Ethics

Washington Post: Rule of Law? What Rule of Law?

By Ed Brayton

The Washington Post had an op-ed the other day endorsing that we need to have investigations and prosecutions over torture during the Bush administration -- but only for those "rogue" interrogators who went beyond what the Yoo memos pretended they could legally do.

We reject the distorted interpretations that underpin the OLC memos and that serve as legal justification for harsh interrogation techniques that either border on or constitute torture. But those who relied on the memos and shaped their behavior in the good-faith belief that they were following the law should not be subject to prosecution. It is an entirely different story for those who went well beyond the often-extreme measures authorized by the memos.

Full post as published by Dispatches from the Culture Wars on July 30, 2009 (boomark / email).