White House: Obama not proposing truth commission

[babylonsister]

White House: Obama not proposing truth commission
By Sam Youngman
Posted: 04/22/09 04:01 PM


The day after opening a can of worms by saying he is open to a truth commission to investigate the authors of the controversial Bush-era enhanced interrogation memos, the White House stressed Wednesday that President Obama is neither proposing nor initiating those proceedings or the formation of a truth commission.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs, talking to reporters aboard Air Force One as the president traveled to Iowa, said any decision to prosecute the authors of the legal memos would come from the Justice Department and "it has to be done outside of the realm of politics."

Last week, Obama publicly released the memos, which deal with controversial interrogation methods like waterboarding, but he said at the time that the Justice Department would not prosecute intelligence officers who conducted what many have called torture techniques on captured enemy combatants.

The president has come under heavy fire from Republicans including Vice President Cheney and Sen. Kit Bond (R-Mo.) for releasing the memos.

On Tuesday, Obama further raised the ire of the GOP when he told reporters that he is open to the creation of a truth commission to investigate Bush administration officials who drafted the memos authorizing the enhanced interrogation methods.

Doing damage control after the story exploded, Gibbs said Wednesday that the president would have no role in forming such a commission or prosecuting former Bush administration officials.

"If you go in the back of the plane, Air Force One, and spray-paint the walls and smoke in the bathroom, the president isn’t going to determine whether you broke the law; a legal official is going to determine whether you broke the law," Gibbs said. "That's the determination that will be made in any instance whereby anybody knowingly breaks the law."

more...

http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/white-house-obama-not-proposing-truth-commission-2009-04-22.html

[FrenchieCat]

1. His choice was between letting the AG deal with it or a "truth" Commission.

He chose to have the AG and the Justice Department handle it instead, and so he released the memos.

Good Call!


There was, according to a senior official, considerable support among Obama's advisers for the creation of a 9-11 Commission-style investigation as an alternative to releasing the Justice Department memos. But Obama quashed it.
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2009/04/22/confronting_the_bush_legacy_re.html

[Cha]

2. The best thing to keep this

investigation non-political!

[HopeOverFear]

3. good! truth commissions = wastes of time

[AtomicKitten]

4. As I recall the 9/11 Commission never finished the second half of their report.

You know, the one that divulged how BushCo used the crap intelligence they mined to start a war. It was "delayed" so as to not "interfere" in the 2004 election. Still waiting ...

COMMISSION is code for bury it. No thanks.

This belongs in the Justice Department and a Special Prosecutor should be appointed. This should also be looked at by Congress concomitantly with Justice, but I have zero confidence it would be anything other than a dog and pony show.

[stillcool]

5. Do everything..what's wrong with..

a Congressional Investigation and a Justice Department Investigation?

[Cali_Democrat]

6. A Congressional Invesigation would be initiated by Congress and not Obama, right?

Gibbs also clarified today that the Justice Department could also be responsible for an investigation, but that would be for the Justice Department to decide and not Obama.

Gibbs said exactly the right thing today.

[stillcool]

7. Yeah..I'm just saying..

why not advocate for both? Not Gibbs, or Obama..but 'we the people'.