Obama Reluctant to Look Into Bush Programs

[groovedaddy]

WASHINGTON — President-elect Barack Obama signaled in an interview broadcast Sunday that he was unlikely to authorize a broad inquiry into Bush administration programs like domestic eavesdropping or the treatment of terrorism suspects.

But Mr. Obama also said prosecutions would proceed if the Justice Department found evidence that laws had been broken.

As a candidate, Mr. Obama broadly condemned some counterterrorism tactics of the Bush administration and its claim that the measures were justified under executive powers. But his administration will face competing demands: pressure from liberals who want wide-ranging criminal investigations, and the need to establish trust among the country’s intelligence agencies. At the Central Intelligence Agency, in particular, many officers flatly oppose any further review and may protest the prospect of a broad inquiry into their past conduct.

In the clearest indication so far of his thinking on the issue, Mr. Obama said on the ABC News program “This Week With George Stephanopoulos” that there should be prosecutions if “somebody has blatantly broken the law” but that his legal team was still evaluating interrogation and detention issues and would examine “past practices.”

Mr. Obama added that he also had “a belief that we need to look forward as opposed to looking backwards.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/12/us/politics/12inquire.html?th&emc=th

[aquart]

1. Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong.

[AndyA]

2. This is a dangerous precedent to set. We cannot "forgive" past crimes under the pretense of

"moving forward."

At the Central Intelligence Agency, in particular, many officers flatly oppose any further review and may protest the prospect of a broad inquiry into their past conduct.

Sounds like the CIA needs to be seriously cleaned out. We don't need crooks and criminals in positions of power in that organization.

Edit: To fix HTML in excerpt.

[Viva_Daddy]

3. Iagree with the above responses BUT...

We must also remember that Obama will have to deal with the Repugs in Congress. They don't deal well with ANY criticism of "their president". If we Dems or Obama go after the Shrub too hard they will simply circle their wagons and refuse to move.

[AndyA]

4. That's pretty much what they've been doing during the 110th Congress.

And look where that's put us: record deficits, record unemployment, a recession, fraud in the banking and lending markets, bankrupt corporations, etc.

I think these things need to be looked into, and to hell with the Republicans. If they resist, they can be singled out and asked, "What are you afraid of? What do you have to hide?"

[BridgeTheGap]

5. "Looking forward and not backward" seems to be a critical error. If you want to avoid repeating the

same mistakes, you have to look at what went wrong and why. It's the basis of problem solving. I firmly believe if this approach is taken, with the economy too, much illegal activity will be uncovered.
Re: Viva Daddy's post - it can start with the Justice Department willingness to dig in. Republicans in Congress didn't like it when Dems went after Nixon either. But once it became clear that Nixon had violated the law, the repubs had no choice but to heed the voices of their constituents' demand for justice.

[grasswire]

6. Don't be bamboozled, Obama

"Looking forward, not backward" is exactly how the Republicans have ruined the United States and its reputation in the world.

Starting with the coup attempt against FDR by the same gang of elite industrialists, Republicans have attacked the Constitution repeatedly because they could not win at the ballot box. They have used thuggery, deceit, twisting of the formerly immutable rule of law, tainting of the judiciary, cronyism, violence, and other evil means to force their failed ideology on the American people.

"Looking forward, not backward" is a policy that runs counter to logic, if one expects CHANGE.

[Enthusiast]

7. Like you, I fear Obama will be

bamboozled. If we don't look back how can we learn from the mistakes?

And finacial institutions must be reregulated or we will never recover.