Put the Right People in Jail

All the torture news this past week reminds me of when the Democrats won back the House a few years ago. I felt that to impeach Bush would be to sink to the level of the other side. Only later as the list of crimes grew and grew did I come to the conclusion that Bush and Cheney should face the constitutional remedy for high crimes and misdemeanors, if only to deter the next would-be executive evil-doers.

Now Obama has released Bush administration torture memos and announced that he will not prosecute CIA officers who acted under them. He said that he would not stand in the way of the Attorney General or Congress should they decide to investigate or prosecute those behind these crimes.

Good. This fish stinks from the head down. The timing is significant as these abuses began when the administration was trying to order up intelligence reports to prove that Saddam was connected to Al Qaeda in order to justify the Iraq war they wanted.

A bit of unfinished business first. Eleven U.S. soldiers were convicted of abusing prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. One soldier, Army Specialist Charles Graner is still in prison serving a ten year sentence. The defense in these cases was that these soldiers were following orders from higher-ups. Turns out now that yes, this torture, kidnapping and killing was approved at the highest levels of the Bush administration.

President Obama should pardon the Abu Ghraib Eleven. Then we can watch the Congress and the Justice Department sort out who should really be in prison.