Obama Backtracks on Torture Investigations

Obama open to prosecution, probe of interrogations

It seems that all is not totally lost. Apparently while "I was just following orders" is a perfectly acceptable excuse for someone to participate in torture, writing the policy that those giving the orders referenced in an effort to justify their crimes is not.

White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel said in a television interview over the weekend that the administration does not support prosecutions for "those who devised policy." Later, White House aides said that he was referring to CIA superiors who ordered the interrogations, not the Justice Department officials who wrote the legal memos allowing them.

Obama is worried about investigations leading to partisan squabbles that get in the way of running the country, and is seeking a process that would use independent investigators, perhaps like the 9/11 Commission. Wouldn't want to play the blame game, you might look vindictive.

This is the same bullcrap the Democrats have been feeding us for years--they'd rather look conciliatory and stay above the fray than address serious human rights abuses head on. And yet they still get most of the "progressive" vote. Oh well.