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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsPeace Prize Laureates Urge Disclosure on U.S. Torture
WASHINGTON A dozen Nobel Peace Prize laureates are urging President Obama to make full disclosure to the American people of the extent and use of torture by the United States, including the release of a long-delayed Senate report about the C.I.A.s torture of terrorism suspects after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
The laureates told Mr. Obama, who was awarded the Peace Prize himself in 2009, that the reports prospective release has brought the United States to a crossroads, and that he must do more to bring closure to an era when the United States set an example that will be used to justify the use of torture by regimes around the world.
It remains to be seen whether the United States will turn a blind eye to the effects of its actions on its own people and on the rest of the world, or if it will take the necessary steps to recover the standards on which the country was founded, and to once again adhere to the international conventions it helped to bring into being, they wrote.
The joint letter was organized by two of the laureates, Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa and former President José Ramos-Horta of East Timor, and is part of a broader online petition campaign at TheCommunity.com, whose chairman is Mr. Ramos-Horta. An advance copy was provided to The New York Times.
More at
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/27/us/politics/peace-prize-laureates-urge-disclosure-on-us-torture.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&version=HpSumSmallMediaHigh&module=second-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news
marym625
(17,997 posts)I know what I think but no one asked me
n/t
marym625
(17,997 posts)rhett o rick
(55,981 posts)marym625
(17,997 posts)We're all screwed
I am joking, of course.
I believe that but I also believe he could do it. Or something.
AtomicKitten
(46,585 posts)I believe the White House's official position will be to redact the shit out of the report and hold back all they can. The effort seems odd since it's not a big secret that the Bush Admin employed widespread torture and that Bush/Cheney lied their asses off about it. In my eyes, failing to prosecute those pieces of shit was Obama's biggest mistake/moral failing. The American people and the world body deserve the unvarnished truth. Let the sun shine in and let the chips fall where they may.
marym625
(17,997 posts)That failure not only was contrary to what he ran on, it pretty much showed the world we don't give a shit. We'll do whatever we want, wherever we want, whenever we want. All international agreements be damned.
AtomicKitten
(46,585 posts)I believed in him, his integrity, his goodness. He often spoke of "the arc of the Moral Universe is long but it bends towards justice," but didn't apply it to his governance. He had the world in the palm of his hand and could have effected real change, but did not. The disappointment I feel is profound.
choie
(4,111 posts)n/t
marym625
(17,997 posts)Same for so many. It's much more than a damn shame.
rhett o rick
(55,981 posts)he answers to a higher power. The NSA/CIA have a tremendous amount of power.
AtomicKitten
(46,585 posts)I believe they were in on/had knowledge beforehand of the assassination of JFK.
rhett o rick
(55,981 posts)I believe the CIA is extremely powerful.
RufusTFirefly
(8,812 posts)I'm not expecting miracles.
Luminous Animal
(27,310 posts)Tierra_y_Libertad
(50,414 posts)rhett o rick
(55,981 posts)I want to see Cheney and Rummy prosecuted, but also those that did the hands on torture. "Just following orders." isn't a legitimate defense.