By Jonathan Mann for CNN:
Could George W. Bush or some of his top aides end up behind bars?
It’s extremely unlikely, but the Obama administration is taking its first steps along a path that could lead in that direction, with the investigation of Central Intelligence Agency interrogators involved in the war on terror.
“You don’t know where these things are going to end up,” former CIA agent Peter Brookes told me. “They could go to very high levels in the government.”
The probe will focus on whether interrogators exceeded their instructions and broke the law when, for example, they choked a prisoner until he lost consciousness or threatened another one with a gun and a power drill.
There is no obvious enthusiasm in the Obama administration for second-guessing the CIA’s efforts after September 11, 2001 to keep America safe.
President Obama has said several times he wants to “look forward, not back.”
Republicans immediately criticized the new investigation and even some Democrats said it would be unpopular.
“This is not very good politically for the administration,” said Democratic strategist James Carville. “The public clearly doesn’t have much of an appetite for this.”
But Attorney General Eric Holder said evidence of abuses was compelling enough to require it. No one knows what other evidence will ultimately compel the administration to do.
The American Civil Liberties Union, an activist organization that campaigns against prisoner abuse, says “any investigation that truly follows the facts where they lead would inevitably lead to prosecutions of high government officials,”
Does it sound far-fetched?
One Bush administration legal advisor, Jack Goldsmith, says his colleagues were acutely conscious that the president or his advisors could someday be investigated for the steps they took or approved after 9/11.
American politics is unpredictable, the investigation hasn’t even begun and it will take a long time. My guess is that some very important people will be watching it closely.
Join the official YWN WhatsApp status
9 Responses
Ahh proof the democrats don’t have anything better to do like try to fix the economy
Who will be held responsible when, because of obama’s incredible naivete, ineptitude, and foolishness, there is (chas v’chalila) another “9/11” type attack, even worse than the first?!? The U.S is NOT in a position to be able to have a president learning “on the job”! This guy has NO qualifications and we are all r”l going to pay a heavy price for it. HaSh-m yirachaym…
if eric holder starts diging to deep , who knows what kind of skelitons will be coming out of jis closet
Control health care.
control internet.
nationalize GM etc…
Prosecute the opposition.
Demonize big business.
Denigrate other political parties.(evil republicans)
Favoritism to lawyers (no tort reform).
Political arm twisting and porking.
Obama is starting to scare me.
More likely that he’ll turn out to be an alien from a different solar system.
Actually the more likely result of attempting to prosecute the previous administration for policies that were popular at the time is that Mr. Obama will get a pension four years ahead of normal.
Baal Boose [4],
Let me add a few to your list:
apointing self proclaimed communists to addministration
being advised by proffesional propigandist, who has a private co. for propiganda (Axlrod)
arranging a video to children to “serve our president”
affiliation his whole life with extreme radicals
voted it’s OK to let babies born after failed abortions to die
and it goes on and on…
He ALWAYS scared me.
There are thousands of murders going on each year in this country. Instead of declaring war on muder this president is declaring war on those who challenge murderers. Give him an ice cream cone he will problably try to eat it through his forehead. Sorry. That’s his own enjoyment he”ll get that right. Put him in charge of our nuclear arsenal and he”ll probably sell it to Russia for a few million dollars and a promise by Russia to help out obamas preferred minorities in Russia if there are any there.
He wants to “look forward, not back”? Doesn’t he know that those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it? Does he want another 9/11 Chas V’shalom?
#4 and #6 -HE SCARES ME TOO!!!!!!
To #6,
You’re right.
But what scares me are not his policies per se, as much as “is there a 1% chance he will subvert democracy and somehow finagle and create an artificial situation that will extend his rule”.
(Of course -sic- he know what’s good for us, may be he wants to be a benign dictator?)