CT Blue

Most commentators I’ve read interpret Obama’s statements yesterday regarding torture, in response to a question from George Stephanopoulos, pretty much put paid to any notion that an Obama government will go after the evildoers. That’s likely true, but we shouldn’t give up hope quite yet.

Here’s the exchange:

OBAMA: We’re still evaluating how we’re going to approach the whole issue of interrogations, detentions, and so forth. And obviously we’re going to be looking at past practices and I don’t believe that anybody is above the law. On the other hand I also have a belief that we need to look forward as opposed to looking backwards. And part of my job is to make sure that for example at the CIA, you’ve got extraordinarily talented people who are working very hard to keep Americans safe. I don’t want them to suddenly feel like they’ve got to spend all their time looking over their shoulders and lawyering (ph).

STEPHANOPOULOS: So, no 9/11 commission with Independence subpoena power?

OBAMA: We have not made final decisions, but my instinct is for us to focus on how do we make sure that moving forward we are doing the right thing. That doesn’t mean that if somebody has blatantly broken the law, that they are above the law. But my orientation’s going to be to move forward.

STEPHANOPOULOS: So, let me just press that one more time. You’re not ruling out prosecution, but will you tell your Justice Department to investigate these cases and follow the evidence wherever it leads?

OBAMA: What I — I think my general view when it comes to my attorney general is he is the people’s lawyer. Eric Holder’s been nominated. His job is to uphold the Constitution and look after the interests of the American people, not to be swayed by my day-to-day politics. So, ultimately, he’s going to be making some calls, but my general belief is that when it comes to national security, what we have to focus on is getting things right in the future, as opposed looking at what we got wrong in the past.

There’s a couple of things about this that give us hope. First, Holder has this to say about torture:

“Our government authorized the use of torture, approved of secret electronic surveillance against American citizens, secretly detained American citizens without due process of law, denied the writ of habeas corpus to hundreds of accused enemy combatants and authorized the use of procedures that violate both international law and the United States Constitution,…We owe the American people a reckoning.”

Obama did go out of his way to defer to Holder. But another consideration is this. If you were Obama, and you fully and absolutely intended to go after Bush and his cronies for each and every criminal act of the last eight years, how would you have answered that question? If you explicitly stated your intention, you would give Bush just the opening he needs to pardon each and every one of them to spare them from “politically motivated” persecution. Were I Obama, I’d keep my powder dry until I was safely in the White House, and Bush was safely out.

So there’s a glimmer of hope. All that being said, I must admit I’m not hopeful.

The idea that we should put these things behind us is, of course, absurd. The next Administration inclined to lawlessness will draw no other conclusion but that it can act without restraints because there will be no consequences. These people are not deterred by the threat of disapprobation. They wear it like a badge of honor. Only the threat of hard time is likely to stop them.