Cheney Discusses Interrogation of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and Obama Open to Probe, Prosecutions of Top Officials Over Interrogations

Two differing views. It opens a world of possibilities for our system of government where a new administration can second-guess and prosecute a previous administration for what are believed to be illegal or treasonous actions that were not judged so by the Supreme Court or any other court during the previous administration.

I wonder what 2012 or 2016 might bring?

December 15, 2008

Cheney Discusses Interrogation of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed

Today in an interview with ABC News, Vice President Cheney told reporter Jonathan Karl that he helped authorized the interrogation tactics used against Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. He said that the use of waterboarding was appropriate.

Obama Open to Probe, Prosecutions of Top Officials Over Interrogations

President Barack Obama arrives to deliver remarks at the Central Intelligence Agency in Langley, Va. Monday, April 20, 2009. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert) (Gerald Herbert - AP)

By William Branigin

Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, April 21, 2009; 5:08 PM

President Obama today defended his opposition to prosecuting CIA employees who conducted harsh interrogations of terrorism suspects but left open the possibility that officials who approved the techniques could face legal liability.

Obama also indicated that if Congress wants to examine the "enhanced interrogation program" conceived during the Bush administration, an independent commission might be a better vehicle to do so than a congressional panel that could break down along party lines and produce divisions.

The comments marked the first time that Obama has raised the prospect of legal jeopardy for those who formulated the program or a special commission to investigate it. His remarks also represented a sharp reversal of White House opposition to prosecuting officials who devised the policy -- a position that was stated publicly Sunday by White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel.

Speaking to reporters after a meeting at the White House with King Abdullah II of Jordan, Obama said he told CIA employees yesterday during a visit to CIA headquarters in Northern Virginia that "I have their back." He insisted that he is not "naive about how dangerous this world is" and said he wakes up every day and goes to bed every night thinking and worrying "about how to keep the American people safe."

He defended his decision to release memos in which senior Bush administration officials approved interrogation techniques that have been widely denounced as torture. He said the memos "reflected, in my view, us losing our moral bearings," adding, "That's why I've discontinued those enhanced interrogation programs."

"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," Obama said.

"With respect to those who formulated 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," he said. "I think that there are a host of very complicated issues involved there."

As a general proposition, Obama said, "I think that we should be looking forward and not backwards. I do worry about this getting so politicized that we cannot function effectively and it hampers our ability to carry out critical national security operations."

He suggested that if Congress feels the need for "a further accounting" of the interrogation program, it ought to be done "in a bipartisan fashion, outside of the typical hearing process that can sometimes break down and break it entirely along party lines." He said that "to the extent that there are independent participants who are above reproach and have credibility, that would probably be a more sensible approach to take."

He stressed that he is not calling for a commission along those lines. "But I'm saying, if you've got a choice, I think it's very important for the American people to feel as if this is not being dealt with to provide one side or another political advantage, but rather is being done in order to learn some lessons so that we move forward in an effective way."

In response to persistent questioning later at a White House news briefing, presidential spokesman Robert Gibbs repeatedly refused to describe Obama's comments today as a shift in positions.

Obama "reiterated today that . . . we should be looking forward and not backward," Gibbs said. "The president has also said he does not believe that people are above the rule of law." He added that Obama "stated accurately that any determination as to whether a law was broken would rightly be made not by the president, but by the chief law enforcement officer of the United States," Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr.

Asked if Obama were envisioning a panel to investigate the interrogation policy along the lines of the commission that looked into the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Gibbs said the president views the 9/11 Commission as "a model for how any investigation or commission might be set up" because its members put aside party affiliations "in order to answer some very serious questions." But Gibbs would not go so far as to say Obama envisions a panel without congressional members. "I wouldn't preclude any members of congress from being part of that," he said.

Obama said he wrestled with the decision to release the memos, in which Bush administration lawyers from the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) approved interrogation methods that included extreme sleep deprivation, physical violence and waterboarding, a practice that simulates drowning, to extract information from members of the al-Qaeda terrorist network.

"This has been a difficult chapter in our history and one of the tougher decisions that I've had to make as president," he said. "On the one hand, we have very real enemies out there, and we rely on some very courageous people, not just in our military but also in the Central Intelligence Agency, to help protect the American people." They must make difficult decisions because "they are confronted with an enemy that doesn't have scruples, that isn't constrained by constitutions, aren't constrained by legal niceties," he said.

"Having said that, the OLC memos that were released reflected, in my view, us losing our moral bearings."

On Capitol Hill, Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said he would hold hearings on the interrogation policy memos, which he said raise "grave legal, ethical and constitutional questions."

He said he plans to await a report by the Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility on the lawyers who wrote the memos and announced that the Judiciary Committee would "subsequently hold hearings and investigate these matters." But if the report "is delayed further, we will have hearings in the near term in any event," Conyers said.

"Critical questions remain concerning how these memos came into existence and were approved, which our committee is uniquely situated to consider," Conyers said in a statement.

In an interview on ABC's "This Week" program Sunday, Emanuel, the White House chief of staff, said Obama believes that CIA employees who were acting "in good faith . . . with the guidance they were provided" should not be prosecuted for using interrogation techniques that Obama has since banned.

Pressed on whether that also applies to the officials who devised the policy, Emanuel said Obama "believes that they . . . should not be prosecuted either." The chief of staff quoted Obama as saying in a statement explaining his decision that "this is not a time for retribution" but for reflection.

"It's not a time to use our energy and our time in looking back and any sense of anger and retribution," Emanuel said.

There was no immediate explanation of the reversal in Obama's position on the officials who formulated the interrogation policy, but it came amid mounting pressure from congressional Democrats and human rights activists for greater accountability regarding the program.

In a letter to Obama yesterday, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, urged the president to withhold judgment on potential criminal prosecutions related to CIA interrogations until the committee completes a review of the program in the next six to eight months.

At the same time, Obama has come under sharp attack from former Bush administration officials for releasing the OLC memos.

Former vice president Richard B. Cheney accused Obama of endangering national security. Former secretary of homeland security Michael Chertoff charged that the action gives terrorists "insights into the things they need to prepare for" and sends a message to U.S. allies "that we are not reliable in terms of safeguarding confidential information." Former CIA director Michael V. Hayden said the interrogation sessions produced valuable information about al-Qaeda.

In response, the White House has said the information in the memos was already in the public domain anyway. It has argued that openly acknowledging the techniques and explicitly banning them have enhanced U.S. credibility around the world and denied al-Qaeda an important recruiting tool.

At today's White House briefing, Gibbs took on Cheney, saying that Obama has had a two-year policy disagreement with the former vice president over "whether or not you can uphold the values on which this country was founded at the same time that you protect" American citizens. He said Obama on his first two foreign trips as president "has changed the image of America around the world through leadership and engagement that advances our national interests, makes us safer and more secure and stronger."

Suggesting that reporters look up news photos of the 2005 Summit of the Americas in Argentina, Gibbs said: "Maybe the former vice president of the United States thinks we are more secure in . . . Latin America with thousands of protesters burning in effigy something that looks like our leaders or an American flag. . . . The current president of the United States doesn't believe that."

Maybe the current president of the United States thinks we are more secure in . . . Latin America by cozying up to leaders who have destroyed democracy and freedom in their countries. . . . The former vice-president of the United States doesn't believe that.