A Question of Torture

Campus Report ^ | January 22, 2009 | Bethany Stotts

[bs9021]

A Question of Torture

by: Bethany Stotts, January 22, 2009

Barack Obama’s recent nominations to the Department of Justice's Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) and other pressures have led some media organizations to question whether an executive order against torture may be one of the new president’s initial policies.

The National Religious Campaign Against Torture (NRCAT) launched a campaign to pressure President Obama to issue an executive order (EO) to countermand George W. Bush’s EO 13440 by January 20th; with no EO, the coalition is now counting the days until it’s issued.

And the Obama team is paying attention. As New York Times writer Laurie Goodstein reported on January 14, “Leaders of the coalition [NRCAT] met with officials from the Obama transition team on Wednesday afternoon and emerged saying they were optimistic about the prospects for such an order.”

“He gave every indication that it’s going to happen, not necessarily on Day 1, but that it’s going to happen...So we’re encouraged. We still believe that it would be a very, very important statement to the nation and the world, were it to take place on Day 1,” Goodstein quoted NRCAT’s president, Linda Gustitus.

However, Goodstein wrote, “Officials in Mr. Obama’s transition office declined to comment on whether an executive order would be coming.”

An article released by CNN on January 19th, citing unnamed Obama aides, reports the continued possibility of such an executive order: “In addition to an executive order closing the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, aides said the incoming president is considering another executive order that would specifically ban the use of torture on terror suspects.”...

[rjsimmon]

the incoming president is considering another executive order that would specifically ban the use of torture on terror suspects.

Then, just like Bush's Attorney General, Obama's AG will have to ask the question: "What is torture?".