Human Rights Watch has released a report calling on the U.S. to launch a criminal investigation into Bush II and his employees who have employed and rationalized torture. The intellectual apologist for torture in the U.S. is UC-Berkeley law professor, John Yoo. John Yoo drafted the 8/1/02 Interrogation Opinion, a document which stated that water boarding, sleep-deprivation and painful stress positions are legally permissible during times of war. Of course this is contrary to the torture convention, a treaty the U.S. along with over 100 nations ratified. The treaty states that torture is an infliction of severe mental and physical pain. Guess what? Water-boarding, sleep-deprivation and painful stress positions fall into this category.
George W. Bush in an interview with Matt Lauer admitted that his legal team (John Yoo of course) told him that water-boarding was not torture. Furthermore, John Yoo in an interview with Charlie Rose, said torture or as he termed it “aggressive interrogation” was legitimate because Israel does it. The problem is that simply because another nation does it does not change the fact that it is illegal for the U.S. to conduct torture. That would be like saying I can beat my wife in the U.S. (please don’t curse me feminists I am not even married and I am not a future wife-beater) because men in Somalia can beat their wives. It’s an absurd logic.
But let’s not simply stop with John Yoo. Let’s bring all of the Bush Six and George W. Bush himself to justice. Thus we the people of the U.S. must put political pressure on our government to correct its past mistakes. It is highly unlikely that Eric Holder will prosecute the Bush Six by his own free-will if he hasn’t done so already and there is no reason to think that he simply is ignorant of the facts. This story is not new nor is it obscure. The New York Times has reported on it and Spain has filed charges against the Bush Six.