Plain and simple question to those noting that waterboarding is torture (which it truly is): What legal actions can be taken against them considering what we know so far?

  • We know already as I’ve stated from my earlier post that the CIA destroyed interrogation tapes and that a CIA agent admitted to using waterboarding.
  • We know that there was extraordinary rendition to other countries as through secret flights (whether through NATO, other countries, or just American flights is still to be seen)
  • The US has court-martialed men who used waterboarding during the battle in the Philippines (speaking of which, why can’t the media ever reference these cases? Are they really that lazy and dumb that they cannot go out and do some Google searches or go to a library and study up before they ask our Attorney General?)
  • The US has executed former Nazis for the use of “enhanced interrogations” (see previous lazy/dumb media comment
  • A military spokesman in front of Congress could not even say whether Iranian military using waterboarding on American troops was torture! (What more do you need of how wrong America has turned these days and how no one f-in care–note how few American religious leaders have spoken out publicly on this)
  • Worst is the implicit and tacit acknowledgment now from the President’s spokeswoman that all interrogations done by the US were legal. (She won’t go into whether waterboarding was legal, but follow the simple reasoning: If CIA agent A says he did waterboarding and Prez spokeswoman B says all interrogations were legal, then it goes to follow that waterboarding done by Administration C is not considered torture).

Can someone please provide me or everyone in a public setting exactly what can be done (if at all possible) to build a legal case against any of the following people:

  • Those who specifically tortured others
  • Those who authorized the approval of torture
  • Those who knew about it within the administration and did nothing
  • Those who heard about it from the administration and said nothing

Then I’d like to know which of the following is possible, why, how, and how likely to be arrested:

  • US State laws
  • US Federal laws
  • Other nations’ laws (eg: from the citizens they tortured)
  • International laws (eg: UN Geneva Conventions)

The reason I ask is that it’s one thing to be worked up and yell and implicitly blame the Bush Administration for torturing, but I’d like to know from some bright legal mind what it really takes to get that going so I’m not just getting worked up for nothing in the long run (read: Oliver North’s Great Escape).

Oh, and a side note: I know that Harman was trying to be funny (which is really poor taste for such an important issue), but please, if you’re going to say that you can’t remember because of your age, it’s time to step down and let other people who will actually do their jobs take over.