This week, Human Rights Watch (HRW) issued a 159-page report titled, “No More Excuses: A Roadmap to Justice for CIA Torture.”
This detailed report sets forth a compelling legal case for the
criminal prosecution of senior US officials for their roles as
conspirators and accomplices in the illegal Central Intelligence Agency
torture program (2001-2009).
The report names names: “US officials who created, authorized, and
implemented the CIA program should be among those investigated for
conspiracy to torture as well as other crimes. They include: Acting CIA
General Counsel John Rizzo, Assistant Attorney General for Office of
Legal Counsel (OLC) Jay Bybee, OLC Deputy Assistant Attorney General
John Yoo, an individual identified as ‘CTC Legal’ in the Senate Summary,
CIA Director George Tenet, National Security Legal Advisor John
Bellinger, Attorney General John Ashcroft, White House Counsel Legal
Advisor Alberto Gonzales, Counsel to the Vice President David Addington,
Deputy White House Counsel Timothy Flanigan, National Security Advisor
Condoleezza Rice, Defense Department General Counsel William Haynes II,
Vice President Dick Cheney, and President George W. Bush. In addition,
James Mitchell and Bruce Jessen, CIA psychologist contractors who
devised the program, proposed it to the CIA, and helped carry it out,
should also be investigated for their role in the initial conspiracy.”
“We believe there is also sufficient evidence to investigate others
who were not necessarily part of the initial conspiracy but who later
joined it,” the report states. “Others should not only be investigated
for torture but also for offenses such as war crimes, assault, and
sexual abuse.”
The report reads like a criminal indictment. It provides
point-by-point highlights of the CIA program in all its depraved and
sadistic detail. The report also covers the attempts by the Bush
administration to provide a pseudo-legal cover for the program, as well
as attempts by the Obama administration to cover it up and shield the
perpetrators from liability.
The report identifies specific US officials, victims, dates,
documents, and other particulars, with emphasis on the roles of the
senior officials who orchestrated the program. The report brings
together material from numerous sources, including the heavily redacted
executive summary of the Senate Intelligence Committee’s report
on the CIA torture program, media reports, internal executive
department memoranda, investigations by Human Rights Watch and other
institutions, and even chilling hand-drawn images of the implements of
torture by the victims themselves.
More at
http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2015/12/05/tort-d05.html