Whatever my personal feelings about who is ultimately responsible for the Bush administration's torture policy and who should be prosecuted, the fact remains that not prosecuting interrogators who crossed the line is hard to square with our obligations under the law. But what's even harder to square with that is the idea that the immunity offered by Obama is universal, applying to interrogators who stayed within the lines, those who went beyond what was allowed, and the architects of the policy. Rahm Emanuel said this yesterday in an interview with George Stephanopoulos:
Yes, but those who devised policy, he believes that they were -- should not be prosecuted either, and that's not the place that we go -- as he said in that letter, and I would really recommend people look at the full statement -- not the letter, the statement -- in that second paragraph, "this is not a time for retribution." It's time for reflection. It's not a time to use our energy and our time in looking back and any sense of anger and retribution.
This is absolutely impossible to reconcile with our obligations under the Geneva Convention and the International Convention Against Torture, as Glenn Greenwald has pointed out previously. I think there's something of a distinction here between "following orders" and being told by the OLC that a particular practice is legal, but that's an argument for another time. However, there wasn't exactly message unanimity on the subject, as David Axelrod said something completely different on CBS' Face The Nation:
Well, the president has said, if there were agents of the United States government acting on legal advice that what they were doing was legal and appropriate, that they should not be prosecuted.Obviously, a clarification is in order. We may get one soon, as Obama is scheduled to speak at the CIA today.
If people acted outside the law, that's a different issue. But the main point is the president has banned these enhanced interrogation techniques. We have turned the page on this episode in our history. We have so many challenges in front of us, in terms of our national security, our relations in the world.
-- A. Serwer
