Bill of Rights Defense Committee Sends Obama Commentary on Torture

Amy E. Ferrer, Associate Director of the Bill of Rights Defense Committee, sent this letter today to President Obama on behalf of the coalition on torture and transparency. The letter begins:

The Honorable Barack Obama
President of the United States
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW
Washington, DC 20500

Dear Mr. President:

We write to express our support, in the strongest possible terms, for a complete and independent investigation of all former U.S. officials allegedly complicit in incidents—or policies—of torture of detainees housed at Guantánamo Bay and elsewhere. We also exhort you to reconsider your administration’s refusal to disclose evidence of torture even in the face of court orders mandating disclosure. More broadly, we write to remind you of the context in which this issue arises, explain why transparency and robust accountability are a strategic national security imperative, and to expose the self-interest of voices counseling against accountability.

You recently received a letter from seven former CIA directors “urg[ing] you to exercise your authority to reverse Attorney General Holder's August 24 decision to re-open the criminal investigation of CIA interrogations….”1 We are grateful that you dismissed their self-serving and internally inconsistent diatribe, and instead affirmed “that nobody’s above the law.”2

On the other hand, your actions in other arenas indicate a troubling willingness to sweep torture under the rug, rather than openly address our nation’s regrettable recent history. First, your administration reversed an earlier decision to disclose evidence of torture, and lobbied Congress to secure a legislative exemption entitling the Defense Department to keep that evidence secret.3 Secretary of Defense Robert Gates executed that authority just last week,4 as former White House Counsel Greg Craig (the senior official reportedly most responsible for what little progress your administration has made towards accountability) announced his resignation.5

Whether committed in the context of “enhanced” or coercive interrogation, extraordinary rendition, or force feeding, any incident of torture or kidnapping violated international law. Read more.