U.S. Tortured Detainees And Top Officials Are Responsible: Report

 

 

WASHINGTON -- A two-year independent investigation by the Constitution Project released Tuesday said that U.S. forces engaged in torture and senior officials bear responsibility for it.

The nonpartisan, 577-page report concluded that the events of the "war on terror" following the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks were "unprecedented" in American history. While the authors concede that some U.S. forces have committed brutal acts, they wrote that there has been no evidence that a U.S. president and top officials discussed the legality and effectiveness of "inflicting pain and torment on some detainees in custody."

The report is a rebuke to President Barack Obama's opposition to investigating torture under the Bush administration. As he said in an interview following his election in 2008, Obama has advocated "a belief that we need to look forward as opposed to looking backward."

"Task Force members believe that having as thorough as possible an understanding of what occurred during this period of serious threat -- and a willingness to acknowledge any shortcomings -- strengthens the nation, and equips us to better cope with the next crisis and ones after that," the authors wrote. "Moving on without such a reckoning weakens our ability to claim our place as an exemplary practitioner of the rule of law."

Former Reps. James Jones (D-Okla.) and Asa Hutchinson (R-Ark.), head of the Drug Enforcement Administration under President George W. Bush, co-chaired the task force that conducted the report. The 11 task force members said they conducted dozens of interviews but had no access to classified information.