We need investigations. This new disclosure of a quick memo from the Office of Legal Counsel five days prior to the end of w's administration disavowing memos over five years old is amazing. Enlightening. Shocking.

I want full investigations. But I am still for a 'truth commission' with subpoena powers.

I am against torture. Propaganda has made torture look like a necessity for over a hundred years.

Every single television drama employs it. Hollywood films depend upon it.

Your personal experience is shocking and probably reflects the experience of thousands of other children.

This is a fine post. TheraP is so interested in this subject as are so many others at this site.

I agree with you, Rowan. A special prosecutor must be appointed. Whether there should be public hearings, I'm not sure about that, since I think at first justice must be pursued quietly so that people can come forward with their evidence without the possibility of any public reprisal - I am thinking of whistle-blowers here. At a certain stage, public hearings may become necessary. But I would much prefer that the FBI and prosecutors go about their work as they usually do - in the background.

Your plea is a powerful one. Especially your plight as a child and how that plays into the fact that torture is nothing but sadism and the desire to try and control the will of the victim. Sadism you experienced. But your will did not break. For you grew up. And you speak the truth.

My heart goes directly to your heart. I have worked with victims of torture in childhood, even much worse than you describe. It is painful for the therapist. It is hugely painful for the person who has been victimized. For as you likely know, to tell the truth makes it more real and more painful for a while. It requires tremendous courage. For it goes against all the threats that accompanied the torture.

I am literally having trouble thinking as I wrote the above paragraph. Torture is that disruptive, even to its witnesses across time and space. My mind is numb.

Torture not only harms the victims. But those forced to engage in torture are harmed as well. Guards of tortured prisoners are harmed. Many will come forward to tell their stories. They should not have to do so in public.

Thank you for this blog. I commit myself once more to never give up until we see justice done here. Over and over I've written about this. I'm glad you're doing so as well.

I am also counting on Dawn Johnson, the head of OLC. If you've not read her, you will be glad to know that she too believes there was torture and it must be investigated and prosecuted. (If you want a link, it's back in my blogs and I can easily find it.)

This blog deserves to move up. I would gladly give up my place for this blog - if such were possible.

Yes. I posted some of my own thoughts on this here. At some point, I don't care whether or not we grant immunity. I think we must air the nation's dirty laundry even if it lacks real teeth in the realm of punishment. Our failure to at least do that, wholly undermines whatever moral authority we still maintain in the world.

I continue to believe that the prosecution of international war crimes requires international pressure. I wish domestic pressure was enough but it isn't and it shouldn't have to be.

How should this international pressure manifest itself? One way is for certain countries to set pre-conditions before sitting down with the U.S. for diplomatic talks.

Those pre-conditions should be the complete investigation and prosecution of all those in the Bush administration who committed war crimes.

Don't misunderstand me. I want Obama and Sec. Clinton to succeed with their foreign policy agenda but I think part of that is to make things right with the rest of the world.

I don't think there is any stomach for investigations or prosecutions of any type either of the WH or anything congress may have done.

There is just too much exposure for government in general. Right now, with the mood of the country, investigations etc would push an already deeply stressed population that much closer to the edge. I happen to think the Bush administration intentionally ignored FBI warnings of fraud in real estate, mortgage and banking and if an investigation starts it will morph into an all out political war.

It needs to be recognized that the situation right now is every bit as serious an emergency as 9/11 or Katrina, probably greater. Preventing a major global depression has to be the focus right now. That has a lot of pieces and will take all the resources the WH and congress can muster. Unfortunately, the republicans are in total disarray so they aren't going to be any help even if they were so inclined. That pretty much leaves everything up to democrats.

As an interesting aside I haven't liked a lot of the decisions of Speaker Pelosi. However she is perfect in this circumstance. She is all about partisan politics, is mean as hell and after Obama is the one person we have to have a lot of trust in. Her decisions will almost always lean to protecting the democratic majority in the house. Apart from that she'll get the job done.

The politically pragmatic view would specify that democrats understand Bush has handed them at least ten years of control that could easily be stretched to two decades if democrats play their cards well. While it may suck big time for some people, I think others are willing to make that trade off. The upside is democrats get a real opportunity to reverse three decades of republican control that brought us all this grief. Its a choice between being assured of well more than half a loaf and risking everything for the whole thing. Political prudence says to take the sure win.