Will Obama Administration Prosecute Bush Officials?

NO, they are bought off by the SAME people. Record soft money and spending by Obama in the past election. What, you thought those corporate donors we’re just “supporting” him out of the goodness of their hearts eh? It’s called “quid pro quo”. If he truly was independent the corporate media wouldn’t have glamourized him and done all of his work for him, just like with the last house of cards named Clinton. Get ready for the second version of Jimmy Carter folks. Delusions fall hard, but when they do, they CRASH!!!

I hope so.

i would certainly hope members of Bush’s administration are prosecuted vigorously. Cheney, Rumsfeld and Gonzalez were complicit in the use of torture. i think Bush was swayed by Cheney, but he is still responsible. since Cheney was the architect of the invasion of Iraq, the torture programme and human rights violations.
please!—most of Obama’s fundraising came from millions and millions of people sending in $25-$50 as many times as they could afford while being under the limit. Obama will be the first president to have most of his support come from the people instead or corporate special interests. if you have evidence that he has the same amount of corporate funding as any republican please share with us. you don’t like Obama which is cool—you didn’t pay for his campaign. the taxpayers paid for McCain’s campaign (along with his republican machine, corporate mega-donations from oil and big business). so i, a person who voted for Obama, still pay for McCain. lucky for you it doesn’t work the same way with your candidate.

Of course not. Get real. Obama is a wishy-washy tool.
http://www.powmadeak47.com/crooks/pres08.html

PEBO will be much too busy covering his own butt! :(

Both parties are the same. They are all bought by the same folks with the exceptions of people like Dennis Kucinich and Ron Paul.

Blake,
Once becomes subject to criminal prosecution when there’s evidence of criminal wrong-doing. In other words, you have it the other way around the way you’ve formulated it.
As to whether Bush should be prosecuted, I tend to have a much dimmer view. While violations committed by Bush and his henchmen, such as “torture” and “illegal wiretapping” are reprehensible, the fact that we elected him for a second term makes the bigger crime of the illegal, unprovoked invasion of Iraq a much bigger issue in my mind.
In other words, what we need to do as a nation is start looking in the mirror and ask about what kind of a country we want to become going forward. Going after Bush will raise far more questions than it will answer.

Paul– I didn’t vote for a Democrat so WHY would I vote for a RINO like McCain??? And if Obama’s money came from “the people” ahem, why pray tell did he go over to Britan and take money from Lord Rothschild, like McCain? Oh, you like foreign interests backing US canidate do you? Guess you thought Clinton dealing nuclear secrets and military technology to China was just peachy! I DONT like nor voted for Obama, OR McCain, unlike most out there I don’t “outsource” my critical thinking to people who can read off a teteprompter… God gave me a brain and the gift of discernment (look it up if you have to) and I USE it! Look up OpenSecrets.org or census.gov. All of the campaign finance info is right there, including the soft money (unregulated) contributions. They gave to McCain 3 to 1. They weren’t doing it for nothing. If you can’t see that as an investment by the special interests OVER the peoples interests, then you need to WAKE UP. Hell he’s not even inaugurated yet and hes is ALREADY backtracking on every promise he made during the campaign. The Kool-Aid is beginning to get sour “my friends”, Oops, I mean ” my… Comrades!”

I think the Bush administration already has immunity from prosecution from a previous bill passed, if I’m not mistaken. So Obama’s administration won’t likely retroactively prosecute, but that could still leave the door open for those outside his administration to prosecute.

djn The preceptes of the Geneva Convention protect all prisoners. When we have complained about the treatment our captured soldiers receivedh this torture we now have only guarenteed similar or more heinous treatment for those captured in current and future conflicts.
If people in our government directed subordinates to violate the Geneva Convention, they and the subordinates should be prosecuted. We have seen in the past that the claim “I was only following orders”, should never be accepted, should never absolve anyone from prosecution.
If Cheney and Bush knowingly directed torture according to the Geneva Convention – they should be prosecuted.
We have people who should be – and are, working on investigation and prevention of terrorist acts. We should not need to resort to torture.
When we commit the same crimes as those that commit them on us – we are no better. Then we have lost.
As a nation right now we are basking in the light of what makes us great. The orderly transfer of presedential power from one person to another, the rule of law, our freedom to vote, to speak out without fear of repurcussions, respect for individual rights – these define us. Do not sacrifice everything for such heinous acts.

please—your own site that you cited says 89% of Obama’s donations came from individual donors. that would be more than any other presidential candidate in relevanthistory. i agree that lobbyists are not a good thing, but instead of hating everyone and everything you should do something.

http://www.pubrecord.org/torture/607-obamas-doj-wont-pursue-bush-officials-over-torture-policy-aides-say.html
Obama’s DOJ Won’t Pursue Bush Officials Over Torture Policy, Aides Say

i guess we don’t have to wake up early to watch the Stephanopoulos-Obama interview, johnnyanger.

Nothing says bipartisanship and bringing the factions together like going after Bush and his cronies. This can’t happen…
http://www.political-buzz.com/

actually, for once, i think this is a rather important story. not to most americans maybe but perhaps to the rest of the world watching to see if we obey our own laws and international laws. torture is no joke. at least Obama’s administration won’t allow it. it’s all a shame because torture is notorious for not yielding quality results (among other, more grizzly things).

Justice and Rule-of-Law are for “backward looking” people.
“Power does what it wants.”
- George Carlin
http://michaelfury.wordpress.com/2008/12/10/forgive-and-forgetforget/

Paul Wall
McCains taking of public funding is money people chose to contribute to the presidential election fund on their tax return. In the past all candidates used this. Obama promised to do this also but went back on his word and chose to take “untraceable” funds with no basic credit card security so no one really knows where his money came from. These public funds are a contribution made freely so it isn’t off the tax payers backs like the stimulus package Obama wants to propose will be.

Badboy:
If having sex with someone who is the age of consent, and the fact that you found Clinton offensive makes Clinton a sex offender, then I guess you are right.

Anyone who cares about this issue should read Jane Meyer’s book The Dark Side. those most harmed — aside from the thug terrorists about whom I care little — are the agents and managers who refused to go along with the torture initiated by some in the Bush Administration.
The only way to prevent this sort of despicable conduct is to prosecute those who committed the crimes — and those who ordered and authorized these agents to commit these crimes.
If we let it become a matter of, “they told me I could do this,” each administration will be free to violate federal criminal laws. We cannot let this happen.

Sounds like somebody (Paul Wall) is blogging for the Obama brigades… You guys learned well from the Bush White House. Are you guys gonna have Air Force employess blog pro government responses on every blog now that your boy is in office. (AP News) I hope your getting a decent wage for your efforts while the rest of us are either fighting to keep our low wage jobs or are having our health benefits eliminated. Oh right, how silly of me, Obama is gonna fix THAT too! You are such fools! I’m NO Republican OR Democrat, yet you have to play the divide and conquer you learned so well from the Bush administration. Here’s a thought why don’t you get Pelosi and Reid off their butt, and get us out of Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and the rest of the 130 countries we currently are in. Nah, better to spend all of that money overseas and give the middle east a third of the aid we give Israel, maybe with less money and more intervention we can kill our way to “peace.” (Obama “anti-war” HA!) For a Democrat you sure like Neocon Republican tactics, and have learned them quite well. If you want a blog to yourself, START one! ABC is a public forum, at least unless you are censored for disliking the “Messiah!” (Doesn’t trading one messiah (Bush) for the other (Obama) wear the media out? Hell, they are STILL championing the lost war on a tactic, and innocent civillians. Oh well, in Obama and Bush eyes, WE are the “terrorists!” Might as well cheer our own enslavement.

The “gravest crime” is the sick hypocrisy of the Liberals and their support for the terrorists who are responsible for the murders of 4,000 American troops in Iraq. The Terrorists don’t need Bin Laden when they have OBie.

John Kantor—torture is no joke, sir, and you don’t have to be a liberal to know that. every civilized nation on earth has signed the Geneva Accords (Geneva Convention). instead of insulting those you disagree with, calling the President-Elect a terrorist (“Terrorists don’t need Bin Laden when they have OBie.”) and using third-grader insults, why not make the case that the administration is innocent. that way we can have a dialog about the merits of the topic at hand.
“nanny-nanny pooh-pooh”, i mean can’t we do better than that?

Why no reporter and few blog commenters here mention the deleterious effects on America’s future in the world by such prosecution is bizarre.
National security would be effected -
Directly by the neutering of the prosecution and detention of the likes of Khalid Sheik Mohammed – if you don’t know who he is – shame on you.
Indirectly by the destruction of the national security apparatus – personnel and techniques that would be revealed by defense attorney leaks to a press deliciously awaiting them
And quite broadly the weakness it would show the world and the divisiveness it would cause both at home and abroad where allies would NEVER share intelligence or detain the enemies of the United States.
Fortunately Obama and his picks for National Security, foreign affairs and justice are not that stupid.
Though the insipidness of his VP cannot be overstated “Vice President-elect Biden, 12/21/08: “[T]he questions of whether or not a criminal act has been committed or a very, very, very bad judgment has been engaged in is—is something the Justice Department decides. Barack Obama and I are—President-elect Obama and I are not sitting thinking about the past. We’re focusing on the future… I’m not ruling [prosecution] in and not ruling it out. I just think we should look forward. I think we should be looking forward, not backwards.”
By the way the Geneva conventions appear to be very vague on the treatment of what earlier statesmen termed spies and saboteurs. I would think the acts and intents of agents of Al Qaeda clear fall into both of those categories. Spies and saboteurs do not expect any pity when they are captured, so while after we agressively determine if they have information that if divulged will protect us from harm, we can then treat them humanely until they may perhaps be executed for their crimes against us.

One clarification – defense attorney leaks of national security in the context of terrorists receiving all the rights of citizens at trial.
In the context of prosecuting Bush and staff, there may be Congressional and Justice dept aides and clerks to judges might share our nations secrets as symbolic acts of “global justice”

Looking at these previous posts, it seems people are off their meds! Does anybody actually address the topic of the blog post, or do people just come on here to service there own egos? From the way this is going I’d suggest the latter. If you want rational discourse, this place is not for you, WOW! People calm the F down! Breathe! Take a pill. Do something. Do you guys talk to you kids this way? Jeez! Forgive me while I rejoin the rational members of society.

hmn…—you’re right, hmn… i apologize. sometime i get caught up in the personal insults. but what do you think about the topic at hand (“Will Obama Administration Prosecute Bush Officials?”)?

It all comes down to accountability. If the Bush Administration is not held accountable for their illegal and criminal actions – those actions become acceptable precedent for future Administrations. A very dangerous situation.
However, I don’t believe that an Obama Administration will seek that accountability – simply because they don’t want the distraction from what are undeniably the herculean problems that they are inheriting from Bush and company.

Kevin Callahan—i think you hit the nail on the head. but there is still the UN and their court at The Hague. and i hope the special prosecutor from the UN will be bound by the same constraints as the new president. at least the president-elect pledged not to allow torture during his administration and i feel confident he will keep his word.

If Obama is as smart as everyone thinks he is, he will not try to prosecute anyone from the Bush administration who did what they had to do to keep the US safe from any more attacks like 9/11. Because if he does that, he will incur to dislike and even hatred of many Americans who believe that the US has not had even one terror attack in the seven years since 9/11 because of the things Bush did to prevent it. And, there is also the a very good chance that the US will be attacked during Obama’s term. And well, surely you aren’t goiing to blame Bush.

Obama has been courting the Bush right from the day after the election. He has won the support of Pat Robertson, Karl Rove, Newt Gingrich, and John McCain. Thankfully Democrat leaders like Harkin, Kerry and Wyden have taken him to task on his trickle down economic program. Obama needs to remember the principles he was elected on. You can still be bipartisan and listen to all sides without selling your principles to the banks and military industrial complex.

No president should ever be involved in any way in any legal action against his predecessor.
Obama’s job is to deal with the future, not the past.
But someone else might initiate some sort of investigation.

Paul Wall – The U.N.???? Are you serious? They are the biggest joke on this planet. I’m not sure why we don’t kick them out of this country. They are ineffectual, at best. At worst, they put us all at greater risk, because they don’t seem to know when the “bad guys” are lying to them.

El_Pajaro—President Ford pardoned President Nixon saving him from certain prosecution. but i agree with what you are saying. really these are violations of international law and should be handled in an international court.

I guess that wasn’t torture when people had to jump from burning buildings that arabs ran airplanes into. Wake up people. Have you been attacked since 9-11? NO will you be attacked under obama Yes!

Africa can not ever become a great nation when you have lazy people who do not want to work or even dig a hole to crap in. These people should all be steralized and not allowed to have any children. This is a genetic issue and has been a problem for years.

djn posted “Let’s see, a moral dilemma:put a terrorist on the hot seat to get information to save American lives, or just let another 9/11 happen?” It really isn’t this much of a dilemma. Speaking from a practical point of view, torture works well when you want an innocent person to plead guilty to a crime they didn’t commit, but it doesn’t work worth a darn to get truthful information. The person being tortured will tell you whatever you want to hear. It is NOT a good way to get information. Speaking from a moral standpoint, I can recall all the reasons we were told that we should fight dictators. “They torture” is one of the top reason why dictators should be overthrown. Care to comment djn ????

Not attacked since 9/11? I don’t suppose you remember some pesky ANTHRAX attacks?
Not to mention the fact, if you give Bush credit for no attacks since, you have to give him the blame for IGNORING the KNOWN THREAT in the weeks leading up to 9/11.
Bush deserves worse, but lets try the war criminal and lock him up forever!

kimcliftrn—besides your blatent racism and hatred of africans which is nauseating…have you even been tortured?

Interestingly an African has just been sentenced in an American court to 97 years for torture. (http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/01/09/taylor.torture.sentencing/index.html) His case, tried in Miami, was the first brought under a 1994 U.S. law saying those accused of committing torturous acts overseas can be tried in a U.S. federal court, as long as the person is a U.S. national or is present in the United States, regardless of nationality. Quite interesting.

Pete said: “The preceptes of the Geneva Convention protect all prisoners. When we have complained about the treatment our captured soldiers receivedh this torture we now have only guarenteed similar or more heinous treatment for those captured in current and future conflicts.”
Obviously you have not read the Geneva Conventions…

Every nation that has found reasons to justify torture on “enemies” eventually has found reasons to torture it’s own citizens.

“But this president sure made some extraordinarily bad calls, some of which might have been made with ill intent.”
Would you mind naming a couple of calls that were made with ill intent, bro? I mean, gosh, if I was going to call someone a crook, thief, or liar, I would dang sure have my facts, right?

Be patient, Sig. The Daily Kos doesn’t open until 8 Eastern.

Those of you who want to see Bush administration officials strung up better realize that they have kept your asses safe from terrorists since 9/11. But maybe there isn’t enough intelligence there for you to grasp that concept!

Kept us safe? (rolling my eyes) Yeah. Right. Whatever.

ajax—thanks for providing an answer that the person who initiated just took a pot shot and disappeared. i have found many sites after i posted. i did note psychologists and physicians are available before, during and after this training, which robertb calls euphamistically “a taste” of this form of torture. when implimented as torture physicians and psychologists are not available and the experience is not a “taste”.
the international court has ruled on many occasions that waterborading is a violation of international law and a violation of the Geneva Coventions.
the court also has ruled that torture is, unconditionally, unacceptable. there is no condition or status of combatant that makes torture legal.
so universally torture is unacceptable.
i respect that President Bush has kept our nation safe. i also think he made some very serious mistakes. and he was advised by his legal cousel that waterboarding is acceptable. that counsel could be preosecuted and the vice president who never gave a second thought about torture and extraordinary renditions could be proseccuted.
since these are war crimes, crimes against humanity they should probably be prosecuted in internation court and not under US law (which appears to have been violated as well).
as has been mentioned above torture is so worthless as a tool. false confessions are made and reliable information is rarely if ever found. but regardless of its intelligence yield it is still morally wrong and legally wrong.
i read extensively about waterboarding and was amazed to find that it was popular among the Khmer Rouge. so the administration is in some very bad company (Pinochet,…).
the US can conduct the war on terror without torture. i’m confident Obama can show us how.

Great Panel. Diverse opinions articulated very well. Host asks pertinent questions and allows panel members to answer. Panel was respectful of individual responses.

STAN BULLARD—even though i am coming from the left i wholeheartedly agree with you. i was suprised at all of the questions. when Obama cut Stephanopoulos off he just let him redirect or evade the question. George could have been much tougher and asked some very difficult questions. the President-Elect can handle those questions.

And why would Fitzgerald be perfect for this job?? Oh yeah, he was able to convince America that Blago was talking only to himself when he asked Obama’s people to ‘pay for play’. He is on Obama’s team. Good gravy, how stupid do you think the American people are!? Axelrod (Mr. Astroturf) LIES for a living.

Just to point out, there were no foreign terrorist attacks in the US in the Clinton administration.
But Bill Clinton didn’t have to torture to keep America safe.
Bush and his cronies should be prosecuted. He’s a war criminal, not just a pathetic president.
Oh, by the way, it’s a documented fact that torture does not produce reliable information (if any).
Bush is not Richard Nixon. He did not commit a burglary, he violated international law and made a mockery of the constitution.
There’s a group on facebook that describes it pretty well: “Bill Clinton fu**ed an intern, George Bush fu**ed a nation”.