Tell Holder: It's time to prosecute Cheney.
The news is buzzing that Dick Cheney would welcome a commission to investigate Bush-era torture - but we need to make it clear that a mere investigation is not enough. What we need is a prosecution.
The buzz intensifed on May 10, when Cheney told CBS' Bob Schieffer that he hopes for a public discussion of the CIA memos on torture - or, as he refers to it, "enhanced interrogation techniques."
Why would Cheney hope this? Because he believes the torture was justified. As Andrew Sullivan put it, Cheney "believes that freezing naked prisoners to hypothermia or strapping them to a board for a 175th near-drowning or stringing them up in stress positions so long the shackles rust up is in line with America's constitutional history and custom."
Cheney told Schieffer that he hopes CIA memos on torture will be released and examined by journalists and the public.
Mr. Cheney, we'd like to do you one better. We'd like those memos to be examined by a special prosecutor.
Only after a thorough investigation by a U.S. attorney will we know for sure whether and to what extent Cheney broke the law and besmirched the Constitution while serving in the Bush administration. And if he did break the law, he deserves to be prosecuted and sent to prison.
