Prosecute Torture Conspirators Now

Update: Conason: If Dick Cheney believes he can prove that torture saved us from terrorist attacks, why does he oppose a full investigation?

Appealing to state power to set things right, for justice, is a political act just as defenders of torture say it is.

Listening to the words of Karl Rove and Dick Cheney and this deplorable array of liars as they deny-defend-rationalize torture is a political act, just as doing nothing is a political act.

It's a high hurdle for state prosecution but it has been met.

We can't help the victims of American torture now, but we can help ourselves and make it more difficult for this to happen again: Prosecute the group of torture conspirators working under cover of state to inflict this crime.

But forget about a bipartisan commission. We need a commission of human rights advocates and rule-of-law adherents. We need Robert H. Jackson dedicated to Reason.

This is a historical moment for President Obama, a morally defining moment. Don't blow it!

From Frank Rich:

"Five years after the Abu Ghraib revelations, we must acknowledge that our government methodically authorized torture and lied about it. But we also must contemplate the possibility that it did so not just out of a sincere, if criminally misguided, desire to 'protect' us but also to promote an unnecessary and catastrophic war. Instead of saving us from 'another 9/11,' torture was a tool in the campaign to falsify and exploit 9/11 so that fearful Americans would be bamboozled into a mission that had nothing to do with Al Qaeda. The lying about Iraq remains the original sin from which flows much of the Bush White House’s illegality."