Other powerful players are taking the view that questions about the Bush administration's torture policies are so serious they can be answered only by a bipartisan, in-depth investigation. Among them is Rep. John Conyers, a Michigan Democrat and chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, who introduced a bill to establish a blue-ribbon commission to investigate Bush's alleged abuse of executive war powers and civil liberties. The commission would be similar to the panel that investigated the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001.
The pressure on the Obama team escalated last week when a senior Bush Administration official admitted that Guantanamo interrogators and guards had tortured one of the detainees, Mohammed al Qahtani, a Saudi national accused of planning to take part in the September 11, 2001, attacks
The official, Susan Crawford, a retired judge who oversees the military tribunals for Guantanamo Bay inmates, told The Washington Post, "We tortured Qahtani. His treatment met the legal definition of torture. And that's why I did not refer the case" for prosecution. According to press reports, Qahtani had proved impervious to standard military interrogation in 2002 when former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld authorized special methods to break his will.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) described the admission as "stunning" but said the Bush administration was still planning, on its final full day in office, to prosecute other detainees who had been tortured.
Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney have said that the United States does not torture. But Cheney has admitted publicly that a technique known as waterboarding - which simulates drowning - was administered to three detainees.
Bush Administration officials, including the president, vice president, and Attorney General Michael Mukasey do not acknowledge that waterboarding constitutes torture. But Obama's nominee for Attorney General, Eric Holder, testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee last week, unequivocally declared, "waterboarding is torture."
The significance of the phrase "The First Hundred Days" stems from the Administration of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who took office during the Great Depression. In 1933, he called Congress back from a recess to hold a special emergency session, during which more than 15 bills - the heart of FDR's New Deal -- were passed and signed into law. The hundred day mantra has been the gold standard for American presidents ever since.
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