The T-Word

At his press conference last night President Obama responded to a question about Bush Administration interrogation policies and whether those policies sanctioned torture. Obama said:

"What I've said – and I will repeat – is that waterboarding violates our ideals and our values. I do believe that it is torture. I don't think that's just my opinion; that's the opinion of many who've examined the topic.... I believe that waterboarding was torture."

This seems like an important development. As we now know from Justice Department memos, the Bush administration sanctioned waterboarding. If the Obama administration believes that waterboarding is torture, that would seem to obligate – not allow but obligate – the administration to investigate and prosecute. As this post by Glenn Greenwald explains, the Convention on Torture is American domestic law, and it requires state parties like the United States to investigate and prosecute torture that occurs within their borders.

Of course it's the Attorney General, not the President, that decides whether to bring charges for violations of federal law. But unless Eric Holder disagrees with the President about waterboarding being torture, it would seem that – whatever Obama's personal predictions about "moving forward" and not "looking back" – Holder doesn't really have much of a choice. He can investigate and prosecute or he can himself become a criminal. And when I say that, that's not a political statement, that's the law.

Surely Obama knows this. It makes me wonder whether he really wants this issue to go away. If he did, he would probably have avoided using the t-word – because that word has all sorts of legal implications.