Tortured Law

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?

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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