As vice president, Dick Cheney was a prime architect of
the worldwide torture regime implemented by the U.S. government
(which extended far beyond waterboarding), as well as the invasion
and destruction of Iraq, which caused the deaths of at least 500,000
people and more likely over a million. As such, he is one of the
planet’s most notorious war criminals.
President Obama made the decision in early 2009 to block
the Justice Department from criminally investigating and prosecuting
Cheney and his fellow torturers, as well as to protect them from
foreign investigations and even civil liability sought by torture
victims. Obama did that notwithstanding a campaign decree that even
top Bush officials are subject to the rule of law and, more
importantly, notwithstanding a treaty signed in 1984 by Ronald Reagan
requiring that all signatory states criminally prosecute their own
torturers. Obama’s immunizing Bush-era torturers converted torture
from a global taboo and decades-old crime into a reasonable,
debatable policy question, which is why so many GOP candidates are
now openly suggesting its use.
But now, the Obama administration has moved from legally
protecting Bush-era war criminals to honoring and gushing over them
in public. Yesterday, the House of Representatives unveiled a marble
bust of former Vice President Cheney, which — until a person of
conscience vandalizes or destroys it — will reside in Emancipation
Hall of the U.S. Capitol.
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