The original article appeared in the first link, although I think David Swanson added some interesting comments so I'll post them as well.
Personally I doubt anyone will be held accountable, we have not been given a reason to think otherwise IMO.
See the last link, who knows whether or not our children will also be fighting many of the same people in the future.
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http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/attytood/Barack_on_torture.htmlhttp://www.davidswanson.org/?q=node/1269"...The question was inspired by a recent report by ABC News, confirmed by the Associated Press, that high-level officials including Vice President Dick Cheney and former Cabinet secretaries Colin Powell, John Ashcroft and Donald Rumsfeld, among others, met in the White House and discussed the use of waterboarding and other torture techniques on terrorism suspects. I mentioned the report in my question, and said 'I know you've talked about reconciliation and moving on, but there's also the issue of justice, and a lot of people -- certainly around the world and certainly within this country -- feel that crimes were possibly committed' regarding torture, rendition, and illegal wiretapping. I wanted to know how whether his Justice Department 'would aggressively go after and investigate whether crimes have been committed.'
Here's his answer, in its entirety:"What I would want to do is to have my Justice Department and my Attorney General immediately review the information that's already there and to find out are there inquiries that need to be pursued. I can't prejudge that because we don't have access to all the material right now. I think that you are right, if crimes have been committed, they should be investigated. You're also right that I would not want my first term consumed by what was perceived on the part of Republicans as a partisan witch hunt because I think we've got too many problems we've got to solve. So this is an area where I would want to exercise judgment -- I would want to find out directly from my Attorney General -- having pursued, having looked at what's out there right now -- are there possibilities of genuine crimes as opposed to really bad policies. And I think it's important-- one of the things we've got to figure out in our political culture generally is distinguishing between really dumb policies and policies that rise to the level of criminal activity.
You know, I often get questions about impeachment at town hall meetings and I've said that is not something I think would be fruitful to pursue because I think that impeachment is something that should be reserved for exceptional circumstances. Now, if I found out that there were high officials who knowingly, consciously broke existing laws, engaged in coverups of those crimes with knowledge forefront, then I think a basic principle of our Constitution is nobody above the law -- and I think that's roughly how I would look at it."Obama did not say he prefers prosecution to impeachment for political reasons. He said he's opposed to both because he doesn't know of any crimes having been committed, and he hasn't seen any exceptional circumstances, but that he's open to prosecution should he discover that crimes have been committed. We can leave to one side the fact that many impeachable offenses are not crimes, and the question of why Obama is waiting until 2009 to look into this seemingly important issue, as well as the question of what in the hell WOULD constitute exceptional circumstances. I want to focus on what Obama already knows, because we all know it, because it's public knowledge.
The current president has openly confessed to violating the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, and with it the Fourth Amendment..."Also see...
Obama Adviser Cass Sunstein Debates Glenn Greenwald on FISA Vote, Executive Power and Prosecuting White House Officials for War Crimes
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/7/22/obama_adviser_cass_sunstein_debates_glenn"...CASS SUNSTEIN: Well, I speak just for myself and not for Senator Obama on this...."
Madfloridian's thread...
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x3659058http://journals.democraticunderground.com/madfloridian/2385"...Politicians, legal experts and progressive activists grappled with Republican abuses of power at the third annual netroots convention on Friday, debating how an Obama Administration might restore the rule of law. Cass Sunstein, an adviser to Barack Obama from the University of Chicago Law School, cautioned against prosecuting criminal conduct from the current Administration. Prosecuting government officials risks a "cycle" of criminalizing public service, he argued, and Democrats should avoid replicating retributive efforts like the impeachment of President Clinton--or even the "slight appearance" of it. Update: Sunstein emailed to emphasize that he also said and believes that "egregious crimes should not be ignored."Excellent analysis of Lee Hamilton, Iran-Contra, and Onward...
http://www.atlargely.com/2008/03/excellent-analy.html"...Remember that some of the Iran Contra folks graduated to the Bush II administration...
As you can see, the past is also the present and Iran Contra is as much a current scandal as it is a past crime..."