Two weeks after the New York Times published an op-ed explaining how formal pardons could be used to acknowledge wrongdoing by former Bush administration officials in regards to the CIA’s “torture” program, the newspaper’s editorial board on Monday urged the White House to prosecute former Vice President Dick Cheney.
“The question everyone will want answered, of course, is: Who should be held accountable? That will depend on what an investigation finds, and as hard as it is to imagine Mr. Obama having the political courage to order a new investigation, it is harder to imagine a criminal probe of the actions of a former president,” the Grey Lady’s board wrote in an editorial, titled “Prosecute Torturers and Their Bosses.”
“But any credible investigation should include former Vice President Dick Cheney; Mr. Cheney’s chief of staff, David Addington; the former C.I.A. director George Tenet; and John Yoo and Jay Bybee, the Office of Legal Counsel lawyers who drafted what became known as the torture memos,” the editorial continued. “There are many more names that could be considered, including Jose Rodriguez Jr., the C.I.A. official who ordered the destruction of the videotapes; the psychologists who devised the torture regimen; and the C.I.A. employees who carried out that regimen.”
However, in an op-ed published on Dec. 9, 2014, titled “Pardon Bush and Those Who Tortured,” American Civil Liberties Union’s Executive Director Anthony D. Romero took a much more nuanced approach to the question of what should be done with those who authorized the U.S.’ “torture” program.
Unlike the New York Times’ editorial board, Romero said prosecution is highly unlikely and that emotion-based arguments should be discarded in favor of formal pardons. He argued that for President Obama to even consider issuing formal pardons will acknowledge wrongdoing during the Bush administration.
“While the idea of a pre-emptive pardon may seem novel, there is precedent. Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson pardoned Confederate soldiers as a step toward unity and reconstruction after the Civil War. Gerald R. Ford pardoned Richard M. Nixon for the crimes of Watergate,” he wrote.
“The spectacle of the president’s granting pardons to torturers still makes my stomach turn. But doing so may be the only way to ensure that the American government never tortures again. Pardons would make clear that crimes were committed; that the individuals who authorized and committed torture were indeed criminals; and that future architects and perpetrators of torture should beware. Prosecutions would be preferable, but pardons may be the only viable and lasting way to close the Pandora’s box of torture once and for all,” he added.
A spokesman for the New York Times did not respond to a request for comment.
