After previously saying that it didn’t want to dwell on the claims that many have made about the Bush Administration’s prosecution of the War on Terror, the Obama Administration has apparently decided to let the chips fall where they may:
WASHINGTON — President Obama does not intend to voice his preference for whether anyone is prosecuted from prisoner abuse cases, a White House spokesman said Monday, and will allow Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. to make the decision.
The Justice Department’s ethics office has recommended that prosecutors investigate nearly a dozen prisoner abuse cases, reversing the Bush administration and potentially exposing Central Intelligence Agency workers to prosecution for their brutal treatment of detainees, according to a person officially briefed on the matter.
“Well, as the president has said repeatedly, he thinks that we should be looking forward, not backward,” Bill Burton, the deputy White House press secretary, told reporters in Oak Bluffs, Mass., where Mr. Obama is vacationing. “He does agree with the attorney general that anyone who conducted actions that had been sanctioned should not be prosecuted.”
The president appointed Mr. Holder “as a very independent attorney general,” Mr. Burton said. He said the White House would unequivocally support the Justice Department’s decision on any prosecutions and investigations into allegations of abuse by C.I.A. employees and contractors.
“I’m not just suggesting that,” Mr. Burton said when pressed by reporters, then added, referring to Mr. Holder: “I’m saying that the president thinks that the decision of who to investigate and to prosecute is in his hands.”
Let the games begin
Investigating CIA interrogators is going to open up a big can of worms.