Aide: Obama Won't Prosecute Bush Officials

Masterminds, Not Just Underlings, Will Be Immune From Justice For Illegal Torture Policies

(AP)  President Barack Obama does not intend to prosecute Bush administration officials who devised the policies that led to the harsh interrogation of suspected terrorists, White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel said Sunday.

Obama last week authorized the release of a series of memos detailing the methods approved under President George W. Bush. In an accompanying statement, he said "it is our intention to assure those who carried out their duties relying in good faith upon legal advice from the Department of Justice, that they will not be subject to prosecution." He did not specifically address the policymakers.

Asked Sunday on ABC's "This Week" about the fate of those officials, Emanuel said the president believes they "should not be prosecuted either and that's not the place that we go."

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the idea of "criminalizing legal advice after one administration is out of the office is a very bad precedent. ... I think it would be disaster to go back and try to prosecute a lawyer for giving legal advice that you disagreed with to a former president."

Sen. Claire McCaskill said, "I don't think we want to look in the rearview mirror." But McCaskill, a Democrat who is also on the Armed Services Committee, said there probably was a need to ask more questions. "How do you get lawyers at the top levels of the Justice Department that could give this kind of advice?"

The decision not to seek charges against the interrogators has been criticized by the American Civil Liberties Union and called a violation of international law by the U.N.'s top torture investigator.

In his statement last week, the president said: "This is a time for reflection, not retribution. I respect the strong views and emotions that these issues evoke. We have been through a dark and painful chapter in our history. But at a time of great challenges and disturbing disunity, nothing will be gained by spending our time and energy laying blame for the past."

Republican lawmakers and others contend that U.S. national security was undermined by the release of the memos. On Sunday, Obama administration officials pushed back vigorously against that claim.

"We are absolutely confident that we have the tools necessary to get the information we need to keep this country safe," senior presidential adviser David Axelrod said on CBS' Face the Nation. "And we don't believe and the president of the United States does not believe that this is a contest between our values and our security. He thinks we can honor both and execute both. And that's what he's going to do."

Michael Hayden, who led the CIA under Bush, said the public release of the memos will make it harder to get useful information from suspected terrorists being detained by the United States.

"I think that teaching our enemies our outer limits, by taking techniques off the table, we have made it more difficult in a whole host of circumstances I can imagine, more difficult for CIA officers to defend the nation," Hayden said on "Fox News Sunday."

Administration officials said information in the memos already was in the public realm and that releasing details about interrogation techniques gave no new edge to al Qaeda and other terrorist groups.

"The notion that somehow this all of a sudden is a game changer doesn't take cognizance of the fact that it's already in the system and in the public domain," Emanuel said.

As a result of Obama's decision, he said, "we've enhanced America's image abroad. These were tools used by terrorists, propaganda tools, to recruit new terrorists. And the fact is, having changed America's image does have an impact on our security and safety and makes us stronger."

But Hayden said many who oppose the harsh techniques used by interrogations "want to be able to say, 'I don't want my nation doing this,' which is a purely honorable position, 'and they didn't work anyway.' That back half of the sentence isn't true. The facts of the case are that the use of these techniques against these terrorists made us safer. It really did work."

Several bloggers have noted one memo that said al Qaeda detainee Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was waterboarded 183 times in March 2003, while suspected terrorist Abu Zubaydah was waterboarded 83 times in August 2002. "That doesn't sound very effective to me," wrote Marcy Wheeler of the Emptywheel blog.

Hayden declined to talk about those figures.

He said he believes the government was just beginning to look into the policies.

"There will be more revelations. There will be more commissions. There will be more investigations," he said. "And this to an agency, again, I repeat, that is at war and is on the front lines defending America."

Graham and McCaskill also appeared on Fox.

[katg21]

"socialist republican" Posted by Rowdy106

Ha, ha, ha...you don't know what a socialist is!

[katg21]

If he fails to prosecute these men and women he will not be upholding our constitution...Posted by frankbowers

Since when do you leftist whacks give a crap about the constitution?

[rmonroe401]

LOL, I read through the comments on this subject and it hilarious. What a bunch of uneducated idiots slamming Obama. I can see why the Republicans do not want to support more education. They would lose 90% of their support if they were educated. Republicans want to keep all the dumbed down gun toting idiots.

[noloyalisti]

We therefore have NO business preaching civil rights or freedom or democracy to anyone. Americans have become the terrorists.

[jsl45]

They should turn the people who were responsible for writing the memos authorizing the torture over to the Hague and let them try them for crimes against humanity......Bush will always be known as the torture President...what a horrible legacy he left. He is without a doubt the worst president our country has ever seen.......!!

[spiritwalk]

I see, so only other countries can be prosecuted for war crimes, but not the US. Thanks for making that clear.
Posted by tomanyt
................................................
War crimes come under the jurisdiction of the International Court of the Hague. The US would not join as a member of the International Court.

Of course, I am sure that if given a choice Al Capone would have declined to join the US court system. Not that Al and the US would be acting from the same motivation for not wanting to be part of a system that might prosecute them.

Totally different circumstances.

[mikeiorio86]

This may be one of the only things I see Obama do thats right. The ACLU should have never pushed for those documents, look what its caused. I'm sorry but those prisoners were there for a reason. They get to chop our heads off but we have to treat them with respect because of the laws of the U.N. and so forth. PLEASE!!! Forget that, one of the only things this bush administration got right was that. If I had my say we'd be using them as test subjects, those people don't care about their lives, their worthless sorry excuses for humans. If they just want to blow themselves up or kill us, lets use them for something so AIDS or Cancer research, give their useless lives purpose.

[tomanyt]

I see, so only other countries can be prosecuted for war crimes, but not the US. Thanks for making that clear.

[iam4honesty]

LOL Oh you are going to get your wish, I can promise you that. I've know this President for a long time and he NEVER EVER does something like this without reason. Yep, their day will come but the defenders will NOT be able to blame this President or his Party for that day nor for the results. LOL EVERY time you under estimate THIS leader you are making a FATAL mistake. LOL
Posted by skyk



It's really pretty simple. The president released incriminating memos then announced that the DOJ will not prosecute. Then moments later the UN investigator announced that he WILL prosecute. This is just a very shrewd deal set up by a very smart president.

The criminals will be prosecuted in a 'World Court' and no one can blame this administration or his party. What are the right wing whackos going to do? Invade Geneva? Well... Rowdy might try!! I want to be ther for that!! I can just see the news clip now!! LOL A hugh, obese woman wearing a ten gallon hat running, screaming, flailing her pudgy little arms in the air!

[skyk-2009]

Depends on how dirty is the hair of the inmate dude. Some inmates have so much dust
Posted by _BagdadsHere at 5:43 AM : Apr 20, 2009

I have a suggestion for you and all the cowards like you! How about YOU saddle up and walk into combat thinking and acting like that! LOL To a Combat Veteran the Convention and its bar on Torture means something very important. You see WE have bleed and died for those Rules. We have paid a VERY high price to insist that All countries be held accountable for violating those rules... now we have a leader who violated them. Guess what? Some Young American in UNIFORM WILL pay the price for your stupidity!