Tortured Law

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A new short film by the group Alliance for Justice examines the role that lawyers played in authorizing and legitimizing torture under the Bush administration. It calls on the attorney general to investigate not just CIA operatives but the authors of torture memos in the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel. —JCL

Alliance for Justice:

President Barack Obama has ended six years of American torture of suspected terrorists arising from the aftermath of the 9-11 attacks. The torture was originally outlined and sanctioned in 2002 by a series of memos drafted by lawyers in the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel. Were these lawyers simply giving the President their best legal advice? Or was their work part of a larger criminal conspiracy to distort the law and authorize torture?

Attorney General Eric Holder recently announced an investigation of low-level CIA operatives who exceeded the grisly authority provided by the “torture memos.”

But the superiors who ordered these actions, and the lawyers who provided the legal cover have not been held accountable. Will there be a full investigation that follows the evidence up the chain of command?

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Tortured Law, a new 10-minute documentary by Alliance for Justice, examines the role lawyers played in authorizing torture, and calls upon Attorney General Holder to conduct a full investigation of not only the CIA operatives, but of the torture memo authors.

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TAGS: attorney general bush john yoo lawyers office of legal council torture

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By Jean Gerard, October 9, 2009 at 8:53 pm Link to this comment
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Between a rock and a hard place. Problem number one: Is torture against the Geneva Conventions but wars killing innocent women and children not against the Geneva Conventions? If people are “collateral damage,” in a war situation, why aren’t “enemy noncombatants” “collaterl damage?” Problem two: Could the nation tolerate month after month of trials with media competing for more and more dramatic presentations dominating the evening news, finally petering out because the audience gets bored? Or gets tired of vomiting? Problem three: Would it be fair to pick out a smaller number of those most directly involved? Problem four: If judged guilty, how guilty? Would there need to be a worse punishment for waterboarding than for denying sleep; for slamming against a wall than for psychological damage (PTSD and worse)? Problem five: How much deep precedence is there to depend on and how much will break entirely new ground, and to stick will therefore need extra-careful and time-consuming jurisdiction?
I’ve thought a lot about this. It’s a hornets’ nest of excrutiating decisions. Snap judgment I’d say prosecute. Second thought? Frankly, I wonder? Something in between?

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