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Turley: Obama ‘owns’ Bush ‘war crimes’ if he looks the other way
David Edwards and Muriel Kane
Raw Story
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
President George W. Bush’s offhand acknowledgement in an interview Sunday with Fox’s Brit Hume that he personally authorized the waterboarding of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed may create thorny legal and moral problems for incoming President Barack Obama.
Constitutional law professor Jonathan Turley told MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann on Monday, “We now have President Bush speaking quite candidly that he was in the loop, we have Dick Cheney who almost bragged about it. The question for Barack Obama is whether he wants to own part of this by looking the other way.”
Obama told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos on Sunday, “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.”
(ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW)
“If waterboarding is torture — and Barack Obama has said that it is torture,” Turley emphasized, “and torture is a war crime, then the president has committed a war crime if he did order waterboarding. You have to do some heavy lifting to avoid the simplicity of that logic.”
Turley noted that individual CIA officers who carried out torture may be able to invoke the so-called “Gestapo defense” — that they only followed orders they were assured were legal — but that defense does not hold for those who gave the orders.
“It only works if you can reasonably rely on the advice, and it generally does not protect people like Bush,” Turley explained. “You really can’t go out and get radical or extreme lawyers, like John Yoo and Viet Dinh, and get them to enable you to do things that you know is a war crime.”
“There’s no real question that crimes were committed here by {Obama’s] predecessor,” concluded Turley, “and he can either begin his administration as a man of principle, and allow the law to take us wherever it may lead, or he will inherit the same type of moral relativism that really corrupted the previous administration. I’m going to say a silent prayer for principle.”
This video is from MSNBC’s Countdown, broadcast Jan. 12, 2009.
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19 Responses to “Turley: Obama ‘owns’ Bush ‘war crimes’ if he looks the other way”
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January 13th, 2009 at 1:48 pm
PAWN PAWN PAWN FUCK FUCK!!!
Look Forward not back? Everybody admits and talks of mistakes that were made, However NEVER learn from them? Just keep fucking up the same ways!?
I have to go brush my teeth a few times more with the double protection double fluoride tooth past to swallow this one!
Obama you are a disgrace!
How about those golden globes though! Just keep looking into the tube it makes it all much better.
January 13th, 2009 at 2:08 pm
Withuot a serious effort to recycle our image with the world, we risk, no, beg for a 10 year depression. First, george, dick condi and donald must be imprisoned. Second we must cut our military budget by 50%. Third, bankers in jail, and those who acted solely out of greed to have all assets confiscated and used as war reparations. Social security and private pension plans must be restructured. Tax rates above 70% for the very rich, including capital gains. Close our borders for 5 years, no H1-B, migrant workers, etc. Fair sentencing laws for all but war criminals, including americans who participated in torture or war crimes.
January 13th, 2009 at 2:15 pm
What can Obama really do?
The reality is his hands are tied. If he prosecutes Bush, he needs to prosecute thousands of others involced in these and other- and they belong to the elite.
If he prosecuties only Bush, he might face so much resistance from the elite that he can’t get anything done.
January 13th, 2009 at 2:17 pm
America has reached a cross roads. Either its people dump the bandits that their ruling class so obviously now is – or it descends into a third world, slave country with a few very rich and the vast majority averagely well off to totally destitute.
Christian Reply:
January 13th, 2009 at 8:11 pm
True
January 13th, 2009 at 2:33 pm
Barky aint gonna do sheeit. He is sucking Bush’s cock!
Obama is one of them, it is all just a show. Like hollywood but with really shitty acting and no special effects.
Charles Reply:
January 13th, 2009 at 4:47 pm
LOL, I couldn’t agree more. Barrack will do absolutely nothing, economically, war crime wise, or actually anything…he’s constantly preached change, and did the exact opposite of what was needed to accomplish it…so, why do we think anything else will happen? I ALMOST voted for Obama, because I THOUGHT he was going to get us out of the Middle East, not just move the pawns around…then I read Ron Paul’s books, and voted for him, regardless if the vote was *wasted* my conscious is clear.
The real trick, will be to do nothing, and seem like he is doing everything, while he’s really just hiding everything Bush and the NWO have done, and will do…
No one trust old white men any more… so, put a young black man in office… they tried the woman card… and well, she became the laughing stock of the world on Saturday Night Live… Hillary pissed off too many people on the rise to the presidency, so she was tossed out on her bum…so, the only choice was to hang a old white man *Biden* as the uber experienced portion of the ticket…and the young black man, to emphasis CHANGE.
No Change will ever happen, as long as it take 100 million to run for a job that pays like, 200 grand a year.
January 13th, 2009 at 3:26 pm
Hey Juan, Do you think it matters a damn what the world thinks of the USA? We have alot more to worry about than what people across the pond think of us. Personally i could give two Shits. And remember “The SOUTH will rise again!”
January 13th, 2009 at 3:38 pm
America is totally in the hands of the zionist conspiracy. Obama is no better than bush as he is also a zionist and a free mason. They are all the same, otherwise they don’t get selected as presidents.
It will not be long before something really big and really bad will happend.
January 13th, 2009 at 3:54 pm
Phony birth certificate. End of argument.
blindboy Reply:
January 14th, 2009 at 3:56 am
Amen, brother.
January 13th, 2009 at 4:00 pm
If Obama doesn’t even have to prove he is a natural born United States citizen (or even a naturalized United States citizen) as required by the US Constitution to be a presidential candidate, I doubt he is worrying about any other part of the Constitution.
January 13th, 2009 at 4:19 pm
Even the Navy Seals who tested base security were sued for using some form of waterboarding on base officers, and the program was ended. It has never been accepted as less than torture by anyone on the receiving end.
January 13th, 2009 at 4:41 pm
This is a total disgrace to our country and the men that founded it! Bush laughing with glee as he shakes Kissingers hand. People are being thrown out of there houses in the middle of winter and they are giving there friends billions in payoffs? when are the sheep going to wake up? Is a pro football game that important that you dont ask why the media doesnt show who died today in lraq or the pain those families feel? While they lie about what they are doing in lraq, men are dying, our men.
These traitors need to be prosecuted!
And as the constitution says, when the government ceases to respect the rights of its people, make a new government.
January 13th, 2009 at 6:04 pm
FCUK BOY BUSH , O”BAAAA”MA BIN LADEN & HIS ZIO-NEO-SCUM-BLOOD-SUCKERS !!!
* LYNDON H LaROUCHE …4… PRESIDENT *
* ALEX JONES ..4….. VICE-PRESIDENT *
* ALAN WATT ……4…. SECRETARY-OF-STATE *
* PETER SCHIFF ….4….. TREASURY *
INFO-WARRIORS ………………………………………. IT’S REVOLUTION TIME
January 14th, 2009 at 3:32 am
BARAK OBAMA WAS BORN IN KENYA. FACT………….HIS GRANDMOTHER EVEN ADMITTED IT.
January 14th, 2009 at 3:34 am
OBAMA IS NOT LEGALLY ENTITLED TO THE PRESIDENCY . THE CONSTITUTION DEMANDS A PERSON IS BORN ON AMERICAN SOIL OR TERRITORIES. KENYA WAS NOT IN AMERICAN CONTROL LAST TIME I CHECKED. AMERIKA YOU HAVE BEEN ROBBED BLIND.
SeaBottomDweller Reply:
January 14th, 2009 at 4:06 am
The constitution is a “goddam” piece of paper…ONLY people can enforce what’s written in that document…
It’s in your hands…