Immunity for Torture Lawyers? How About a Pardon for Truth-Tellers?
Rahm Emanuel said that President Obama opposes any effort to prosecute the Justice Department lawyers who drafted the heinous memos devising, authorizing and justifying torture.
Disappointment does not begin to express my despair that — taking a page straight from the Bush playbook, which characterized those seeking a torture investigation as being out for “revenge” — the Obama administration painted anyone seeking an inquiry as being out for for “retribution.” Contrary to what the MSM would have you believe, this is not a middle ground. It’s a free pass.
First, the MSM is pushing the notion that the White House has struck a “middle ground” after the release of the torture memos by granting all the players immunity. This is not a “middle ground.” The usual transparency and open government advocates “won” the release of long sought-after memos that were in the public’s interest to see. The torturers won immunity. The tragic choice here is not the torture. It’s the decision to willingly blind ourselves to U.S.-sponsored brutality in order to “look forward”–an absurdity on its face.
Second, there is a difference between retribution and justice. There is a difference between retaliation motivated by spite or vindictiveness and justice motivated by lawfulness. Shame on President Obama for deliberately conflating the two when he knows better. Investigation (with the possibility of prosecution) forces a democratic society to confront the evil of torture in an open way. Otherwise, brutality operates off the radar screen of accountability in an extralegal “twilight zone.”
Finally, I would like a presidential pardon for Thomas Tamm (who revealed warrantless wiretapping), Joe Darby (who revealed the atrocities at Abu Ghraib), myself (who revealed the first known instance of torture and government misconduct post-9/11), and anyone else who helped expose the illegalities of the prior administration. If the President of the United States is going to grant immunity to everyone from the telecoms to the torturers, then pardon those of us who have been criminally investigated, bankrupted, blacklisted, and are still suffering the personal and professional fallout of what really was pure “retribution” for doing the right thing.
