Good afternoon, sir. Thank you for inviting me here to the Hay Adams. Yes, let’s all get in the elevator. I agree, it will be easier to talk in your suite.

V-e-e-ry nice accomodations.  And what a great view of the White House. Well, soon you and your lovely ladies will settle in there.

No thank you, I don’t need anything from the minibar.

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Sir, I know you’ve spent much of my allotted hour reading the research I presented you earlier, but I’d  like to emphasize just a few things.

First, a personal observation. When I was one of half a dozen New Yorkers invited as special guests of the city of Florence right after 9/11, the Florentines said that they felt that they were New Yorkers, too. They opened their gardens and palaces. And their hearts. Their mayor cried by our sides.

A few years later, I was walking in Roman twilight with friends. We had just finished some pasta and Chianti. We were laughing and feeling warm and connected. Then we turned a corner, and there they were, posters hung along a fence by an empty lot: the first horrific photos to come from Abu Ghraib. Dozens of hooded visages.

Night was falling and it seemed eerie. My Roman friends were as shocked as I was. One of them said, “This has to be propaganda from Al Qaeda. The United States wouldn’t do such a thing.” 

They were embarrassed for me. I was embarrassed for us, and saddened beyond measure. That night at my hotel a friend said, “You should be ashamed. What has your country become?’” And of  course, that was just the beginning of what we were to see and learn about our torture policy. And the ending of the world’s good will.

Sir, you’re well aware that you can’t count on prisoners’ words spoken under duress.  And torturing others puts our own people at risk. You’ve agreed with prospective CIA director Leon Panetta’s words last year, that torture is “illegal, immoral, dangerous, and counterproductive. And yet, the president is using fear to trump the law.” He also rejected George Bush’s illegal, warrantless eavesdropping on Americans. I was, if I may say so with respect, surprised by your support of the FISA bill, in that regard. Maybe Director Panetta will influence you there.

Anyway sir, for the past years Congress has gone along with Bush-Cheney policies regarding torture, secret prisons overseas, the abuse and degradation of prisoners, renditions for torture on an outsource basis, and deceitful spin about the whole shameful situation. I'm so pleased you’ve pledged to end all of this. You’ve said that “under my administration, the United States does not torture.” You’ve said that your new team would tell you the truth rather than “what they think the president wants to hear.”

But some Washington insiders are defensive, and will try to continue the Bush policies. Will you stand up to that pressure at whatever political price?  That’s why I ‘m lobbying you today.

Even further sir, you and the C.I.A. need to demand a full public accounting of the misdeeds of the last eight years. The agency needs to make clear that torture and other abusive practices must be banned, to keep us safe and to restore our reputation. And as you have promised, Guantánamo, the weeping sore of our country, must be closed.

President Bush redefined torture to exclude anything he authorized. What a ploy, sir. He included waterboarding, stress positions and forced nudity, prolonged isolation, threatening dogs — degradation outlawed by civilian law, military statutes and international treaties. Your administration needs to locate and override all of the policy memos, directives, and weasley-worded executive orders that have redefined and condoned these practices.

And you’ll have to fight with Congress to repeal the law exempting the intelligence agencies from the rules requiring humane treatment of prisoners. No more hiding behind these exemptions. You’ll have your hands full on that alone. And you and Director Panetta will have to defend the honest, outspoken professionals who were ignored and penalized for the last eight years.

Director Panetta and Admiral Dennis Blair — your new director of national intelligence — will have to decide whether the post-9/11 reorganization makes sense or has just added another layer of bureaucracy. May I suggest, also, if you do keep it as such, that Homeland Security be renamed in less, well, fascist terms.

All this is a lot, sir, I realize, considering the endless problems you inherit as you take office. But when I was in New Zealand recently, my guide said that she and her young son stayed up until three in the morning to see your victory speech live on TV. She told her son that the United States is going to be a great country again. The world wants to believe in us. The world is watching.

But it’s not just how the world feels about us, sir. It’s about how we feel about ourselves. We need to be proud again.

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Well, that’s all I have to say, and I hope I’ve made my case. I’ll leave so that you can go over your inauguration address. You must really be working on one for the ages. We’re expecting an oration in the Lincoln /FDR /JFK mold.

No pressure, sir.

Thank you again for your precious time , Mr. President-elect. What? No, sorry, I don’t smoke. I know you can use a cigarette after all we've just discussed, but better if you don’t sir. We need you healthy for the next eight years.

Sure, I’d be honored to come to the White House to meet Michelle. You think we would hit it off? Terrific. Yes, then I could stay a while and go over this topic more with you.  And  yes, of course overnighting in the Lincoln Bedroom would be fine.

No sir, it would be just me .….