Do you think George W. Bush should be prosecuted by the Obama administration for torture?

[karynnj]

108. Very hard question

The most important step that Obama took was to immediately end these procedures as soon as he was in office. At some level, it would have been ideal had he immediately asked the Justice Department to investigate and if necessary indict anyone who broke the law - with the intention of going all the way to Bush if the trail (as we all think it did ) led there.

Separately, either the House or Senate could have started investigations. I am not positive which committee would have had the jurisdiction - I think it would be the intelligence committees. This approach, rather than the executive branch approach, likely would have hobbled the Congress from passing the needed stimulus package. Remember that until Specter changed parties there was no way to pass anything without some Republicans. If I had to guess, if there was a strong effort to do this in Senate (the House only needed 50%), there would have been even less passed. In addition, it would have been less clear that the Democrats DID try to work with the Republicans - making the false equivalency.

Now, 5 years later, you could argue that Congress is not working with the President anyway - so there is nothing there to lose. One major question is whether it would harm US foreign policy ability more to put this all out in the open or if it is kept quiet. The other question is whether they can get convictions. Especially as you moved to well known people, would jurors vote to convict - when it means they are voting that their country committed war crimes. Imagine the damage if graphic compelling evidence is exposed and they are NOT convicted. (Note that the Iran/Contra indictments were for lying to Congress - not for the actions themselves.)