By Peter Andrew ConservativeAmerican.org
When President Barack Obama announced he would go against the advice of four former CIA directors and release classified information about CIA interrogation techniques, he said the following:
“I prohibited the use of these interrogation techniques by the United States because they undermine our moral authority and do not make us safer...In releasing these memos, it is our intention to assure those who carried out their duties relying in good faith upon legal advice from the Department of Justice that they will not be subject to prosecution. The men and women of our intelligence community serve courageously on the front lines of a dangerous world. Their accomplishments are unsung and their names unknown, but because of their sacrifices, every single American is safer. We must protect their identities as vigilantly as they protect our security, and we must provide them with the confidence that they can do their jobs…This is a time for reflection, not retribution. I respect the strong views and emotions that these issues evoke. We have been through a dark and painful chapter in our history. But at a time of great challenges and disturbing disunity, nothing will be gained by spending our time and energy laying blame for the past. Our national greatness is embedded in America’s ability to right its course in concert with our core values, and to move forward with confidence. That is why we must resist the forces that divide us, and instead come together on behalf of our common future.”
At the time he released the memos, his own press release said both that the interrogation methods did not keep us safer (Vice President Dick Cheney says that’s nonsense and he wants the other memos released that show these methods did indeed produce results that kept Americans safe) and that the work of the people using these methods kept every single American safer.
In the press release he also said both that he was releasing the memos and that he felt releasing memos with secrets was not in the best interest of our nation.
In the press release, he also said it is a time for “reflection not retribution,” “nothing will be gained…laying blame for the past,” and that we must “resist forces that divide us.” Nice speech.
However, today he changed his mind and opened the door for partisan prosecution of those in the Bush administration:
“With respect to those who formulate those legal decisions, I would say that that 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. … There are a host of very complicated issues involved there.”
So the other day it was not complicated at all. He said nothing would be gained. Now, it is all of the suddent complicated and perhaps some (political) gains can be achieved. Fox reports:
“…it was the first time Obama took a question on the matter since his administration released a string of previously classified memos detailing harsh interrogation tactics used against terror suspects. At the time, Obama said agents who followed Department of Justice advice would not be prosecuted. He reiterated that point Tuesday. “For those who carried out some of these operations within the four corners of legal opinions or guidance that had been provided from the White House, I do not think it’s appropriate for them to be prosecuted,” he said. But while he also repeated his view that investigations into Bush officials could get politicized, he indicated for the first time an openness to such a course provided it is carried out in a “bipartisan fashion.” The attorneys who authored the memos, and who are the subject of an internal Justice Department ethics inquiry, are John Yoo, Jay Bybee and Steven Bradbury…(White House Press Secretary Robert) Gibbs said Tuesday that Obama did not have a change of heart on the issue, though Gibbs and Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel indicated over the past two days that the president did not favor opening the memos’ authors to charges.
Gibbs deflected the suggestion that the president was responding to pressure from the left to support prosecutions.”
It is hard to keep up with the President’s double talk. For him to follow through with
The Obama Pattern, he will need to prosecute some Bush people and then say that from here on out no one from past administrations will be prosecuted.
This amazing flip-flop is the latest addition to the Official Obama Administration Scandals List.
This entry was posted
on Tuesday, April 21st, 2009 at 5:28 pm and is filed under Barack Hugo Obama, Dems, Libs, Socialists, Foreign Policy, Military, Terror's War on Us.
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When President Barack Obama announced he would go against the advice of four former CIA directors and release classified information about CIA interrogation techniques, he said the following:
