May, 14 2009, 11:00am EDT
Attorney General Holder to Face House Committee
ACLU Says Committee Members Should Press for a Prosecutor to Investigate Torture Crimes
WASHINGTON
Attorney General Eric Holder, appearing today before the House Judiciary Committee, will face questions on his operation of the Justice Department. Though the hearing is a general oversight hearing, the hearing likely will be dominated by committee members pressing the attorney general for a top-to-bottom criminal investigation of the legal culpability of those involved in the Bush administration's torture program.
The ACLU has been strongly urging Holder to appoint an independent prosecutor to investigate the interrogation techniques against detainees held by the United States. Last month, a petition supporting that action was delivered to Holder with over a quarter million signatures gathered by the ACLU and several other groups.
"Attorney General Holder can no longer put off the decision to criminally investigate those responsible for torture," said Caroline Fredrickson, Director of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office. "No one is above the law. It is not enough to simply admonish those responsible; they must be held to the same legal standards as any American who committed a crime. Those who ordered and implemented the horrific policies of torture must be brought to justice. The appointment of an independent prosecutor is a vital step towards restoring America's rule of law."
There is mounting public evidence that crimes of torture were committed, including memos produced by the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) obtained through FOIA litigation brought by the ACLU, several congressional hearings and a report released last month by the Senate Armed Services Committee. These documents make clear that important decisions on the use of torture and abuse were made in the White House, at the Pentagon, and at the headquarters of the CIA and the Justice Department.
Additionally, yesterday the Obama administration reversed its decision to make public by May 28 a "substantial number" of photos depicting the abuse of prisoners by U.S. personnel. The photos, which were ordered to be released in response to an ACLU Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, include images from prisons in Iraq and Afghanistan at locations other than Abu Ghraib.
"Instead of hiding evidence of torture by locking away photos and documents, the Obama administration should be focused on appointing an independent prosecutor to investigate whether top government officials committed torture crimes," said Christopher Anders, ACLU Senior Legislative Counsel. "Only a full and fair criminal investigation can assure Americans that we can reclaim our values, that no one is above the law, and that torture has stopped and will not happen again."
The American Civil Liberties Union was founded in 1920 and is our nation's guardian of liberty. The ACLU works in the courts, legislatures and communities to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to all people in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States.
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United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said Thursday that he is "deeply concerned" by Israel's "recent and extensive violations of Syria's sovereignty and territorial integrity," including a ground invasion and airstrikes carried out by the Israel Defense Forces in the war-torn Mideastern nation.
Guterres "is particularly concerned over the hundreds of Israeli airstrikes on several locations in Syria" and has stressed the "urgent need to de-escalate violence on all fronts throughout the country," said U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric.
Israel claims its invasion and bombardment of Syria—which come as the United States and Turkey have also violated Syrian sovereignty with air and ground attacks—are meant to create a security buffer along the countries' shared border in the wake of last week's fall of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and amid the IDF's ongoing assault on Gaza, which has killed or wounded more than 162,000 Palestinians and is the subject of an International Court of Justice genocide case.
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"Killing people is not the way we're going to reform our healthcare system," he said. "The way we're going to reform our healthcare system is having people come together."
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Addressing the assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson and conversations it has sparked about the country's for-profit system, longtime Medicare for All advocate Sen. Bernie Sanders on Wednesday condemned the murder and stressed that getting to universal coverage will require a movement challenging corporate money in politics.
"Look, when we talk about the healthcare crisis, in my view, and I think the view of a majority of Americans, the current system is broken, it is dysfunctional, it is cruel, and it is wildly inefficient—far too expensive," said Sanders (I-Vt.), whose position is backed up by various polls.
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"Killing people is not the way we're going to reform our healthcare system," Sanders added. "The way we're going to reform our healthcare system is having people come together and understanding that it is the right of every American to be able to walk into a doctor's office when they need to and not have to take out their wallet."
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The 83-year-old Vermonter, who was just reelected to what he says is likely his last six-year term, is an Independent but caucuses with Democrats and sought their presidential nomination in 2016 and 2020. He has urged the Democratic Party to recognize why some working-class voters have abandoned it since Republicans won the White House and both chambers of Congress last month. A refusal to take on insurance and drug companies and overhaul the healthcare system, he argues, is one reason.
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In addition to highlighting Sanders' interview on social media, Congressman Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) pointed out to Business Insider on Wednesday that "you've got thousands of people that are sharing their stories of frustration" in the wake of Thompson's death.
Khanna—a co-sponsor of the Medicare for All Act, led in the House of Representatives by Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.)—made the case that you can recognize those stories without accepting the assassination.
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Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.)—a co-sponsor of Sanders' Medicare for All Act—similarly toldHuffPost in a Tuesday interview, "The visceral response from people across this country who feel cheated, ripped off, and threatened by the vile practices of their insurance companies should be a warning to everyone in the healthcare system."
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Reporters Without Borders' (RSF) 2024 roundup, which was published Thursday, found that at least 54 journalists were killed on the job or in connection with their work this year, and 18 of them were killed by Israeli armed forces (16 in Palestine, and two in Lebanon).
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