The CIA torturers should be prosecuted

The brutal methods outlined in the Senate report (Dan Keating;Bonnie Berkowitz and Lazaro Gamio/Committee Study of the Central Intelligence Agency’s Detention and Interrogation Program, staff reports)
Part of Obama’s reluctance was undoubtedly fear of how divisive prosecutions could be. Because prosecutions would likely include the senior Bush administration officials who approved the torture, their allies in Congress predictably would object and might raise obstacles to Obama’s legislative agenda.

Obama’s disinclination, however, has hardly won him a cooperative Congress. In other areas, such as immigration reform and environmental protection, the president has largely given up on finding common ground across the aisle and has started doing what he thinks is right whenever he has authority to act on his own. That same approach should lead him to stand on principle, U.S. law and the requirements of the Convention against Torture, and allow the investigation and prosecution of the Bush-era torturers.