ndy Worthington, author of the Guantanamo Files, criticizes the way the Obama administration is handling torture cases from the administration of his predecessor George W. Bush.
"Part of the ongoing problem with the Obama administration [is that they are] not holding anyone in the Bush administration accountable for torture," Worthington said in a phone interview with Press TV's U.S. Desk on Tuesday.
The Justice Department recently announced that, of the 101 cases involving alleged illegal treatment of post-9/11 detainees by the CIA and its contractors, 99 were being closed. The remaining two, which involved deaths in custody, would continue to be investigated.
The decision to drop virtually all these cases is based on a policy promulgated by Attorney General Eric Holder shortly after he took office. Reiterating this policy on June 30, Holder wrote that the Justice Department "would not prosecute anyone who acted in good faith and within the scope of the legal guidance given by the Office of Legal Counsel regarding the interrogation of detainees."
"What really should have been examined was not the activities of just a handful of individuals who may have exceeded the rules but who was responsible for implementing these bent rules in the first place," Worthington added.
He concluded that "the Obama administration is putting a lid on the Bush administration's torture program" calling that "disgraceful."
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