Obama open to prosecution, probe of interrogations
WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama said Tuesday the United
States lost "our moral bearings" with gruesome terror-suspect
interrogations and he left the door open to prosecuting Bush
administration officials who vouched for their legality.
At the same time, Obama said the question of whether to bring
charges "is going to be more of a decision for the attorney
general within the parameters of various laws and I don't want to
prejudge that." The president discussed the continuing issue of
terrorism-era interrogation tactics with reporters as he finished
an Oval Office meeting with visiting King Abdullah of Jordan.
Obama had said earlier that he didn't want to see prosecutions
of CIA agents and interrogators who took part in waterboarding and
other harsh interrogation tactics, so long as they acted within
parameters spelled out by government superiors who held that such
practices were legal at the time.
But the administration's stance on Bush administration lawyers
who actually wrote the memos approving these tactics has been less
clear. "There are a host of very complicated issues involved,"
Obama said.
The president took a question on this volatile subject for the
first time since he ordered the release last week of top-secret
Bush-era memos that gave the government's first full accounting of
the CIA's use of simulated drowning and other harsh methods while
questioning terror suspects.
Obama banned all such techniques days after taking office. But
members of Congress have continued to seek the release of
information about the early stages of the U.S. response to the
Sept. 11, 2001, terror under former President George W. Bush.
Lawsuits have been brought, seeking the same information.
Obama said Tuesday that he is worried about the impact that
high-intensity, politicized hearings in Congress could have on the
government's efforts to cope with terrorism, but that he could
support such an inquiry if it were done on a bipartisan basis.
Obama said such an investigation might be acceptable "outside
of the typical hearing process" and with the participation of
"independent participants who are above reproach." This, he said,
could help ensure that any investigation would be a tool to learn,
not to provide partisan advantage to one side or another.
"That would probably be a more sensible approach to take,"
Obama said. "I'm not saying that it should be done, I'm saying
that if you've got a choice."
The president made clear that his preference would be not to
revisit the era extensively.
"As a general view, I do think we should be looking forward,
not back," Obama said. "I do worry about this getting so
politicized that we cannot function effectively and it hampers our
ability to carry out critical national security operations."
Last week, Obama's Justice Department published previously
classified memos that described the Bush administration's legal
justification for CIA interrogation techniques that included
methods criticized as torture.
On one side, Republican lawmakers and former CIA chiefs have
criticized the memos' release, contending that revealing the limits
of interrogation techniques will hamper the effectiveness of
interrogators and will compromise critical U.S. relationships with
foreign intelligence services.
On the other side, the memos' release has appeared to increase
calls for further investigations of the Bush-era terrorist
treatment program and for prosecutions of those responsible for any
techniques that crossed the line into torture.
In a previous blog, “A Runners Wife” I spoke about my husband training for the NYC marathon. All I have to say is that the months of training all came together of an amazing race. Race day is a grueling day for runners, and the family. But a miracle happened...
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder testified before the senate judiciary committee and basically shrugged when asked if any other enemy combatant captured overseas had ever been brought to civilian criminal court to face justice. Talk about an incompetent boob, not to mention a disgrace.
Here is a list of wines all from Spain, and menus from restaurants in Brooklyn where a crew of us did a food / wine crawl through Carrol Gardens and Williamsburg recently
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