by Glynn Wilson
It is high time George W. Bush faced a real investigation into his war crimes during his disastrous two terms as president of the United States.
In light of Bush’s admission of authorizing waterboarding in an interview on NBC this week, the American Civil Liberties Union urged Attorney General Eric Holder to ask Assistant U.S. Attorney John Durham to investigate whether former President Bush violated the federal statute prohibiting torture.
The request, made in a letter sent to Holder, comes on the heels of the release of Bush’s plagiarized memoir in which he admits directly authorized the use of waterboarding. The U.S. Department of Justice policy is that waterboarding is torture and, as such, it is a crime under the federal anti-torture statute.
“In light of the admission by the former president, and the legally correct determination by the Department of Justice that waterboarding is a crime, you should ensure that Mr. Durham’s current investigation into detainee interrogations encompasses the conduct and decisions of former President Bush,” ACLU Executive Director Anthony D. Romero says in the letter. “The former president’s acknowledgement that he authorized torture is absolutely without parallel in American history. The admission cannot be ignored. In our system, no one is above the law or beyond its reach, not even a former president.”
The letter also points out that failure to investigate President Bush’s role in violating the torture statute would severely compromise America’s ability to advocate for human rights in other countries.
“A nation committed to the rule of law … cannot simply ignore evidence that its most senior leaders authorized torture,” the letter concludes.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, Jr., the Michigan Democrat, joined the call for an investigation this week and questioned the Obama Justice Department’s decision not to bring charges related to the destruction of CIA videotapes.
“It is absolutely vital that a thorough review of President Bush’s now admitted ordering of waterboarding take place,” Conyers said. “We are a nation of laws, not men, and the domestic and international laws — including the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment — governing the use of torture are clear in their scope and application. There is no exception for the president or any other official and no lawyer’s opinion can provide immunity from these laws.”
In a statement published the House Judiciary Committee’s Website, Conyers said, “Anyone who believes in human rights and the rule of law must be outraged by the events of this week. First, we had the spectacle of a former president of our country proudly admitting that he ordered waterboarding and other brutal abuse of U.S. detainees — conduct that all civilized nations consider torture and which the U.S. never condoned until John Yoo arrived at the Justice Department. Now, we have federal prosecutors rejecting charges for the intentional destruction of video evidence of those same interrogations, despite court orders that apparently called for them to be preserved.
“We simply do not live in a nation of laws if high ranking officials are never held to account for their misdeeds,” Conyers said. “I know that the Justice Department continues to investigate certain aspects of the Bush administration’s torture program, including the possibility of a cover up or false statements to investigation officials. And I urge them to continue to give this matter their utmost attention.”
At the same time, he said, “this matter is too important to leave to any one branch (of government) and I will therefore continue congressional review of both the destruction of these videotapes and the brutal interrogations that they contained.”
In his memoir “Decision Points,” Bush blithely admits to authorizing the use of waterboarding against three terror suspects. And as part of his book/legacy-rehabilitation tour, the former president defended his decision in an interview with NBC’s Matt Lauer, by essentially describing how his administration put some lawyers up to inventing laws justifying the torture technique.
Given that torture is illegal under international and U.S. law, the former president’s casual admission cries out for a full investigation.
© 2010 – 2015, Glynn Wilson. All rights reserved.
