Posted on 10/13/2008 5:39:24 PM PDT by Red Steel
Tonight I had an opportunity to ask Barack Obama a question that is on the minds of many Americans, yet rarely rises to the surface in the great ruckus of the 2008 presidential race -- and that is whether an Obama administration would seek to prosecute officials of a former Bush administration on the revelations that they greenlighted torture, or for other potential crimes that took place in the White House.
Obama said that as president he would indeed ask his new Attorney General and his deputies to "immediately review the information that's already there" and determine if an inquiry is warranted -- but he also tread carefully on the issue, in line with his reputation for seeking to bridge the partisan divide. He worried that such a probe could be spun as "a partisan witch hunt." However, he said that equation changes if there was willful criminality, because "nobody is above the law."
The question was inspired by a recent report by ABC News, confirmed by the Associated Press, that high-level officials including Vice President Dick Cheney and former Cabinet secretaries Colin Powell, John Ashcroft and Donald Rumsfeld, among others, met in the White House and discussed the use of waterboarding and other torture techniques on terrorism suspects.
I mentioned the report in my question, and said "I know you've talked about reconciliation and moving on, but there's also the issue of justice, and a lot of people -- certainly around the world and certainly within this country -- feel that crimes were possibly committed" regarding torture, rendition, and illegal wiretapping. I wanted to know how whether his Justice Department "would aggressively go after and investigate whether crimes have been committed."
Here's his answer, in its entirety:
"What I would want to do is to have my Justice Department and my Attorney General immediately review the information that's already there and to find out are there inquiries that need to be pursued. I can't prejudge that because we don't have access to all the material right now. I think that you are right, if crimes have been committed, they should be investigated. You're also right that I would not want my first term consumed by what was perceived on the part of Republicans as a partisan witch hunt because I think we've got too many problems we've got to solve.
So this is an area where I would want to exercise judgment -- I would want to find out directly from my Attorney General -- having pursued, having looked at what's out there right now -- are there possibilities of genuine crimes as opposed to really bad policies. And I think it's important-- one of the things we've got to figure out in our political culture generally is distinguishing betyween really dumb policies and policies that rise to the level of criminal activity. You know, I often get questions about impeachment at town hall meetings and I've said that is not something I think would be fruitful to pursue because I think that impeachment is something that should be reserved for exceptional circumstances. Now, if I found out that there were high officials who knowingly, consciously broke existing laws, engaged in coverups of those crimes with knowledge forefront, then I think a basic principle of our Constitution is nobody above the law -- and I think that's roughly how I would look at it."
The bottom line is that: Obama sent a clear signal that -- unlike impeachment, which he's ruled out and which now seems a practical impossibility -- he is at the least open to the possibility of investigating potential high crimes in the Bush White House. To many, the information that waterboarding -- which the United States has considered torture and a violation of law in the past -- was openly planned out in the seat of American government is evidence enough to at least start asking some tough questions in January 2009.
This could rival the Winter revolution in 1917.
They’ve had Congressional investigations on everything during the last 8 years. It’s their payback for impeachment of Clinton. What else is new.
Does McCain not take these nuts as a serious threat?
See you all in the Gulag fellow freepers. Unless you are reeducated to the “correct” way of thinking.
Hail (Heil) Obama he is our supreme leader-(sarc)
Well, Bush fired the federal prosecutor in NM because he allegedly was dragging his (her?) feet on election fraud, and look where it got him. The hearings will probably stretch into 2012.
If this nutcase actually gets in office it will be the inmates running the asylum. He’s freaking nuts.
Would that be Attorney General William Ayers?
1)met in the White House and ( thats their job)
2) discussed the use of waterboarding and other torture techniques ( thats their job)
3) on terrorism suspects. ( we are at war with non-military combatants, Geneva Convention doesn't apply)
Thnak you Colin, John and DOnald for your service to a greatful Republic.
And everything Obama said is hateful and racist.
Do they want another civil war?
He does deserve credit for that. But maybe it woulda gone better for him if he’da acted when his popularity was still over 50%.
Giving pardons would be the worst thing possible.
Personally, if Zerobama is elected, I hope he does pursue indictments. And I hope it becomes the flashpoint for outrage against the Marxist-in-Chief.
It’s been so long since that I can’t even remember.
Up is down and down is up...
Bush should immediately order the AG to examine Obama’s ties to Ayers, communist mentor Frank Davis, his “missing years” at Columbia, his working for vote fraud with ACORN, and his missing birth certificate.
Could we already be entering the last 3 1/2 years with Obama's coronation?
...The steady drumbeat of presumed guilt. That's all that's needed.
How I pray for the day this country is PURGED of this Socialist strain!
Good people wind up ruined though and that’s not cool.
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