Dear Mr Holder

Letter to Attorney General Eric Holder:

No one is above the law. No one. This is perhaps the single most fundamental principle of American justice.

Hundreds of years ago James Madison wrote that "The means of defense against foreign danger historically have become the instruments of tyranny at home," and "I believe there are more instances of the abridgement of freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments by those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations."

Both of these statements remain as true today as when he wrote them. Tyranny begins in declarations of defense, and even if wrapped in the American flag it remains profoundly un-American.

Information in the public domain - including information provided by those at high levels in their self-justifying, or self-congratulatory books - makes clear that decisions about the torture program were made at the highest levels of the Bush administration. In order to ensure that such atrocities are not repeated, the Justice Department's criminal investigation must follow the facts, and must follow the law, regardless of where it takes us. No one - no one - can be above the law. Only if all are held accountable will justice be seen to be done.

While I applaud your initiation of a criminal investigation into the Bush torture program, I call on you to widen your scope. Focussing on 'rogue' interrogators misses those who authorized and encouraged them. I call on you to widen the scope of that investigation to include senior government officials who authorized and facilitated torture, whoever (and I mean whoever) they may be.

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