WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama left open the possibility of legally pursuing the Bush administration officials who formulated the policies that led to "enhanced interrogation techniques" which critics have called torture.Mr. Obama said Tuesday he hasn't changed his position that employees and contractors of the Central Intelligence Agency shouldn't be prosecuted for the techniques spelled out in documents released by his administration last week, such as water boarding, slamming detainees against false walls and confining them in cramped spaces, sometimes with insects to induce fear.
But he drew a distinction between those who carried out the policies and those who formulated them. Speaking to reporters at the conclusion of a meeting in the Oval Office with Jordan's King Abdullah, Mr. Obama said the Department of Justice is looking into the Bush-era memos that authorized the interrogation tactics and that he did "not want to prejudge" the outcome of that examination.The president came close to endorsing an independent, bipartisan commission to examine the use of torture and other tactics in the wake of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
Rather than open congressional hearings, which Mr. Obama said tend to break down into partisan recrimination, "a more sensible approach" would be a bipartisan examination that would include "independent participants who are above reproach."
He cautioned that he was not saying such a commission "should be done," but his positive words will almost certainly bolster calls from senior Democrats in Congress for a "truth commission" to look back at the policies in what President George W. Bush called the global war on terror.
He cautioned that he was not saying such a commission "should be done," but his positive words will almost certainly bolster calls from senior Democrats in Congress for a "truth commission" to look back at the policies in what President George W. Bush called the global war on terror.
Courtesy: THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
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