ACLU: Obama creating ‘a sweeping immunity doctrine for torturers’

[Bluebear]

WASHINGTON -- The nation's pre-eminent civil rights organization ACLU on Thursday slammed President Obama for shielding the Bush administration from accountability for its "dangerous torture policy," and insisted that this "lack of transparency" severely threatens the future of constitutional liberty in the United States.

"The Bush administration constructed a legal framework for torture," Jameel Jaffer, Director of ACLU's National Security Project, said in a conference call with reporters. "Now the Obama administration is constructing a legal framework for impunity."

While he credited Obama for having disavowed torture under his watch, Jaffer said that "on every front, the administration is actively obstructing accountability by shielding Bush officials from civil liability, criminal investigation and even public scrutiny for their role in authorizing torture."

"It's the last month of 2009, and not a single torture victim has had his day in court," said ACLU Attorney Ben Wizner. "Not a single court in a torture case has ruled on the legality of the Bush administration’s torture policies."...

The Obama administration has evaded transparency by "seeking to cover up details of enhanced interrogation programs," said Alex Abdo, ACLU's attorney for torture FOIA lawsuits, citing the president's refusal to release photos, memos and documentation that detail instances of torture -- largely under the pre-text of state secrets.

"The effect of the Obama administration's argument across these civil cases is the creation of a sweeping immunity doctrine for torturers," said Abdo, citing as one example Obama's defense of torture memo author John Yoo.

"The government can engage in torture, declare it a state secret or a matter of national security, and by virtue of that declaration avoid any accountability for conduct that the entire world and the United States have always recognized as illegal in all instances," he said.

"We're frustrated by the growing gap between Obama administration's rhetoric on accountability and the reality," Jaffer said.

http://rawstory.com/2009/12/aclu-obama-creating-a-sweeping-immunity-doctrine-torturers/

[annm4peace]

1. check out what they are doing in Minnesota about torture!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x7200731

[leftstreet]

2. I'm gonna be sick

:puke:

[slipslidingaway]

3. knr nt

[midnight]

4. Bad news on the door step....

[taught_me_patience]

5. simply disgusting. I support the ACLU.

This ain't the change I voted for.

[Bluebear]

6. That's who I am spending my hard-earned dollars now

They are doing more for us now than the charade that politics has become.

[Goldstein1984]

7. Disgusting...

Time to put both Amnesty International and the ACLU back on my charity list.

Thanks for the post.

[mmonk]

8. Thanks.

I still remember the dishonesty that matters to me when Obama was a candidate whereby he claimed he would defend the Constitution against all Presidents who abuse it.

[Bluebear]

11. We are only supposed to remember his promises about Afghanistan.

[slipslidingaway]

13. So true! n/t

[pleah]

9. K&R

[Stinky The Clown]

10. Nothing to see here. Move along. It is for good reasons. He knows what he's doing.

He's a good man. He has our best interests at heart. He's the most wildly liberal president in history. This is for the sake of presidential privilege going forward. We can't look back. This is an important principle for governance.

What have I missed ....... ?

[Forkboy]

12. Like the ACLU knows anything about the Constitution.

:hide:

[Bluebear]

15. "Whiners". nt

[bigtree]

14. although the president has said his administration will not torture

His edicts only apply to his own administration, not future ones if they want to change or ignore the policy he's set. Outside of that edict, there's no visible effort from the WH to codify that into law. Coupled with the Justice Dept. playing defense for Bush, it amounts to what Amnesty describes here.