Yes, We Did Torture

A positive development to report from the anti-torture front: Attorney General Holder has announced that the Office of Professional Responsibility report on the role of Department of Justice attorneys in justifying the use of torture in violation of international and federal law should be publicly released by the end of the November. This is only a first step toward holding US officials accountable for their implementation of torture as official US policy in the so-called "Global War on Terror":

The administration also did the right thing by deciding to try major terrorists in federal criminal court in Manhattan and not by military commission in a private chamber of the Guantanamo gulag. The public criminal trial is sine qua non for reestablishing the rule of law after eight years of an installed regime that shredded the Constitution in the name of national security. If Americans are to remain a free people, they cannot afford to be afraid, despite political opinions--no matter how asinine--to the contrary. The US criminal justice system has prosecuted 195 terrorists since the attacks of September 11, 2001 with a 91% conviction rate.