Posted on 04/22/2009 12:50:09 PM PDT by reaganaut1
Barack Obama was criticized harshly on Wednesday for leaving the door open to the prosecution of former Bush administration officials who authorized severe CIA interrogation procedures.
Obama's decision to release classified memos last Thursday that detailed aggressive techniques on terrorism suspects that included waterboarding, sleep deprivation and forced nudity has triggered a political firestorm in Washington.
Politicians on the left are eager to launch investigations into the Bush-era policies that were part of the effort to prevent a repeat of the September 11 attacks, while those on the right said Obama seems to be breaking a pledge to look forward, not review the past.
Karl Rove, who was a top aide to former President George W. Bush, accused Obama of seeking to conduct "show trials" a day after the president left open the possibility of prosecuting officials who provided legal analysis of interrogation procedures.
Rove told Reuters: "If the Obama administration insists on criminalizing policy disagreements, how can they place any limits on who they prosecute?"
"Everyone in the interrogation process would have to be treated the same," he said, including the CIA agents, the physicians who monitored interrogation sessions, and the lawyers who researched and wrote the memos.
The chain could reach "to the leadership of the intelligence community to the legislators in both parties and the Bush administration officials who were briefed on these memos and agreed to them," he said.
"It is now clear that the Obama White House didn't think before it tried to appease the hard left of the Democratic Party," Rove said.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Bambi has no idea.
I can’t wait until we get to put ZERO on trial, what ZERO is doing is what you would expect in Indonesia.
He's off to play with unicorns and eat cotton candy at the Iowa Earth Day....
Nominated for understatement of the year.
I haven’t seen any evidence of then thinking so far. Why would they start now?
This is insanity
“It is now clear that the Obama White House didn’t think before it tried to appease the hard left of the Democratic Party,” Rove said.
Zero v Rove...how sweet it is...
His ineptitude, in combination with the power of the occice he occupies, makes him a very dangerous person.
I think you're being quite the optimist.
Bambi should avoid setting such precedents.
It’s likely the country will want him put on trial in 2012 for treason or some other reason
His ineptitude, in combination with the power of the office he occupies, makes him a very dangerous person.
We can now clearly see that the lying, sneaky little bitch is also a bumbling fool. If he had a leadership skills none of this would be happening.
Exactly. Stupidity plus power equals disaster. I was in a business deal with a jerk of a guy whose wife actually ran the business. He and I had a contract, but she got bent out of shape. Our agent wondered why I was upset with wifey. "Because she's stupid and powerful in this situation." Could not be a worse combo. I made a lot of concessions to her, she wrote me nice big checks. The end product sucked.
In Zero's case, if we make concessions to him, we'll get nothing but the opportunity to make more concessions.
Karma is a beeyotch.
Obama is the proverbial dog that caught the car.
if it isn't, he certainly couldn't have thought up a better way of accomplishing just that.
Repeat the new mantra, that should nip it.
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