Tide Turns - Prosecuting Bush?

Tide turns towards prosecution and investigation
Faced with overwhelming public demand,
Obama now says he is open to prosecution

The government's effort to stop prosecution has backfired. In the last few days the demands from people around the country and the world for the investigation and prosecution of Bush Administration torture officials has caused a dramatic shift in the U.S. political scene. IndictBushNow has mounted a major campaign flooding Congressional representatives with demands for justice and a constituent letter writing campaign to newspapers around the country.

Under growing pressure from the people, President Obama has made a significant departure from the his position of last week that, "nothing will be gained by spending our time and energy laying blame for the past." Just today he stated that the prosecution of those who authorized the sadistic torture tactics "is going to be more of a decision for the attorney general within the parameters of various laws and I don't want to prejudge that."

Events are starting to break quickly:

The New York Times on Sunday issued a major editorial, "The Torturers' Manifesto," that began, "To read the four newly released memos on prisoner interrogation written by George W. Bush’s Justice Department is to take a journey into depravity." The editorial continued:

"Until Americans and their leaders fully understand the rules the Bush administration concocted to justify such abuses and who set the rules and who approved them there is no hope of fixing a profoundly broken system of justice and ensuring that that these acts are never repeated....

"And if the administration will not conduct a thorough investigation of these issues, then Congress has a constitutional duty to hold the executive branch accountable. If that means putting Donald Rumsfeld and Alberto Gonzales on the stand, even Dick Cheney, we are sure Americans can handle it. "

This view is being echoed by both major newspapers and local publications all over the country. There is no stepping back now.

Today's front page of the New York Times has this headline: "Pressure Mounts on President Obama for a More Thorough Investigation." The article goes on to say that the release of the torture memos has "provoked a furor that continued to grow on Monday as critics on various fronts assailed his position."

Congressional officials have called for accountability. Diane Feinstein, chair of Senate Intelligence Committee has issued a letter to the Obama Administration requesting that it withhold decisions on prosecution until the Committee is able to conduct a thorough investigation.

Feeling the heat, Dick Cheney has taken a gamble and gone on television to state that more memos should be released. As New York Magazine wrote this morning, "The more the American public learns and thinks about all of this, the more it's going to ask for someone's head ..."

If you want to write Congress -
https://secure2.convio.net/pepib/sit...rAction&id=131