This week I traveled to Franklin, Hancock, and Penobscot counties for meetings with ACLU of MAINE members. On Sunday, I join a group of MCLUers in Porter in Oxford County for a house party. I am so inspired by these conversations and gatherings.
On Tuesday, George shared the following blog post from Daily Kos with me:
The blog post cites Lincoln's General Orders No. 100. Specifically, Article 16 states:
"Military necessity does not admit of cruelty - that is, the infliction of suffering for the sake of suffering or for revenge, nor of maiming or wounding except in fight, nor of torture to extort confessions."
On Monday the government is scheduled to release the CIA Inspector General's torture report. The government is required to turn over the report on August 24 in connection with a long-running ACLU Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit seeking documents related to the treatment of prisoners in U.S. custody overseas. The CIA is also facing an August 31 deadline to turn over dozens of additional documents related to the Inspector General's investigation and the CIA's torture program in general.
We at the ACLU are calling for a release of the report with minimal redactions. With release of these documents in addition to the tens of thousands of pages of torture documents already compiled by the ACLU through our FOIA lawsuits, we are finally assembling a more complete picture of torture policies under President Bush.
It is increasingly clear that Mr. Bush was no Lincoln Republican. Those who violated international law and our Constitution should be held accountable if we are to truly ensure that torture never happens again. Attorney General Eric Holder should appoint an independent prosecutor to investigate and prosecute these crimes. Congress should convene a select committee or appoint an independent commission to review how torture was allowed to happen in our name.
"Necessity does not admit of cruelty."
