Former Guantanamo Prosecutor: Prosecute Those Who Authorized Torture → Washingtons Blog
Former Guantanamo Prosecutor: Prosecute Those Who Authorized Torture - Washingtons Blog

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Former Guantanamo Prosecutor: Prosecute Those Who Authorized Torture

Darrel Vandeveld served as a prosecutor in the Guantanamo military commissions. He resigned due to ethical problems with the tribunal system, and is currently serving as a Lieutenant Colonel in the Army Reserve.

Vandeveld co-wrote an op-ed with the president of the ACLU calling for the prosecution of torture:

Torture is a crime and the United States engaged in it. Those are two indisputable facts...

The process of self-examination and accountability has been, and remains, the only way to move forward and regain our moral and legal grounding...

We have a Department of Justice for a reason, and now it's up to Attorney General Holder, the nation's top law enforcement officer, to do his job and appoint an independent prosecutor to follow the evidence where it may lead...

It is critical that we hold accountable those who authorized, those who legally sanctioned and those who implemented the torture policies of one of the darkest periods in our nation's history. What is at stake is nothing less than our democracy.

Thank you to Colonel Vandeveld for being a patriot and standing up for the United States. You are in very good company, sir.

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