Will Obama Pursue Terrorism Policy Probes? President-elect Appears Reluctant
Barack Obama faces some tough choices regarding Bush terrorism policies, including whether to investigate Bush administration officials for authorizing domestic wiretaps or harsh interrogations of suspects.
In an interview broadcast Sunday, Obama was asked whether he would appoint a special prosecutor to investigate. The president-elect expressed some reluctance, saying he had “a belief that we need to look forward as opposed to looking backwards,” the New York Times reports. Obama spoke in an interview with George Stephanopoulos.
The Times says Obama is facing competing demands on the issue. On the one side, liberals are pressing for broad criminal investigations. On the other side is the intelligence community, which opposes further inquiry.
ABC News published Obama’s answer to the question, saying his words left the door open “a bit” to prosecutions. Part of his answer was: “Well, we have not made any final decisions, but my instinct is for us to focus on how do we make sure that moving forward, we are doing the right thing. That doesn’t mean that if somebody has blatantly broken the law, that they are above the law. But my orientation’s going to be to move forward.”
Asked if he will tell the Justice Department to investigate possible wrongdoing, Obama replied in part: “Eric Holder’s been nominated. His job is to uphold the Constitution and look after the interests of the American people. Not be swayed by my day-to-day politics. So ultimately, he’s going to be making some calls. But my general belief is that when it comes to national security, what we have to focus on is getting things right in the future as opposed to looking at what we got wrong in the past.”
In another section of the interview, Obama said the closing of the detention center at Guantanamo Bay is not likely to take place in the first 100 days of his presidency.
The New York Times story points out that Obama will also have to decide to respond to litigation regarding terrorism policies that is pending in the federal courts.
In one civil case, the Bush administration cited the state-secrets privilege to keep secret information about its surveillance program, the story says. Another lawsuit concerns whether executive privilege can block congressional subpoenas for information concerning the firing of nine U.S. attorneys. House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers has reissued subpoenas to White House chief of staff Joshua Bolten and former White House counsel Harriet Miers, keeping the lawsuit alive, according to the story.
