June, 01 2010, 01:35pm EDT
ACLU Renews Call For Accountability At Start Of Torture Awareness Month
Group Launches "A Document A Day" To Highlight A Formerly-Secret Document Every Day In June
NEW YORK
The American Civil Liberties Union today
renewed its call for the Obama administration to hold Bush-era
government officials accountable for the torture and abuse of detainees
in U.S. custody. Despite disavowing torture, the current administration
continues to shield from civil liability, criminal investigation and
public scrutiny Bush administration officials who authorized torture.
Among other things, the Obama
administration continues to withhold from the public key documents
relating to the CIA's rendition, detention and interrogation program;
has urged courts not to allow torture victims to bring claims under the
Constitution; and has invoked the "state secrets" privilege to shield
Bush administration officials from civil liability. An ongoing
investigation of the torture program initiated by the Justice Department
in August 2009 excludes top-level officials.
"It's not too late for the Obama
administration to reconsider the positions it has taken in court, and
it's not too late for the Justice Department to expand the scope of its
criminal investigation," said Jameel Jaffer, Deputy Legal Director of
the ACLU. "If the administration doesn't change course now, it will
institutionalize impunity and do irreparable damage to the rule of law."
In observance of Torture Awareness
Month, the ACLU will highlight a formerly-secret document related to the
torture and abuse of detainees in U.S. custody every day in June on The
Torture Report, at www.thetorturereport.org.
Through several Freedom of
Information Act (FOIA) lawsuits, the ACLU has uncovered tens of
thousands of pages of formerly-secret government documents related to
the abuse and torture of prisoners in U.S. custody overseas. The Torture
Report, an initiative of the ACLU's National Security Project, aims to
give the full account of the Bush administration's torture program by
bringing together government documents, investigations, press reports,
witness statements and other publications into a single narrative.
Published serially online, The Torture Report is regularly updated, and
subject to critical review and improvement as it unfolds.
"These documents leave no doubt that
under the Bush administration the United States violated domestic and
international bans on torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading
treatment, committing abuses we shielded from the eyes of the world,"
said Larry Siems, principal author of The Torture Report. "Few of these
abuses have been properly investigated and still fewer prosecuted, and
there is too little public conversation about our legal and ethical
obligations to seek the healing and recovery of those we have abused. We
cannot move forward until we fully confront the abuses of the past and
hold accountable government officials who knew about and authorized the
illegal torture program."
The Torture Report is online at: www.thetorturereport.org
More about the ACLU's torture FOIA
litigation is at: www.aclu.org/accountability/released.html
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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Trump has picked Harmeet Dhillon as Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights. She has stated that it must be "made unsafe" for hospitals to provide trans care, and frequently shares Libs of TikTok posts. She intends to target trans people in blue states. Subscribe to support my journalism.
[image or embed]
— Erin Reed (@erininthemorning.com) December 10, 2024 at 8:14 AM
Reed continued:
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