Whether those fears were well founded or entirely in their heads is not something we are in a position to determine with certainty.
Julio
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I have no intention of shooting the messenger. But really? You buy any of this?
Edley can add master of deception to his resume.
The president has the power to dismiss at will any appointee in the executive branch. No revolt was possibly a threat. Assassination is a possibility for every president. Obama had the Congress in the palm of his hand with Reid and Pelosi.
Obama appointed Eric Holder because they agreed to continue Bush era legal, military, financial, foreign and environmental policies. Holder has done a bang-up job, especially going after whisleblowers. And Obama kept Gates as Secretary of Defense.
Doug notes, ``...why would anyone think that he'd have wanted to prosecute his predecessors? It would be a bad precedent for his successors, among other things.''
I've been over all this in my mind ever since Obama was elected... actually, years before, during the Abu Graib spring 2004, that John Kerry refused to be interested in. Did he make one speech on stopping these atrocities? Not that I remember. Somehow, it was agreed, the most pressing issues in that election were the war. That was off the table? Seymour Hirsh handed Kerry the election, if Kerry had wanted to use it.
The military prosecuted who, a sargent and couple of privates? Blame it on the retards? Even at the time it was obvious Rumsfeld had conspired with the Joint Chiefs, military intelligence and CIA to install this interogation and prison system which is still in place. All of this was in the news piecemeal. You just had to connect the dots.
At a guess much of the established military justice system refused to go along since much of this was already against the UCMJ and the Geneva Conventions. Well, that problem was gotten around by invention of a separate military tribunal system, which has since refused to function as charged. So the secret prison system at Guantanamo is still running. Who knows what's going on in the stans.
None of the above requires prosecution, although that would be nice. What is required is just what installed it, presidential action.
Excutive orders are fiats. What can be installed by fiat can be removed by fiat. Obama could simply sign executive orders to be rid of all this corrupting legalistic garage.
CG