Torture: Politics and Justice
One of the major criticisms of the Bush Administration was that the Department of Justice had been "politicized" and that the White House had exerted too much influence over who should be prosecuted.
As a result, I'm now starting to get unnerved by the questions being addressed to President Obama about who is or is not going to be prosecuted for torture.
I think that the White House is starting to wake up to the fact that it would be better for Obama not to be directly involved in those decisions, both as a matter of politics and as a matter of policy. The better process will be to:
1. Let the Justice Department investigate what they believe needs to be investigated, and let the Justice Department prosecute what they believe needs to be prosecuted.
2. If Congress is not satisfied with the prosecutions (or lack thereof), Congress can hold hearings and investigate.
3. If the President is not satisfied with a particular prosecution, the President can issue a pardon for that particular person.
Fortunately, all that the President has done so far is talk, and he has not yet issued any pardons or any amnesty. Let's hope it stays just talk until we see what AG Holder intends to do.
As a result, I'm now starting to get unnerved by the questions being addressed to President Obama about who is or is not going to be prosecuted for torture.
I think that the White House is starting to wake up to the fact that it would be better for Obama not to be directly involved in those decisions, both as a matter of politics and as a matter of policy. The better process will be to:
1. Let the Justice Department investigate what they believe needs to be investigated, and let the Justice Department prosecute what they believe needs to be prosecuted.
2. If Congress is not satisfied with the prosecutions (or lack thereof), Congress can hold hearings and investigate.
3. If the President is not satisfied with a particular prosecution, the President can issue a pardon for that particular person.
Fortunately, all that the President has done so far is talk, and he has not yet issued any pardons or any amnesty. Let's hope it stays just talk until we see what AG Holder intends to do.
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But that cuts both ways:
It could be awfully hard to prove a crime was committed by Bushies who wrote legal opinions advocating torture. If there's no way to prove a crime, and DOJ drops it, will you be happy with that "by the book" stance? Remember, a lot of people walk free because the case against them is difficult to prove.
Also, it's really hard to remove politics. I'm not saying "politicize everything", but we aren't robots going "by the book" all the time. Case in point: The stupid "sexting" bullshit -- some teens send photos around, and other teens get charged with child pornography. By the book? Yep. Stupid? Yep.
Some of this goes all the way to the real culprits: Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld. It might be difficult to prosecute them for political reasons. I hope it happens, but you could end up in a situation like the GOP going after Clinton for Monica. That gets very political. The question: Is there the political support and will among the people for this????? (For Monica, there wasn't)
But I think America needs to have this conversation and account for these actions.
April 22, 2009 1:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
And that's why I said that if, after the Justice Department has had a chance to act (or not act), Congress isn't happy with the prosecutions (or lack thereof), Congress can investigate.
I very much want all of this to come into the light. And it seems to be happening. So I think that it's best to wait to see what Justice does before urging the President to intervene.
April 22, 2009 10:33 PM | Reply | Permalink