Member of Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs and Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI) is open to future prosecutions.

Torture Prosecutions

For Obama to offer blanket immunity to C.I.A.