Friday, November 12, 2010

Good Morning: Fridays Are Always Good

Look for a high of about 61 degrees and bright sunshine today. Not a bad way to end the week. And you're thinking about venturing outdoors on Saturday and Sunday, don't worry: Both days will be rain-free with a high of about 64 degrees.

I wonder for how long and how far the call to initiate a criminal investigation of former president George Bush for war crimes will go. That thought --whether you think it's a good idea or not-- will certainly move your brain from sleep to awake mode. Sure, there have been calls to have probes about the waterboarding of prisoners, but now that the former president has admitted giving the order to torture, things are different. The Huffington Post reports that the ACLU has written a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder that says:
In his recently published memoirs, President Bush discusses his authorization of the waterboarding of Khalid Sheik Mohammed and Abu Zubaydah. He states, for example, that he "approved the use of the [enhanced] interrogation techniques," including waterboarding, on Abu Zubaydah, and that he responded to a request to waterboard Khalid Sheik Mohammed by stating: "Damn right." George W. Bush, Decision Points 169-70 (2010).
The Department of Justice has made clear that waterboarding is torture and, as such, a crime under the federal anti-torture statute. 18 U.S.C. § 2340A(c). The United States has historically prosecuted waterboarding as a crime. In light of the admission by the former President, and the legally correct determination by the Department of Justice that waterboarding is a crime, you should ensure that Mr. Durham's current investigation into detainee interrogations encompasses the conduct and decisions of former President Bush. The ACLU acknowledges the significance of this request, but it bears emphasis that the former President's acknowledgment that he authorized torture is absolutely without parallel in American history. The admission cannot be ignored.
What happens next?

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