Despite the CIA’s delaying tactics, which have been going on for months now, the much-anticipated Inspector-General’s Report on the CIA’s Bush-era interrogation program came out yesterday, as promised the last time the release date was postponed. Also yesterday, Attorney-General Eric Holder announced his intent to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate “cases of abuse that went beyond government-authorized limits” to see if prosecutable offenses were committed.
Despite what some on the right may believe, it’s highly unlikely that Pres. Obama is pleased with these developments, or that he welcomes them as a distraction from the health care reform battle that’s been raging in Congress for most of the summer. He never wanted AG Holder to pursue the idea of criminal prosecutions for the torture of detainees in U.S. custody in the Bush administration. As David Johnston delicately puts it, “It is politically awkward … for Mr. Holder because President Obama has said that he would rather move forward than get bogged down in the issue at the expense of his own agenda.”
I hope he realizes now what a mistake it was to think that Republicans would work with him on health care reform just because he discouraged prosecutions and kept telling Americans we had to “put the past behind us.” It was naive at best for Obama to believe that conservatives in Congress who sincerely believe both that the authorization and use of torture by Bush officials was right and necessary, and that government-financed health care is wrong and unnecessary, would drop their opposition toward any kind of health care option not favorable to the private insurance industry (other than Medicare) just because Obama wanted to drop the idea of investigations and prosecutions.
By the same token, if the health care reform bill that Obama eventually signs does not include a strong public option, he should not expect his progressive base to be distracted by shiny objects and give him a pass simply because the Department of Justice has taken a step toward the possibility of criminal prosecutions on the torture issue.
PAST CONTRIBUTOR.