President Obama clearly sees only the evidence he wants to see. A former CIA employee, he has also declined to prosecute the CIA officials who tortured Middle East captives and who in 2005 destroyed documentary evidence of those crimes, very likely obstruction of justice.
Veteran New York Times reporter Tim Weiner wrote of President Obama's task in an Afterword to his book, "Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA"( Random House): "he must restore principles" to our foreign policy. "That means renouncing torture as a tool of American power, returning habeas corpus to its rightful place in American law, closing Guantanamo, and shutting the secret prisons. It means limiting the state secrets privilege by which presidents block American courts from administering justice. It means an end to the arrogation of presidential powers and a return to constitutional checks and balances in the realm of American national security." Of course, after more than two years in office, President Obama appears to be utterly indifferent to these standards, just as he attacked Libya without seeking the consent of Congress, just as he authorized reckless CIA drone assassination attacks in Pakistan that have resulted in hundreds of civilian deaths.
The killing of any human being, even the very worst, is no signal for rejoicing. But for President Obama to call bin Laden's killing "just" while failing to indict Mr. Bush and his aides who also resorted to massive terror, reveals a dangerous and disgraceful double-standard. #
(Sherwood Ross, a former reporter for major U.S. dailies and wire services' columnist, is director of the Anti-War News Service. )
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