President Obama has stirred up strong reaction yesterday with his decision to make public all of the torture memos and directives issued during the Bush Administration. These memos were utilized by CIA operatives in attempts to extract information from alleged terrorists, arrested and sent to Guantanomo Bay, Cuba and to third countries, who were allegedly involved in the September 11 attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center.
Leaks had occurred earlier regarding the use of torture. Obama decided that full transparency was necessary and he authorized a clear statement that such tactics used in the last seven years were abhorrent and that they would no longer be permitted. Indeed the Bush Administration tactics were roundly condemned at the same time that Obama stated that those CIA operatives would not be prosecuted. The result of his decision was to have many liberals criticize the decision to refuse to prosecute CIA agents, and to have conservatives state that Obama had undermined national security and limited our ability to fight terrorism.
My thoughts on this is to back Obama on the need for exposure of the truth and to agree that the CIA agents had a legal backing of their actions, however abhorrent they were. But at the same time, there is a definite need for the people in authority at the White House, including the President, Vice President, Attorney General, top military brass, leading Presidential aides, etc to be fully investigated and prosecuted for war crimes. What makes the Bush crowd any different than those who worked at top levels for war criminals and dictators is beyond my imagination. Yes, the President and his advisers have the responsibility to defend the nation, but to break international law and alienate the entire world was in itself a war crime that should be pursued as much as the cases of Pinochet of Chile, Milosevic of Serbia, and the international outlaws of Cambodia, the Sudan and other nations.Â
America must regain its stature as the leader of decency, ethics and morality in international affairs, while at the same time upholding basic principles of protecting the American people from harm. So there needs to be a Watergate type congressional investigation of these violations and take it wherever it goes. Instead of only blaming and making scapegoats of underlings and foot soldiers, the leadership MUST be held accountable for their illegal, immoral actions in office!