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Edited on Sun Aug-01-10 12:30 PM by annm4peace
(tomorrow is the 8th anniversary of the torture memo's, and activists in MN have since Franken ran for office, to hold those who wrote the memo's, who ordered, and participated in torture to be held accountable.. we have asked Franken to issue a statement calling for an investigation and to join our fast tomorrow)
July 28, 2010
Dear Diane,
Thank you for contacting me regarding the torture of detainees under the Bush Administration. I appreciate hearing from you on this very important topic and regret the delay in responding.
Torture is a grave moral wrong. It is illegal, and it is at odds with American values and the rule of law. The same can be said of cruel, inhumane, and degrading treatment. Nor is there any evidence that such violations of American law, values, and morality are necessary to keep the United States safe.
Yet, as is well known by now, the Bush administration made the decision to authorize the use of what it called "enhanced interrogation techniques" on detainees in our conflict with Al Qaeda. The worst of those techniques, such as waterboarding, are undeniably torture in and of themselves. Together, the techniques used in the interrogation program by the Bush administration amounted to a systematic effort to dehumanize and torment the detainees subject to them. Worse still, the interrogation program was authorized at the highest levels of the Bush administration in part thanks to a series of weak, implausible, and distorted legal opinions produced by the Department of Justice.
The current administration has thankfully condemned the use of torture in the interrogation of detainees in our conflict with Al Qaeda and other terrorists. This is certainly one reason why our standing in the world has risen - and this standing is an important national security asset and tool.
I support efforts to get a complete understanding of what led to inappropriate activities in the Bush Administration. There are several ongoing investigations looking into the Bush administration's torture program and its legality. I want to see the complete truth aired, even as we move beyond these grave errors and focus on protecting the national security of the U.S. consistent with our nation's values and laws.
Thank you again for writing me on this very important issue and please don't hesitate to write or call again in the future regarding any matter of concert to you.
Sincerely,
Al Franken
United States Senator
Date: Thu, 29 Jul 2010 21:06:19 +0000
Dear Senator Franken:
I have seen a June 28, 2010, letter you sent to Ms. Diane X , that addresses some of the issues a group I am inovlved with raised in a February 24, 2010, meeting with Avinash Viswanathan and a July 21, 2010, meeting with Daniel Fanning. I truly do appreciate your addressing these issues in this letter to Ms. X . Our group has been trying to get a response for several months now.
The following thoughts are mine alone. I think the larger group may be communicating with you some time soon.
In your letter, which I have reproduced below, I especially liked your reference to torture being "illegal and...at odds with...the rule of law,"
as well as your realization this "was authorized at the highest levels of the Bush administration." I do feel, however, there is one small further step you should take.
One small step for Sen. Franken, one giant leap for the United States. Given that you believe waterboarding is torture, that torture is illegal, and that torture was authorized at the highest levels, it doesn't seem to be a huge step for you to take to call for holding those who were involved accountable. In fact, the Convention Against Torture calls for precisely that. This relatively small step for you, however, would be a giant leap for our country. If you think our standing in the world has risen in recent years -- and that may be due largely to our having elected as President anybody but Bush -- imagine what it would be if we began fulfilling our commitments to law, to treaties, and to international standards of justice by truly holding our own people accountable for torture. That would mean investigating and, if necessary, prosecuting those who conspired to torture, those who authorized, ordered, "legalized," and committed torture. This would truly give meaning to your words about "American values and the rule of law."
Accounting vs. accountability. In your letter, you support "efforts to get a complete understanding" and seeing "the complete truth aired." I am not sure if this is a reference to something like a "truth commission" that Sen. Leahy unsuccessfully proposed. I find nothing about that idea on your website. But if you are calling for some kind of accounting of what occurred, I believe that would not amount to accountability.
In the 1970's, then-Senator Walter Mondale sat on the Church Commission, which did an accounting and a disclosure of vast amounts of government lawbreaking. Few if any, however, were held criminally liable. Those efforts led to legislation, e.g., FISA, which the commission hoped would solve the problems their investigations disclosed. Today, however, Vice-President has expressed his dismay that in a single generation we have returned to widespread governmental lawbreaking. I believe one major reason is that we got an accounting in 1976, not accountability. Let us not make the same mistake again.
Moreover, no high Bush administration official is going to testify without getting immunity. From what we have seen of the Bush administration, even with immunity, they may refuse to testify.
Looking forward. I am sure you have heard the oft-quoted statement of President Obama that "we need to look forward as opposed to looking backwards." And I am sure you have heard the many criticisms of that statement. But with us both being Jewish -- in fact, if you went to the Talmud Torah, you may well have had my father for a teacher -- I know we would have felt the sentiment of that expression preposterous if applied to the decades-long hunt and prosecutions of Nazi war criminals. Of course the war crimes of recent years do not rise to the level of what the Nazis did, but this alleged opposition between "looking forward" and "looking backward" is a false dichotomy. We can only look forward if we do indeed look backward, learn from our past, and hold accountable those who deserve to be held accountable.
Renewed invitation to act on Aug. 1 or Aug. 2. So I renew the invitation of our larger group for you to mark the eighth anniversary of the issuance of the John Yoo/Jay Bybee torture memos on Sunday, Aug. 1, by issuing a statement in support of investigating and, if necessary, prosecuting all those responsible for torture committed on behalf of the United States. We ask that you make this statement public, that you submit it to President Obama and Attorney General Holder. Just as Hubert Humphrey, while running for the Senate for the first time in 1948, bucked the Democratic Party establishment and the President of the United States, called for us to "walk forthrightly into the bright sunshine of human rights," you can talk one small step for Senator Franken and possibly enable our country to take one giant leap. As Herb Brooks said, "This is your time."
Sincerely,
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