Hiatt: Bipartisan Commission on Torture

Fred Hiatt, op-ed editor of The Washington Post, suggests a bipartisan commission to examine Bush administration interrogation practices.

On the one hand, this is a nation of laws. If torture violates U.S. law -- and it does -- and if Americans engaged in torture -- and they did -- that cannot be ignored, forgotten, swept away. When other nations violate human rights, the United States objects and insists on some accounting. It can't ask less of itself. Yet this is also a nation where two political parties compete civilly and alternate power peacefully. Regimes do not seek vengeance, through the courts or otherwise, as they succeed each other. Were Obama to criminally investigate his predecessor for what George W. Bush believed to be decisions made in the national interest, it could trigger a debilitating, unending cycle.

There is a better, though not perfect, solution, one that the administration reportedly considered, rejected and should consider again: a high-level, respected commission to examine the choices made in the wake of Sept. 11, 2001, and their consequences. Such a commission would investigate not just the Bush administration but the government, including Congress. It would give former vice president Dick Cheney a forum to make his case on the necessity of "enhanced interrogation techniques." It would examine the efficacy of such techniques, if any, and the question of whether, even if they work, waterboarding and other methods long considered torture ever can be justified. But a fair-minded commission -- co-chaired by, say, former Supreme Court justices Sandra Day O'Connor and David Souter -- could help the nation come to grips with its past and show the world that America is serious about doing so. It could help Americans understand how this country came to engage in what many regard as vile and un-American practices. It might help the country respond better the next time it is frightened.

Senator Pat Leahy (D-VT) called for such a commission in March. Stuart Taylor discussed a similar idea in July, 2008 in Newsweek. Hiatt joins Taylor in suggesting that granting amnesty in exchange for the truth may avoid accusations of political revenge while enabling a clarified US policy for the future.

Though I would hesitate to give the policy-makers in the Bush administration a legal pass for sanctioning torture, I might consider doing so for a higher goal: ensuring that such practices are never repeated by this nation.

--Ballard Burgher