A New York Times editorial
published Monday called on United States President Barack Obama
to prosecute "torturers and their bosses" including former vice
president Dick Cheney in connection with the CIA torture scandal
that came to light following a Senate Intelligence Committee
report earlier this month.
According to the New York Times, such a criminal
investigation "is not about payback - it is about ensuring that
this never happens again, and regaining the moral credibility to
rebuke torture by other governments".
The editorial called for the indictments of Cheney, his
then chief of staff David Addington, former CIA Director George
Tenet, lawyers John Yoo and Jay Bybee, who drafted the so-called
"torture memos", CIA Agent Jose Rodriguez, who ordered
videotapes of the torture sessions destroyed, the psychologists
who came up with the techniques, and CIA staffers who carried
the torture out.
Also on Monday, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)
and Human Rights Watch (HRW) sent US Attorney General Eric
Holder Jr. a letter requesting the appointment of a special
prosecutor to investigate what they said was "a vast criminal
conspiracy to commit torture and other serious crimes under
color of the law".
On Monday, the US, along with other countries, will meet
with the UN Security Council to denounce North Korea for
systematic violations of human rights in its prison camps.
A damning US Senate report earlier this month revealed the
CIA used "brutal" interrogation methods on terrorism suspects
and misled policymakers in the White House about them.
"Today's report by the Senate Select Committee on
Intelligence details one element of our nation's response to
9/11 - the CIA's detention and interrogation program, which I
formally ended on one of my first days in office," Obama said in
a Decembe 9 statement.
"The report documents a troubling program involving
enhanced interrogation techniques on terrorism suspects in
secret facilities outside the United States, and it reinforces
my long-held view that these harsh methods were not only
inconsistent with our values as nation, they did not serve our
broader counterterrorism efforts or our national security
interests".
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