The Reality Is Obama Will Have To Go After Those Who Authorized Torture...

[Blackhatjack]

... otherwise it will grow and overshadow all of his efforts to restore the moral standing of the United States in the world, and further will call into question the integrity of his own Administration.

I know Obama does not want to wade into this minefield, but really he has no other choice.

[rwenos]

1. Let Career Prosecutors Do It

Seems like Barack's best strategy would be (1) give the Justice Dept. the green light; (2) appoint a career prosecutor to be in charge, someone from one of the branch offices like Chicago or LA; (3) direct that career prosecutor to impanel a D.C. grand jury, and start taking testimony; and (4) get the hell out of the way.

This strategy would make no sense if there were no reasonable chance of convictions. But everybody KNOWS there is a reasonable chance of convictions.

This way, Barack expends no political capital, and justice might even be served. Let the facts speak for themselves!

[Blackhatjack]

4. That's what I meant... that his Administration will have take on the torturers, Not Him Specifically

It is just that to ignore the torturers and allow them to 'walk' is closely akin to condoning the practices of the Bush Administration in this regard. Plus the rest of the world will always wonder if the abominable practices of torture are still going on since a new President refused to intervene and hold those responsible once evidence became known that torture was practiced by the Bush Administration.

Once the damning evidence is made public, Republicans will have no choice but to go along --or look like they are condoning and protecting torturers. That could further alienate them from public support.

I don't see it as killing bipartisanship as some pundits have surmised. If anything, it would put us all on the right side of this issue and allow us to move forward.

[rwenos]

6. Right! It Doesn't Kill Bipartisanship

The Obama Justice Dept. has a political fig leaf to hide behind - i.e., "we just prosecute crime, and we go where the evidence takes us." Any Pub-fucks object, they're on the wrong side of the argument.

Let justice be done, even though the Heavens fall!

[happychatter]

2. Bush authorized torture and Obama can't do a damn thing about it without undermining his agenda

I would like to be wrong because I completely agree it should be done.

We need votes in Congress

Making an unholy martyr of Bush = deadlock

[Blackhatjack]

5. It will stick to Obama like a dead weight until he deals with it ... and affect all his plans

The entire world is waiting to see what the new Obama Administration will do regarding torture, and it will affect his attempts to end the war in Iraq and fight OBL in Afghanistan.

I supported Obama, and worked with his Campaign to get him elected. I don't envy him having to address this ... but really he has no choice.

[GarbagemanLB]

3. Actually, he really does have another choice, and that entails focusing on the real

issues our country faces.

[TayTay]

8. Misuse of power and abuse of the Constitution is a real problem

Torture is but one example of a country that has no mechanism for investigating itself and straightening out problems.

President Obama must deal with the issues or they will continue to rot and ruin his agenda as well as any good he could do as President.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

12. Obama can walk and chew gum at the same time

The economy is, of course, by far the most important issue our country currently faces no doubt about that. However, I don't believe that it necessarily follows that his administration (i.e. DOJ) can't also expend some time and resources in rooting out people who authorized, supported, or otherwise encouraged illegal treatment of other living breathing human beings. I think that Obama should, as somebody here suggested, give his AG/DOJ the "green light" to prosecute any actionable cases that they come across. I believe that doing so will help clean out the miscreants who ran our country's severely corrupt and tainted intelligence and law enforcement agencies for the past 8 years and help restore our image abroad. If the Repukes want to make an issue of it, well, I say let them make an issue about if they want to go on record defending things like Gitmo, Abu Gharib, waterboarding, and illegally rendering terrorist "suspects" to countries whom torture prisoners as a matter of routine police procedure some of whom are even currently listed as STATE SPONSORS OF TERRORISM.

[Honeycombe8]

7. Prediction: He will not "go after" anyone in the prior administration.

If you saw Obama in his 15 or so debates, and if you watched some of his numerous stump speeches, you know this.

[hay rick]

9. He needs to shut it down.

He needs to repudiate the past and to change American policy going forward. I don't think Obama will be inclined to spend much energy or political capital on prosecutions. By the time he arrives in the White House, a devastated economy is going to be job 1 (and job 2, and job 3, and you get the idea).

[Old Codger]

10. Simply put

If they do not go after and prosecute all who broke laws they show th erest of th eworld that it sounds good but is in reality "business as usual" If we are going to have change we need to get our international reputation back and that is one good start in that direction.

[Arkana]

11. AG Holder is very anti-torture and anti-Gitmo.

He'll be a big part of putting a stop to this crap once and for all.

[4lbs]

13. How is he going to do that when Bush will pardon all those involved?

n/t