Obama’s Position on WH Torture Actions

( – promoted by buhdydharma )

I read this, and though I’ve been self-defensively cynical about politicians’ promises, I have the (cautious) “audacity” to “hope” that there may be a sea change coming.  Yes, we’ve all been disappointed by politicians in the past, and currently.  Pelosi, Reid, and Conyers haven’t delivered on their pre-election rhetoric.  I just wanted to share the fact that one of the Presidential candidates was asked the question about holding the WH accountable, and here’s his answer:

Will Bunch asked Obama:  If he’s elected, what would his Administration do about the allegations of criminal activities by the Bush White House:   Obama Would Ask his AG to “Immediately Review” Potential Crimes in the Bush White House:

There’s more:

“…Tonight I had an opportunity to ask Barack Obama a question that is on the minds of many Americans, yet rarely rises to the surface in the great ruckus of the 2008 presidential race — and that is whether an Obama administration would seek to prosecute officials of a former Bush administration on the revelations that they greenlighted torture, or for other potential crimes that took place in the White House. ..”

“…Obama said that as president he would indeed ask his new Attorney General and his deputies to “immediately review the information that’s already there” and determine if an inquiry is warranted — but he also tread carefully on the issue, in line with his reputation for seeking to bridge the partisan divide. He worried that such a probe could be spun as “a partisan witch hunt.” However, he said that equation changes if there was willful criminality, because “nobody is above the law…”

But, given the fact that a McCain presidency not only wouldn’t ask his AG to “determine if inquiry is warranted” into the Bush Administration’s “possible” criminal activities-he would most likely continue those activities.  I’ll be contacting Obama to urge him to follow-through on accountability and restoring the Constitution.

The past weeks have had an overwhelming amount of bad news:  Increased casualties and deaths in Iraq, Continued tanking of the Economy-with inflation of energy and food costs and people losing jobs, homes, healthcare;  Food and energy shortages and riots across the world…and on and on.  

Yet, in the midst of the onslaught bad news, there are some glimmers of hope.  There have been several diaries here at DD about “People Power”.  NlinStPaul wrote of “Power”. Then pifore8 wrote about   more and more of us give less and less power to politicians, religion mongers, corporatists, and naysayers Also, Edger wrote that:   people already have the power to achieve what we come here to do, but that we forget that we have that power.

Then, there were these examples of people uniting to use their “power” to try to effect change:  Jimstaro informed us of: ILWU Longshoremen, Mail Carriers planned Anti-War work stoppage & the NY Faculty/Staff Union’s support of the ILWU. Also, (at that orange place) nyceve wrote that: “The CNA & …other California and national single-payer organizations, will be staging significant protests on June 19th in San Francisco…where insurance industry executives will be in attendance, and they will know we mean business.”  Bhudydharma cited Steve D’s Question: What to Do about Torture and suggested some “People Powered Actions” we all can take.  

It’s only a beginning, but it IS a beginning.  Here’s to hope and to “people power”. Let’s keep “getting the word out”; let’s keep putting the pressure on the politicians; let’s keep putting the pressure on the media to focus on the real world and national news–let’s hold their feet to the fire about their efforts to diss the Democrats and to shelter and elevate St. John McCain.  Let’s use our power.