TORTURE MEMOS - AUTHORS SHOULD BE PUT ON TRIAL FOR CRIMES VIOLATING GENEVA CONVENTIONS

The Bush torture memos just released yesterday make for depressing reading. How is it possible that Steven Bradbury, deputy assistant attorney general, could write that protections of the Geneva Conventions against torture did not apply to prisoners held outside of the United States? Or that the seriousness of the threat by Al Qaeda justified the use of waterboarding, dousing with cold water, slamming heads against walls, confinement in small boxes, and other procedures just as reprehensible?

We need to hold to account these people who wrote legal memos justifying these horrendous practices. When Barack Obama says the government will not prosecute those who carried out these methods of torture, this is surely a miscarriage of justice. Everyone who violates the law, especially laws designed to protect the dignity and human rights of prisoners, should be brought before the bar of justice. This includes Steven Bradbury, John Yoo, Douglas Feith, David Addington, John Bolton, Donald Rumsfeld, Condoleeza Rice, Dick Cheney and George Bush.