Muckraker Blog

This article (http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/09/opinion/pardon-bush-and-those-who-tortured.html?ref=opinion&_r=0 ) was posted December 6, 2014 and written by Anthony D. Romero. According to this New York Times article George Bush issued a secret order that allowed the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) to build secret prisons overseas. And the CIA actually allowed it! This took place before George Bush left office. Now, president Obama wants to pardon this incident!

Many groups and organizations have been searching for the people who were in charge of these illegal prisons for 13 years. They even tried to call a special prosecutor to try and find the truth, or if it actually was the truth, or both but now the calls have been disregarded. This means that the people who were responsible can’t be prosecuted for the crimes because the statute of limitations has run out.

Now Obama and the Justice Department has not shown willingness to hold anybody accountable. And apparently it abused the “state secrets” authority to deflect cases brought up by prisoners. Also, if our military captured the leader of the Islamic State who had valuable information about the torture camps, there would be a very high chance that the interrogators would use very illegal methods which the Obama administration has not allowed.

Even though the statute of limitations has run out, not all of them have. So this means that Obama’s Administration could still take measures to hold accountable the officials who authorized the torture. The Senate even has a blue print for the criminal investigations, even though the intelligence committee did not say to do that.

I believe that Obama’s choice to pardon this whole case could be good and bad. It could be good because it could stop from illegal interrogations to takes place and it could be bad because if they do pardon this case, the torture camps could continue to run and torture people.