AP: Obama Unlikely To Seek Torture Charges

[Mari333]

Nov 18 2008 CBS/AP) President-elect Barack Obama's coming administration is unlikely to bring criminal charges against government officials who authorized or engaged in harsh interrogation of terrorist suspects during the George W. Bush presidency.

Obama, who has criticized the use of torture, is being urged by some constitutional scholars and human rights groups to investigate possible war crimes by the Bush administration.




Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, a Democrat, was asked during a radio interview over the weekend whether Bush administration officials would face war crimes allegations. "In the United States, no," Leahy said. "These things are not going to happen."



















http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/11/18/politics/main4613023.shtml?tag=lowerContent;homeSectionBlock250

[jeff30997]

1. Well in that case...

I hope that someone rendition them to the country who have pot Coffee Shops.

[HereSince1628]

2. The Democrats maintain Comity Central and it isn't funny

Comity in the sense of a state of mutual civility. In the Congress this has become a pathologic condition of exaggerated comity that precludes all action that might result in accountability and the pursuit of consequences that might be expected by the rule of law.

"Get over it. Move on. We are looking forward." It's all about comity. But it is tolerance run amuck. The unwarranted tolerance of breaches in the rule of law for the sake of comity as manifest by the democratic leaders of the Senate and House is a psychosis. It isn't harmless; it has destroyed the balance of power in government and has created a new national order in which a ruling class lives above the law.

[Mari333]

4. your last sentence summed it up perfectly. n/t

[mmonk]

3. It will be up to a good prosecutor

who thinks we should uphold the law. Also, it will be up to us, the people to decide how to restore a constitutional republic to hold our elected rulers accountable and reclaim our government.

[kayakjohnny]

5. Maybe it will be up to foreign governments to do what ours in unwilling to do.

[salguine]

6. Funny...if you had asked me, once upon a time, whether the United States

would ever torture people, I would have said, "In the United States, no. These things are not going to happen."

Between this, no punishment for Lieberman, and the possibility of being saddled with the fucking Clintons again, I'm very, very sorry to say that I'm not feeling very happy about the change of administration any more. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

Flame away.

[kayakjohnny]

7. I don't think you'll get flamed. I think most will understand the inherent disillusionment

(if that's even a word) that will come with the thousands of decisions that President Obama will have to make. I think that the influences and agendas of thousands and millions of people will be a tough thing to wade through, even for someone as savvy as Mr.O.