No charges against CIA officials...

[Will E Worm]

No charges against CIA officials for waterboarding.

Seeking to move beyond what he calls a "a dark and painful chapter in our history," President Barack Obama said Thursday that CIA officials who used harsh interrogation tactics during the Bush administration will not be prosecuted.

The government also released four memos long held secret by the Bush administration in which its lawyers approved in extensive and often graphic detail the tough interrogation methods used against 28 terror suspects, the fullest and now complete government accounting of the techniques. The rough tactics range from waterboarding - simulated drowning - to using a plastic neck collar to slam detainees into walls.

Article

If an average person steals a candy bar they are charged.

But, CIA officials who disregard human rights aren't?

The "change" you all wanted.

 

[The Paulinator]

Change? I see no "change".

Seriously, the Office Of The President is pretty much hamstrung to be more moderate than the actual office-holder. By design.

Also, if a current administration begins prosecuting a previous administration and all its subsequent sideshows thereof, it would likely set a dangerous precedent for the proceeding admin. Like dominos or something, only with ankle bracelets.

Face it....torture is effective. Like it or not.

 

[Will E Worm]

Also, if a current administration begins prosecuting a previous administration and all its subsequent sideshows thereof, it would likely set a dangerous precedent for the proceeding admin. Like dominos or something, only with ankle bracelets.

If the administration did something that they need to be prosecuted for then they need to be charged and indicted.

Face it....torture is effective. Like it or not.

Torture only makes some people confess to things they did not do.

 

[GiannaIsMyGod]

I'm a big supporter of Obama but this is extremely disappointing. I know under his watch we are not going to torture but Cheney's cronies need to go to jail.

This is my second disappointment with Obama. Second to Tim Geithners appointment to Sec of State.

 

[D-rock]

It's a good thing Obama doesn't consider anybody above the law....oh wait. It looks like all his supporters will have to realize at some time that to one extent or another he's just a crooked politician after all.

 

[The Paulinator]

Will E- I agree with both points....I was saying that one admin isn't going to set a precedent that will likely come back to haunt them. I agree that any wrongdoers should face prosecution.

As far as the torture...I agree as well. People in this world do some really really horrible things to each other. It is easier to not think about it. It is even easier to play the old "well they would do it to us" game, but that solves nothing. I'm no expert, but it must work to some degree, and to announce a cessation of using one possible weapon may be perceived as a show of weakness.


I don't know where the answer lies, but it is somewhere between speaking diplomacy and "cowboy diplomacy"

 

[The Paulinator]

I'm a big supporter of Obama but this is extremely disappointing. I know under his watch we are not going to torture but Cheney's cronies need to go to jail.

This is my second disappointment with Obama. Second to Tim Geithners appointment to Sec of State.

It is my Opinion (emphasized) that they will only stop talking about torture. I hope I'm wrong.
Also I wanted to point out that Geithner is Sec of the Treasury. H Clinton is Sec of State

 

[Will E Worm]

It's a good thing Obama doesn't consider anybody above the law....oh wait. It looks like all his supporters will have to realize at some time that to one extent or another he's just a crooked politician after all.

People should have thought about that before they supported him like he was the "christed one." All Obama had was an empty slogan and people fell for it. baaaa

Will E- I agree with both points....I was saying that one admin isn't going to set a precedent that will likely come back to haunt them. I agree that any wrongdoers should face prosecution.

Yes, they should. Most won't, unfortunately.

 

[BlueBalls]

These people were just doing what they were ordered to do, that does not make it right, ofcourse not, but I'm sure disobeying orders is a serious offence in your military as it is in any other. Those who should be prosecuted are those who ordered these people to carry out these acts, and that should go as far up the chain as it can.

It never will because those at the bottom always have to take the fall, but in a just world the masterminds rolleyes at the top who decided that torture was valid should be the ones who fall on their swords, but as I say that'll never happen.

 

[Will E Worm]

These people were just doing what they were ordered to do. Those who should be prosecuted are those who ordered these people to carry out these acts, and that should go as far up the chain as it can.

The nazis said that and it didn't work then.

It shouldn't work now.

 

[Friday on my mind]

The nazis said that and it didn't work then.

It shouldn't work now.

It would have worked if the people potentially prosecuting them had been germans and not the victorious allies.
As someone who posted here as much as anyone on the abuses by america at guantanamo and the torturing I think we need to just move on and not allow those things to continue.I'm not even in favor of trying to prosecute the leadership of the country,again lets just move on.What they did was unfortuate but not really very secret and the country as whole is to blame for it for going along with such things as the invasion of Iraq and what followed such as the torture and detentions without trials.Scared people are very dangerous.

 

[Namreg]

It's a good thing Obama doesn't consider anybody above the law....oh wait. It looks like all his supporters will have to realize at some time that to one extent or another he's just a crooked politician after all.

aren't they all?

 

[Will E Worm]

It would have worked if the people potentially prosecuting them had been germans and not the victorious allies.

So, you say. You don't follow orders like a sheep.

 

[Namreg]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8006597.stm

The UN special rapporteur on torture, Manfred Nowak, says the US is bound under the UN Convention against Torture to prosecute those who engage in it.

Mr Obama released four "torture memos" outlining harsh interrogation methods sanctioned by the Bush administration.

Mr Nowak has called for an independent review and compensation for victims.

"The United States, like all other states that are part of the UN convention against torture, is committed to conducting criminal investigations of torture and to bringing all persons against whom there is sound evidence to court," Mr Nowak told the Austrian daily Der Standard.

 

[Philbert]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8006597.stm

Sorry, waterboarding isn't torture, it's just the illusion of a bad time.
Sleep deprivation isn't torture, it's a week of finals during your first year of college.
Torture is fingernail removal, broken arms and legs, electrodes attached, beating until the internals bleed...if ya can get up and walk away afterwards it ain't torture.

And just like kinky sex preferences (right, Dick Morris?), it's not something that should be discussed in polite company.
As in releasing the memos...

 

[Jagger69]

Obama loses either way he goes with this. If he presses the issue on a domestic front to bring the Bush administration officials who allegedly carried out such orders to accountability, he will be spit-roasted by the right for conducting a partisan witch-hunt and undermining US authority. If he doesn't, he's seen as weak on bringing the Bushie war criminals to justice by the other side. Has anyone considered the possibility that he is simply allowing the UN/Geneva Convention/World Court provisions to work as they are set up to do?

If there is evidence that war crimes were committed, the process should work as it is designed. Personally, as an American, I see nothing good emanating from war crimes proceedings against the aforementioned Bush administration officials, including Big Dick and GWB himself. However, if it comes to that, they will get what's coming to them if the evidence illuminates their culpability.

 

[Ace Boobtoucher]

If torture saves the life of one person I say start ripping out their fingernails.

 

[meesterperfect]

Like jagger said, it was a lose lose decision.
i think obama made a wise one however.

And if you really think the US is such big torturers, look at this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAp8bSdE5MQ

 

[Will E Worm]

Sorry, waterboarding isn't torture, it's just the illusion of a bad time.
Sleep deprivation isn't torture, it's a week of finals during your first year of college.
Torture is fingernail removal, broken arms and legs, electrodes attached, beating until the internals bleed...if ya can get up and walk away afterwards it ain't torture.

Waterboarding, sleep deprivation and so on are torture. I don't know where you're getting your information.

protecting war criminals is just wrong

Obama loses either way he goes with this.

Obama would have had my blessing.

 

[Philbert]

Waterboarding, sleep deprivation and so on are torture. I don't know where you're getting your information.

Go to your nearest window.
Open the curtains, wipe away the dust...see that?
It's the world outside your window...now you know where I'm getting that information!:thumbsup: