I'm not saying it's true, but IF

[cali]

the admin plans to pursue the architects of torture, it wouldn't be smart of them to broadcast that. This is a White House that understands that that such a declaration would or even hint that they're going after members of the past administration, would completely consume everything else.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. Bingo. The LAST thing you'd want to do is let them know they might be prosecuted.

They still have a lot of influence, and they'd be stirring up the Republican base, putting pressure on people, and destroying any evidence they might not have already destroyed. It seems to me that the better strategy would be to let them think they are off the hook. In the meantime Obama can work on repairing the economy and building up political support, while any preliminary investigation is done completely under the radar. There will be a good time to come after these guys, but it will occur a bit down the road, I think.

[noamnety]

2. How long has congress known about the memos?

How many of them voted to fund the operations knowing torture was part of it?

Do you get why democrats CAN'T prosecute?

[cali]

3. Most of Congress almost certainly wasn't privy to those memos

and those being privy to them are unlikely to face prosecution under any scenario.

[noamnety]

10. But some of the democrats WERE privy to it

and some of them are still in Congress. There is no way of getting around that they were knowingly covering up war crimes - if they now admit that those were in fact war crimes and they've known about it and funded it for years.

The democrats have more loyalty to other democrats in Congress than they do to the Geneva Conventions - they won't prosecute the higher ups on any "war crimes" that other dems were aware of.

[MoJoWorkin]

4. We must pass health care reform, energy, get the economic ship upright again, etc. BEFORE

letting all hell break loose.

I have believed that all along. Obama has always been thinking several steps ahead of most---always thinking long term. If he wants to enact ANY of the items on his ambitious agenda, I think he must allow public sentiment to swell for prosecution of those "architects."

How many times has he said he would need all of us to continue to be an active participant ? What we need to do is stop bashing him, and start demanding open hearings, where what was done is drilled into the public consciousness every day, to pave the way for prosecution. If he tried to prosecute now, it would end any hopes of passing anything.

He has given us some of the ammunition with the release of the memos. Now it is up to us to continue to raise awareness, and the need for justice, in the public forum.

Why is that so hard for some to see?

[Andy823]

7. I couldn't agree more.

It will be hard enough to get republicans to side with "anything" Obama wants to get done, but if he started saying he was going to go after Bush, Cheney, and the rest of the criminals, it would be world war III in congress! What so many here fail to understand is that he has to set his priorities, and then once he gets things accomplished like those you mentioned, and once the 2010 elections are over, he can get a whole lot of the things that people here want done, done!

He knows what he is doing, he just needs a chance to do it the right way so it does not affect the other important things he plans on doing.

[KharmaTrain]

5. Rope A Dope...

If we saw anything last year, it was how adept a politician President Obama is. He was able to outflank opponents and end up in a strong position, usually letting others make the mistakes. I hope this is another example of him overcoming the system so that he can dominate it.

We knew there would be a big mess for President Obama to clean up from the past 8 years of dictatorship and criminal enterprises, but I don't think anyone planned on the economic collapse and other messes that have forced this administration to put out a lot of fires from day one. The grace period is coming to an end...people, especially the corporate media, want results...fix the economy, end the occupation of Iraq, fix health care, education reform and so on...and to do this while trying to keep the economy from imploding. There's not much wiggle room and its getting tighter.

The one thing I've been picking up on is that, while the Obama administration won't be trying to rock the boat in demanding accountability of the booosh regime, they're hoping that Congress can pick up the ball. Congressman Nadler's petition is a start, plus there are others like Waxman, Wexler and Conyers who have been pushing forward. In the Senate (a bigger problem), we need to support Senator Feingold's actions and push Leahy and others to junk the "truth and reconciliation" idea and move forward with full inquiries into law breaking and abuses of the Constitution.

[GeorgeGist]

6. I'll say it for you. IT'S NOT TRUE.

Come back when can say,

"It would be wise for the USA to prosecute torturers."

[cali]

8. lol I've already said that, little genius.

and you don't know if it's true or not. duh.

[Meeker Morgan]

9. Dream on. n/t