Picking at the Scab

Guess what? Human Rights Watch still wants to prosecute former President George W. Bush for torture. You knew that already? Yeah, so did I. But just in case anyone has forgotten, the group has released a new 107-page report that urging that:

Human Rights Watch believes there is sufficient basis for the US government to order a broad criminal investigation into alleged crimes committed in connection with the torture and illtreatment of detainees, the CIA secret detention program, and the rendition of detainees to torture. Such an investigation would necessarily focus on alleged criminal conduct by the following four senior officials—former President George W. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, and CIA Director George Tenet. Such an investigation should also include examination of the roles played by National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice and Attorney General John Ashcroft, as well as the lawyers who crafted the legal “justifications” for torture, including Alberto Gonzales (counsel to the president and later attorney general), Jay Bybee (head of the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel (OLC)), John Rizzo (acting CIA general counsel), David Addington (counsel to the vice president), William J. Haynes II (Department of Defense general counsel), and John Yoo (deputy assistant attorney general in the OLC).

Starting on page 50, the report contains a brief discussion of relevant statutes of limitations, a discussion that acknowledges that an eight-year statute of limitations may apply to acts of torture, and that a five year statute of limitation applies to conspiracy liability. Quickly doing that math, that means the window of opportunity to put President Bush in the dock may start to close soon. Maybe when all of the statutes of limitations have run, we finally can stop picking at this particular scab.