A Question Of War Crimes

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18 Nov 2008 10:34 am

The AP is reporting what I fully expected. It just isn't in Obama's interests or nature to seek prosecution of the president or many others in the Bush administration for committing war crimes. He wants to unite, heal and move forward. For him to initiate charges would seem partisan. And yet acquiescing to covering them up would be fatal. So what to do? Hilzoy proposes a special prosecutor:

This prosecutor should be someone with an unimpeachable reputation for wisdom, rectitude, and non-partisanship. (Think Archibald Cox.) He or she should be given complete independence, and should decide, without any interference from anyone in government, whether or not to bring charges. That would allow charges to be brought if they are merited, while minimizing the chances that they would be seen as partisan.

That's better than leaving the precedent that a president can break the law and pardon himself later - especially when the law we are talking about is the prohibition on torture. But it might also be feasible for Obama to set up a Truth and Reconciliation Commission that, in return for legal immunity in the US, could at least unearth and publicize the full evidence and records of the past eight years. We would at least know more about who authorized what and when. And in a democracy, we need to know, when such immense power is being exercised on our behalf.

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