Obama's First 100 Days

After ending American torture, will we prosecute those who ordered other war crimes?

By Nat Hentoff

Pressure is building on the new president from his more urgent supporters to begin validating their audacious hopes within his first 100 days. Special heat is on to abolish torture. After all, during Obama's 60 minutes interview on November 16, he said: "I'm going to make sure we don't torture." As I noted last week, he could stop it eventually with an executive order, but for many, that's not soon enough.

On November 13, the National Religious Campaign Against Torture assembled more than 50 delegations of religious leaders in Washington—from Rabbi Gerry Serotta, chair of Rabbis for Human Rights, to Dr. Ingrid Mattson, president of the Islamic Society of North America—to tell Obama to sign that executive order as soon as he gets into the Oval Office.

Also pushing Obama is Amnesty International, which is giving him 100 days to show the world that he actually means what he says about being repelled by torture. But Amnesty International also wants the President to do something else that he may be extremely reluctant to consider: "[We call] on the President-elect to support an independent commission of inquiry into all aspects of the United States' detention practices in the war on terror, and to assure full accountability for human rights violations committed in that context."

With regard to serial war crimes, "accountability" would mean putting on trial George W. Bush, Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney and his longtime associate, David Addington, and a coven of lawyers from the Justice and Defense departments.

http://www.villagevoice.com/2008-12-03/columns/obama-s-first-100-days/