“President-elect Obama this week said his team was in the middle of ‘evaluating’ Bush administration policies to see whether a criminal investigation would be worthwhile. NPR reports that Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) says that he understands Obama’s reluctance to pursue investigations but that he may take matters into his own hands:posted by ericb at 8:25 AM on January 14, 2009 [7 favorites]‘I think that there’s a lot that remains to look at, and I appreciate that President Obama doesn’t want to make it his purpose as a new president, with America in real distress in many directions, to go back and look at all this, but I think we in Congress have an independent responsibility, and I fully intend to discharge that responsibility,’ Whitehouse said.In a 487-page report out today recapping Bush’s ‘imperial presidency,’ House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) recommends that ‘the incoming Administration finally begin an independent criminal review of activities of the outgoing Administration.’”
Bush:"So I ask what tools are available for us to find information from him and they gave me a list of tools, and I said are these tools deemed to be legal? And so we got legal opinions before any decision was made."posted by ericb at 8:29 AM on January 14, 2009
"Last year, Bush admitted that he was 'aware' that his national security team met to discuss KSM’s interrogation, and that he approved of the meeting. His admission today suggests Bush had a far more direct role in developing the specific torture program, which included waterboarding, a freezing cell, and long periods of standing and stress positions (all of which have long been considered torture)."
Is there a consensus on whether or not a president can preemptively pardon before charges are brought?"Now, therefore, I, Gerald R. Ford, President of the United States, pursuant to the pardon power conferred upon me by Article II, Section 2, of the Constitution, have granted and by these presents do grant a full, free, and absolute pardon unto Richard Nixon for all offenses against the United States which he, Richard Nixon, has committed or may have committed or taken part in during the period from July (January) 20, 1969 through August 9, 1974. "
"Inherent contempt".They called people to testify (Rove and Myers) those people didn't show up, and the DOJ declined to force them in.And the House declined to use their superpowers (I forget what they are called) to do it either.
All nationalists have the power of not seeing resemblances between similar sets of facts. A British Tory will defend self-determination in Europe and oppose it in India with no feeling of inconsistency. Actions are held to be good or bad, not on their own merits, but according to who does them, and there is almost no kind of outrage — torture, the use of hostages, forced labour, mass deportations, imprisonment without trial, forgery, assassination, the bombing of civilians — which does not change its moral colour when it is committed by ‘our’ side ... The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, but he has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them.posted by kirkaracha at 4:08 PM on January 14, 2009-- George Orwell, Notes on Nationalism
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Anyway, I'm sure we'll now have a law against torture. Oh wait, we do. So now we'll have impeachment hearings. Oh wait, too late. Well, I'm sure we'll see war crimes charges.
posted by DU at 7:53 AM on January 14, 2009 [7 favorites]