The Editorial Board of the NY Times today is calling for the President and Attorney General to investigate and prosecute those responsible for torture, and they’re naming names.
In an strongly-worded editorial, “Prosecute Torturers and Their Bosses,” the New York Times today chastises President Barack Obama for failing “to bring to justice anyone responsible for the torture of terrorism suspects,” and notes the ACLU is calling for Attorney General Eric Holder to appoint “a special prosecutor to investigate” America’s torture programs since Sept. 11, 2001.
“The question everyone will want answered, of course, is: Who should be held accountable?,” the Editorial Board asks. It answers, “any credible investigation should include former Vice President Dick Cheney; Mr. Cheney’s chief of staff, David Addington; the former C.I.A. director George Tenet; and John Yoo and Jay Bybee, the Office of Legal Counsel lawyers who drafted what became known as the torture memos. There are many more names that could be considered, including Jose Rodriguez Jr., the C.I.A. official who ordered the destruction of the videotapes; the psychologists who devised the torture regimen; and the C.I.A. employees who carried out that regimen.”
The Times concludes that a “criminal investigation” into torture “is not about payback; it is about ensuring that this never happens again and regaining the moral credibility to rebuke torture by other governments.”Â
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Image: Dick Cheney in 2008. Photo via via Wikimedia