No more Abu Gharib-style scapegoating....

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Friday April 17, 2009 · 5:28 AM PDT

2009/04/17 · 05:28

This time around, we should go right to the top.

Justice Department documents released yesterday offer the fullest account to date of Bush administration interrogation tactics, including previously unacknowledged strategies of slamming a prisoner into a wall and placing an insect near a detainee terrified of bugs.

Authorities said they will not prosecute CIA officers who used harsh interrogation techniques with the department's legal blessing. But in a carefully worded statement, they left open the possibility that operatives and higher-level administration officials could face jeopardy if they ventured beyond the boundaries drawn by the Bush lawyers.

The release of these shocking memos has given the world proof positive that the Bush administration engaged in what most civilized people would consider to be torture at least and war crimes at best. Not since the days of the Nuremberg trials have we seen such an example of government sanctioned criminal behavior. And I agree with President Obama's stated intention not to prosecute the CIA officers who actually engaged in these activities. But he most certainly has left the door open for the prosecution of those high officials in the Bush administration who gave legal cover for these wrongs using the most spurious and specious "legal" arguments ever conceived.

We do not need to see a repeat of the show trials which followed in the wake of the Abu Gharib debacle. According to our military leaders and Bush administration officials, no one above the rank of sergeant either condoned or had knowledge of those activities. And with the connivance and complicity of Republicans in the Congress and right-leaning media, that lie was rammed down the public's throat day after day. And with the usual mixture of balls and bravado, they managed to bury the truth with the prosecution of the lowest people in the chain of command.

Not this time. This time action must be taken to bring to justice those in the highest echelons of power who conceived, constructed, and commanded these terrible violations of human rights. Not only should the Congress take action but also the Justice Department as well as the International Court at the Hague which has been bringing such miscreants to justice over the last few years. We can only echo the cry heard around the world since 1946...

Never again.

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