Obama quietly warned us not to expect immediate torture prosecution

[Bluerthanblue]

before he was even elected:

(From a Salon article last summer)

.......Aug. 4, 2008 | WASHINGTON -- On the campaign trail in April, Barack Obama was asked whether, if elected, he would prosecute Bush administration officials for establishing torture as American policy. The candidate demurred. "If crimes have been committed, they should be investigated," he said. But he quickly added, "I would not want my first term consumed by what was perceived on the part of the Republicans as a partisan witch hunt, because I think we've got too many problems to solve."

This issue is something Obama has clearly put some thought and planning into:

While there are certainly participants in these discussions who believe that top-level administration officials deserve to be hauled before a judge, even the harshest critics of the current administration's torture policies don't think there will be an immediate effort by the next president to prosecute anyone from the Bush administration. "I don't sense the political appetite for it," said Tom Malinowski, Washington advocacy director at Human Rights Watch, who is involved in the informal discussions about what Obama could do about investigating torture. "I don't think the next president will do that no matter who he is."....

...successful prosecutions would be tough anyway. The Justice Department approved the abuse and Congress changed the War Crimes Act in 2006 to make prosecutions more difficult...

But the avenues of investigation being discussed don't necessarily rule out at least an attempt at prosecuting Bush officials at some later date. The nonpartisan presidential commission that Malinowski and other people involved in the discussions are advocating would have considerable power, granted by Congress, to force cooperation. The commission would ultimately deliver recommendations to the president that would include.....whether or not Cheney deserves that walk up the courthouse steps.

The first order of business, however, would be learning the truth. "I think a lot of us feel that the American people are entitled to the whole truth,"...." people are entitled to from an official body that has access to the classified documents that makes as much public as it can,"....

The commission would focus strictly on detention, torture and extraordinary rendition, or the practice of spiriting detainees to a third country for abusive interrogations. The panel would focus strictly on these abuses, leaving out any other allegedly illegal activities during the Bush administration, such as domestic spying. .........(more)



PLEASE- take the time to read the whole article at:


http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2008/08/04/obama/

[EFerrari]

1. Obama can tell us what to expect of him. He can't tell us what to expect of the law. n/t

[Bluerthanblue]

2. ... I apologize, I'm tired and

often slow to understand, could you try it again?

I don't understand your comment. :blush:

[EFerrari]

5. Me, too, Blue.

:)

I think I only meant, you're right. He did signal very clearly what he would do.

But, this situation is bigger than he is and it will have its own course.

[Bluerthanblue]

9. thanks-

I'm sorry to be so thick-

I hadn't known he'd said this so clearly before. I found it very reassuring to see evidence of what I thought he might be planning. I'm personally a little worried about this moving too fast- Following all the 'tea-party' fallderall last week, we've noticed some pretty ... troubling..almost threatening rumblings around here. :( Ugly-

:hi:

[babylonsister]

3. Isn't that a good thing? Shouldn't the judicial or legislative

branch kick in about now?

[MadMaddie]

6. Yes and by releasing the memos the judicial and legislative

branch are going to be forced to act. Thus, President Obama is not actively taking the lead in the actions.

Don't forget we now have Cheney, *, Rove, Yoo, Gonzalez all on record accepting the fact they approved the torture. They have screwed themselves....

[Believing Is Art]

4. I think/hope Obama is playing this close to the vest

If he goes 2 terms and not so much as an investigation happens, I will be disappointed beyond words. OTOH, if he is planning on appointing a special prosecutor and pursuing a full-on investigation after the 2012 election, I think the smart thing to do is what he is doing now - play it down, keep mum. Let torture be thoroughly discredited in the media, let those who perpetuated this mess hang themselves in the public sphere with their own words, let public support build behind prosecution.

Unfortunately, those of us who want to see people held accountable can't know his plans. We just have to trust, and that is hard.

[Bluerthanblue]

7. I share your feelings/hopes-

and reading that this was spoken publicly even before the election, and that he even had a team working with him back then to figure out the best way to tackle this helps reinforce this thinking.

Trusting is hard, but the alternative is harder. Obama saw the division that is becoming more and more ugly coming.

:hi: thanks for speaking up- its good to hear from those who are choosing not to throw in the towel just yet.

[Believing Is Art]

10. No problem

I understand how the other side feels - but what are he and his political advisers supposed to think? Defense of torture is still given legitimate airtime and the only major public outcries since the election have been the teabag parties, lame or not.

The politics shouldn't matter - but they do. As gratifying as immediate prosecution would be to pretty much everyone here, it would greatly decrease the chances of democratic wins in 2010 and 2012 and our country can't handle that. The RW nuts would of course hate it and many if not most in the middle would see it as vindictive and/or a distraction from the economy and other "more important" issues. Like I said, it shouldn't matter - but it does.

I was very happy to see the memos released. There was a Gallup poll awhile back showing most Americans supported an investigation but not prosecution. Let it percolate a few years and I really believe prosecution will be the desired path by all but the far right.

[Kaleko]

11. Isn't this the shrewdest move ? Obama appears reluctant to prosecute

while letting the clamoring from all sorts of interest groups get so loud, it becomes an overwhelming roar of populist demands that Congress can't ignore if it wants to get reelected?

This is my hope too. And I don't discourage the screaming for justice around here, even though I'm unable to hate Obama with such passion. I still think he's one of the most extraordinarily gifted politicians this country has ever produced, so it's an exercise in patience and finding what's left of the remnants of trust after 8 years of continuous controlled demolition.

[bigtree]

8. thing is

. . . we really don't know what the position of the Justice Dept. will be in cooperating with those court efforts. We've already seen a reluctance by Holder to comply with demands for WH accountability to lawsuits pending against the Bush administration on 'state secrets', past presidential directives and more.