Asked why he's so animated now, Romero said: "It's 18 months and, if not now, when? . . . Guantanamo is still not closed. Military commissions are still a mess. The administration still uses state secrets to shield themselves from litigation. There's no prosecution for criminal acts of the Bush administration. Surveillance powers put in place under the Patriot Act have been renewed. If there has been change in the civil liberties context, I frankly don't see it."
After eight years of a Bush presidency that seemed to have little respect for the rule of law, progressives were hoping for a quick about-face from Obama. But it hasn't happened:
"The unwillingness of the administration to stick by its guns and prosecute the Sept. 11 defendants in criminal court does not bode well for the broader civil liberties agenda," he said. "The fact they've not announced anything raises the specter of doubt that, in itself, is debilitating to the Justice Department and raises serious questions about the administration's commitment to the rule of law. Their silence speaks volumes."
The silence indeed speaks volumes. And if the administration does not soon begin to speak up on justice issues, we suspect Democrats are going to pay a price at the ballot box in November.
Romero long has been a prominent voice calling for the prosecution of Bush-administration officials. He has said that the rule of law must hold fast, that no one down the chain of command should be viewed as "too small-level a criminal" to prosecute--and no one up the chain of command should be "too much of an untouchable criminal" to pursue. That, Romero says, includes George W. Bush himself.
Here is a video from about a year ago in which Romero makes a very clear statement about his position. It's a position we think the Obama administration should adopt pronto:
ACLU Director Calls for Prosecution . . .
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