Obama policy on torture has 2 sides
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is trying to close a chapter in the nation’s history that still haunts U.S. foreign policy.
Obama authorized the release of graphic “torture memos” that outlined the harsh interrogation tactics the CIA used during the administration of George W. Bush, but getting the abuses behind him is turning out to be more complicated than it may have seemed.
The disclosures have divided Obama’s administration; some intelligence officials argued against the release. Also, Obama’s decision to shield from prosecution those who carried out the practices is being challenged by human-rights activists and some Democrats.
Making the memos public was a victory for Attorney General Eric Holder.
Last July, Holder told a legal forum that the next president must move quickly to “reclaim America’s standing in the world.” Holder suggested closing the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay and ending “all U.S. programs and practices that are engaged in torture.”
But where to send the remaining Guantanamo prisoners? And Obama’s decision not to prosecute CIA operatives who engaged in now-banned harsh interrogation practices such as waterboarding is causing a bit of a political storm.
Much like President Ford’s blanket pardon of former President Richard Nixon for Watergate crimes, Obama’s decision is being questioned by those who say officials who committed wrongdoing should be held accountable.
Anthony Romero, the executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union, said Obama’s amnesty proposal for those responsible “is simply untenable.”
On Saturday, the U.N.’s top torture investigator said the decision violated international law. Manfred Nowak told The Associated Press that the U.S. had committed itself under the U.N. Convention against Torture to make torture a crime and to prosecute those suspected of engaging in it.
Washington is unlikely to face any legal penalties for its apparent breach, but Nowak said “naming and shaming has its impact and usually governments try not to be criticized.”
In deciding to release the four memos with little blacked out or otherwise censored, Obama sided with Holder, deputy attorney general in the Clinton administration.
The release went against the advice of other Obama advisers, including CIA Director Leon Panetta. He argued that releasing vivid descriptions of brutal tactics could set a dangerous precedent for future disclosures of intelligence sources and methods.
In fact, the release of the classified Bush-era memos was delayed for nearly a month in part because of strenuous objections from four previous CIA chiefs — Michael Hayden, Porter Goss, George Tenet and John Deutch.
Obama ultimately overruled those concerns.