Speaking at the National Press Club on Monday, former Reagan administration Associated Attorney General Bruce Fein lamented President Barack Obama's decision to shut his eyes to open confessions of war crimes by members of the prior administration.

"It's at the highest levels that the rule of law finds its greatest majesty," he told reporters. "That's why the United States was so idolized after Nixon left. We said that the most powerful man in the world is subject to the law. He cannot defy it."

"[Today] we have an instance where the President of the United States -- Harvard Law Review, a Constitutional Law professor who knows what the law is -- shuts his eyes to open confessions," he said. "We authorized torture, for which there is no exception."

Fein was speaking on behalf of Velvet Revolution, a coalition of over 150 peace and religious groups

leading the charge to get attorneys involved in the Bush administration's torture program thrown out of office and the legal profession.