Former Bush administration must be held accountable

It has been incontrovertibly established for years now that senior Bush administration officials, including Bush himself, Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld, Tenet and Gonzales, not only authorized but closely planned and implemented interrogation procedures used on suspected terrorists that by any measure of U.S. and international laws and human decency constituted torture. These criminal actions also must be seen to include “extraordinary rendition”— that is, kidnapping suspects in other countries (and thus violating those countries' sovereignty) and delivering them to countries where it was known and expected that they would be tortured.

Numerous articles and books by prominent journalists, legal authorities, historians and former government officials describing and documenting these practices have withstood the test of time and the most severe verification procedures by editors of prominent magazines, as well as further investigations by other well-regarded writers. Names such as Jane Mayer, Ron Suskind, Mark Danner, Philippe Sands and book titles such as “The Dark Side,” “The One-Percent Doctrine,” “Torture and Truth and “Torture Team” are recognized as authoritative by most Americans who have serious concerns about this issue.

Given that senior Bush administration officials sanctioned, planned and, indeed, administered a program of torture forbidden by long-established international protocols (Geneva Conventions of 1949 and the Convention Against Torture of 1984) that the U.S. not only signed on to but played a significant role in initiating and writing, concerned Americans reasonably wonder why these officials have not individually been held accountable. That would mean being investigated by an independent committee and then, if the evidence warranted, indicted and tried under U.S. authority. Some administration officials have argued that the special circumstances created by terrorist attacks, and threats of further ones, make torture of suspects necessary.

However, David Cole, professor of law at Georgetown University Law Center and author of “The Torture Memos: Rationalizing the Unthinkable,” argues powerfully and succinctly that torture — no matter how “well intentioned” — dehumanizes both the suspect and his interrogator, corrodes the system of justice, renders a fair trial virtually impossible, and often exacerbates the very threat to the nation's security that was said to warrant the interrogation tactics in the first place.”

Moreover, these laws “prohibit torture in absolute terms,” and Cole quotes the Convention Against Torture, which clearly asserts that “'no exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat of war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification of torture.'”

Interestingly, a bit before he was chosen to be attorney general by President Barack Obama, Eric Holder made this unambiguous statement: “Our government authorized the use of torture … secretly detained American citizens without the due process of law … and authorized the procedures that violate both international law and the United States Constitution …. We owe the American people a reckoning.”

Unfortunately, since Obama is now, as he has stated, more interested in looking forward rather than backward (for various obvious political reasons), we have heard very little from Attorney General Holder on this issue.

However, Francis Boyle, a professor of international law at the University of Illinois College of Law, is taking matters into his own hands. Boyle, who has in the past gained an indictment against Slobodan Milosevic in the International Criminal Tribunal of Yugoslavia, recently filed a complaint with the International Criminal Court, specifically with ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo, who is well-known for pursuing human rights violations in Argentina that took place during the rule of the junta.

The complaint states in part: “I have the honor hereby to file with you and the ICC this Complaint against U.S. citizens George W. Bush, Richard Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, George Tenet, Condoleezza Rice, and Alberto Gonzales … for their criminal policy and practice of  'extraordinary rendition' … the enforced disappearances of persons, their torture, severe deprivation of their liberty, their violent sexual abuse, and other inhumane acts perpetrated upon these Victims [which he states number about 100].” Professor Boyle is also strongly calling for support from individuals and groups in the U.S. and abroad to follow up on his official complaint with letters, e-mails, calls and other organized efforts.

This, then, is an opportunity for all Americans who are troubled by the failure of the executive, legislative and legal branches of our government to institute even minimal accountability for the Bush administration torture policies to participate in an effort initiated by a prominent American, even if eventually administered outside of our legal system. And even though the eventual indictment would not address torture policies carried out in U.S.-administered places such as Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo Bay and other secret sites, torture as official and unofficial U.S. policy will still be exposed and, it is hoped, condemned by a legitimate international legal body.

Moreover, concerned Americans can have the satisfaction of having actively participated in this procedure. Individuals or groups can initiate their support of Prof. Boyle's complaint right now by fax, letter or e-mail to the ICC prosecutor. It would also be appropriate to contact Attorney General Eric Holder to tell him the international community will likely prosecute, even if he does not. Contact Gail Hodgson, Chair for Citizens for Accountability, at 794-0125 for more information.                      F


Bruce Garber is an Ojai resident and a member of Ventura Citizens for Accountability.