Open Letter on Torture

I am writing you today to voice my concern over the recent remarks by President Obama and his Administration that they will not pursue any investigation into the torture of prisoners by CIA operatives. Nor will they investigate the Bush Administrations ordering, authoring and obfuscation, through legal semantics, of torture. Under international law and treaties signed in good faith by America and her representatives, this is completely illegal; no matter the circumstances or reasoning behind it.

I am a vocal supporter of President Obama and am amazed on a daily basis by the achievements he, with the assistance of Congress, has already accomplished in such a short time in office. I chose to give him and Congress the time to discuss investigating the alleged war crimes due to the multiple crises we are currently facing. I can no longer keep silent now that they have disallowed any investigation into the recent release of the “torture memos”, the boasting by former Vice President Cheney and the statements by members of the American Red Cross, the internationally recognized authority on what constitutes torture.

I, as your vocal and ardent constituent and supporter, urge you to lend your support to any preliminary and subsequent attempts at a full Congressional investigation into these alleged war crimes. We cannot hope to, as President Obama states, “move forward” by ignoring a complete disregard to the rule of law by our duly appointed leaders. Defenses of ”following orders” and “legal definitions” were not defenses in The Nuremberg Trials, in the trials following the Japanese internments of WWII and they must not be a defense now. We have a duty to show that those who break our laws, no matter their office, pay the penalties.

We must do these things not because they are easy or convenient, but because they are right. The right way is often the hardest and most inconvenient; but it is through these times that we set the measure of ourselves and our country.