Portrayal of C.I.A. Torture in Bin Laden Film Reopens a Debate

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/13/us/zero-dark-thirty-torture-scenes-reopen-debate.html?ref=todayspaper

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Thu, Dec 13, 2012 at 10:16 AM
Subject: re: Portrayal of C.I.A. Torture in Bin Laden Film Reopens a Debate
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

    As Scott Shane notes, our CIA's use of torture under president George W. Bush was "morally and politically treacherous".  As much as anything else, the American electorate rejected this in voting for change and for president Obama. But the CIA's actions were also illegal, and it is to "take care that these laws be faithfully executed" that we elected a new Executive. Law enforcement necessarily looks backwards, not forwards, because that's were the evidence of crimes is. 

   Even as we go forward in setting policies for our future, we must be investigating and prosecuting our crimes of the past.

Barry Haskell Levine