4um: Obama Would "Immediately Review" Potential Of Crimes In Bush White House

Tonight I had an opportunity to ask Barack Obama a question that is on the minds of many Americans, yet rarely rises to the surface in the great ruckus of the 2008 presidential race -- and that is whether an Obama administration would seek to prosecute officials of a former Bush administration on the revelations that they greenlighted torture, or for other potential crimes that took place in the White House.

Obama said that as president he would indeed ask his new Attorney General and his deputies to "immediately review the information that's already there" and determine if an inquiry is warranted -- but he also tread carefully on the issue, in line with his reputation for seeking to bridge the partisan divide. He worried that such a probe could be spun as "a partisan witch hunt." However, he said that equation changes if there was willful criminality, because "nobody is above the law."

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 betyween 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.

The bottom line is that: Obama sent a clear signal that -- unlike impeachment, which he's ruled out and which now seems a practical impossibility -- he is at the least open to the possibility of investigating potential high crimes in the Bush White House. To many, the information that waterboarding -- which the United States has considered torture and a violation of law in the past -- was openly planned out in the seat of American government is evidence enough to at least start asking some tough questions in January 2009.

...Both methods yielded similar results, which support the previous findings; that is, of all modern human samples, sub-Saharan Africans again exhibit the closest phenetic similarity to various African Plio-Pleistocene hominins...
Ancient teeth and modern human origins: An expanded comparison of African Plio-Pleistocene and recent world dental samples, Journal of Human Evolution Volume 45, Issue 2, August 2003, Pages 113-144

So? He will say anything to get elected. He won't do anything but what he is told after he is elected. What about Obama's crimes? And don't tell me hasn't committed any. You would trade one NWOer for another one. Some people would call that crazy.

Boy, is there anything this fraud is not promising? People are going to be very disappointed if this fruitcake gets in the Oval Office. Actually, that might be a good thing, because maybe that will turn people against the whole Marxist victim culture.

No, they like enough to create more of it. At least Obama is honest about the charade:

"But -- so the questions you're most likely to get about me, 'Well, what is this guy going to do for me? What's the concrete thing?'...So we'll go down a series of talking points.

But the truth is, is that, our challenge is to get people persuaded that we can make progress when there's not evidence of that in their daily lives. [snip] -- Obama - audio from the April 6, 08 Obama fundraiser in S.F. www.huffingtonpost.com/mayhill-fowler/obama-no- surprise-that-ha_b_96188.html

But -- so the questions you're most likely to get about me, 'Well, what is this guy going to do for me? What's the concrete thing?'...So we'll go down a series of talking points.

But the truth is, is that, our challenge is to get people persuaded that we can make progress when there's not evidence of that in their daily lives. [snip] -- B.Obama - audio from the April 6, 08 Obama fundraiser in S.F. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mayhill-fowler/obama-no-surprise-that-ha_b_96188.html

'Individuals should not take responsibility for their own defense. That’s what the police are for. ... If I oppose individuals defending themselves, I have to support police defending them. I have to support a police state.”' Alan Dershowitz

I'm seeing quite a few BHO bumper stickers around the CenTex - for whatever that's worth.

Most of usins is so bitter that we is goin trout fishin, catch sumpin fer supper.

BO is somethin others accuse of us, is that like you Texans have on yalls bumpers??????

I see the Utopians have lifted off and are back to floating around in their alternate universe. How could Obama investigate Bush alone w/o investigating the 97? Senators who gave Herr Bush a blank check to wage war?

I seem to remember in 1999 when GW Bush was gearing up to run for president that he issued a statement saying he would have his people look into crimes committed by the federal gov at Waco in 1993. I was an idiot. I posted on FreeRepublic that maybe GW Bush would be a good president if he wanted to look into Waco crimes. there was a time when Jimrob liked me.

Revelation 6:6 And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and [see] thou hurt not the oil and the wine.

For war funds, or not?; Obama pressed to explain opposition to Iraq spending as Senate candidate vs. votes for it in office

It's a good start, especially since the other two are not even saying these things.

Nancy Pelosi took impeachment off the table, but I've thought for some time now that treason would be easier to litigate.

Riiiight.. like Obama is single-handedly going to go up against the black-ops spookmasters who have run this vicious empire since the assassination of JFK. Suuuurrrre he is... and if you believe that, I have some snow-capped mountaintop property in Southern Florida to sell you.

He should've said ... if crimes have been committed, they should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Should guilt be determined the maximum penalties should be imposed. No man is above the law.

I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around the banks will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs.

Thomas Jefferson, Letter to the Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin (1802)

Like I mentioned to wudidiz at least Obama is saying he will do this. Show me where Hillary and McCain even bring the subject up.

Uhhhh, it will never happen. Why?? Because if Obummer becomes president guess what???? Nah, he may talk big like the other two but he is not stupid.

HOOOOT! HA HA HA HA HOO! HOOOOO! HAA HAAAAAA HAAAAAAA HO HO HO HOO HOO *gasp* HA HA HA HAHAHAHA HO HO HO *choke* HOOOOOO HA HA HAAHAHAHAHAA! *wheeze* HO HO HO HOOO HA HA HAHAHA!

All that proves is that he's as much of a bald-faced liar as Hillary. SpookDaddy and his Hellspawn will NEVER EVER EVER be prosecuted for ANYTHING, EVER.

I was referring to EJ's assumption that Obama's statement that he would investigate criminal wrongdoing is a lie.

Speaking of which: Funny how Obama sounds just like Dubya in 2000. I'll investigate the wrong doing so long as I don't bother the other party (he's a uniter after all) or make it look like a witch hunt. Notice Obama didn't give a simple yes or no answer and like his other statements has more than a few conditions tacked onto it.

"If violence solved nothing, then weapons technology would have never advanced past crude clubs and rocks." - Me.

He's a POLITICIAN, ok? He's not a 'savior', he's not 'the second coming', he's not The Lone Ranger, he's not some kind of minor deity, he's nothing more than a freakin' POLITICIAN who has been ALLOWED to become a "serious contender" by the bastards who own this miserable Empire. The ONLY thing I expect from him is to be disappointed, at best. I keep thinking Mugabe was considered to be a pretty good leader when he first got elected too. Carter though he was just dandy.

No one here thinks of Obama as the 2nd Coming. I just wish everyone would not be quite so quick to condemn him w/o any proof.

How many betraying traitors have to pollute the Bleak House with their vile presence before we're allowed to condemn them all out of hand? Geez. I have NO illusions whatsover. Just remember, the German people didn't get rid of the Nazis, it was the rest of the world declaring war against the Nazis and crushing that nation to dust that got rid of the Nazis. I expect nothing less to create any change here.

Yeah, pass into "four more years" if this forum is representative of the electorate at large.

I cling to hope of a 50 state repudiation of the traitorous, neocon Plutocrat Party