The Osterley Times: Tortured Law.

Monday, October 12, 2009

Tortured Law.

Alliance for Justice have produced a short film questioning the role of Bush's lawyers and the advice which they gave; which led, essentially, to torture being deemed "legal" by Yoo, Bradbury, Bybee, Addington and others.

The Obama administration must investigate what these men did. The damage which has been done to the United States' image abroad was only possible because these men fashioned their reading of the law to suit Cheney's demands.

Alliance for Justice:
President Barack Obama has ended six years of American torture of suspected terrorists arising from the aftermath of the 9-11 attacks. The torture was originally outlined and sanctioned in 2002 by a series of memos drafted by lawyers in the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel. Were these lawyers simply giving the President their best legal advice? Or was their work part of a larger criminal conspiracy to distort the law and authorize torture?

Attorney General Eric Holder recently announced an investigation of low-level CIA operatives who exceeded the grisly authority provided by the “torture memos.”

But the superiors who ordered these actions, and the lawyers who provided the legal cover have not been held accountable. Will there be a full investigation that follows the evidence up the chain of command?

Tortured Law, a new 10-minute documentary by Alliance for Justice, examines the role lawyers played in authorizing torture, and calls upon Attorney General Holder to conduct a full investigation of not only the CIA operatives, but of the torture memo authors.