This Must Be Investigated

Harper's recently published a bombshell article by Scott Horton which destroys the government's claim that the three prisoners who died at Guantanamo committed suicide. It is riveting, and it should be read.

Keith Olberman interviewed Horton last night:

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Why should you care?

Well, as a human being and an American, you should be outraged that our government is torturing innocent people to death. You should be outraged that our Justice Department is engaged in covering up these crimes. And you should be outraged that our government is still engaging in torture and coverup that seems to be almost intentionally making the US a less secure country.

The claims of suicide, made by the Pentagon and repeated by the Justice Department, are so unbelievable as to be insulting. Horton makes the point in his interview that instead of following their mission statement-

To enforce the law and defend the interests of the United States according to the law; to ensure public safety against threats foreign and domestic; to provide federal leadership in preventing and controlling crime; to seek just punishment for those guilty of unlawful behavior; and to ensure fair and impartial administration of justice for all Americans.

-the Justice Department is instead acting as a massive criminal defense firm, whose goal is to cover up all evidence of crimes committed by the administration and the military.

Sadly, as Glenn Greenwald has pointed out, the mainstream media is all but ignoring this story, because they know they are complicit in allowing our government to get to this point. Indeed, on the day after this interview, despite this story being widely available on MSNBC and all over the internet, there is not one mention of it on CNN and it was buried at the NY Times.

The Obama administration and the Justice Department have shown that they cannot be trusted to investigate these possible crimes. This is a sad state of affairs, and it's indicative of how far down the rabbit hole our country has gone.

We must demand that Congress immediately hold hearings and allow the testimony of Sgt. Hickman and the other key figures. Congress should then appoint an independent counsel to further investigate these claims, and to prosecute those responsible, no matter how far up the political chain it goes.

The moral character and security of our nation demands no less.