Dear Friend and Reader:
As I type these words, I cannot quite yet summon enough belief that this is happening: Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, announced a hearing on the formation of a special subcommittee to investigate the Bush Administration’s use of torture on prisoners.
Having lived through eight years of the Bush Administration and stuffing down helpless rage watching what Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Gonzales did in the name of 9-11, what Leahy proposes to do is something I thought I’d never see: opening the padlocked door to the darkest room of America’s house. This is the room where we tortured individuals, primarily Muslims, under the banner of 9-11 and national security. To do so, our former leaders worked around national and international laws based on the Constitution and the Geneva Convention to extract information using the most cruel means as possible.
“When historians look back at the last eight years, they will evaluate one of the most secretive administrations in the history of the United States,” Leahy said in remarks provided by his office. “We also know that the past can be prologue unless we set things right. The last administration justified torture, presided over the abuses at Abu Ghraib, destroyed tapes of harsh interrogations, and conducted ‘extraordinary renditions’ that sent people to countries that permit torture during interrogations.”
“Nothing has done more to damage America’s standing and moral authority than the revelations that, during the last eight years, we abandoned our historic commitment to human rights by repeatedly stretching the law and the bounds of executive power to authorize torture and cruel treatment,” Leahy said.
Holding on to a cynicism bred by three decades of panels, subcommittees and special prosecutors investigating everything from Nixon’s enemies list to consensual sex between the president and an intern, I’m a mix of skeptical and hopeful. Will a special committee be enough to bring charges or will there need to be more hearings, more special investigators and more Senate sub-committees? Will the true perpetrators be brought to justice? Will we shine enough light on this dark room so that we can end the barbaric practice of torture and change our ways in handling our security in this modern world without cruelty? Will this be enough to stop it once and for all?