Seasoned press corps veteran Helen Thomas got an opportunity to pose a question. Her question was the most challenging foreign policy question of the night.
Question: Mr. President, do you think that Pakistan and -- are maintaining the safe havens in Afghanistan for these so-called terrorists? And, also, do you know of any country in the Middle East that has nuclear weapons?
Obama: Well, I think that Pakistan -- there is no doubt that, in the FATA region of Pakistan, in the mountainous regions along the border of Afghanistan, that there are safe havens where terrorists are operating.
And one of the goals of Ambassador Holbrooke, as he is traveling throughout the region, is to deliver a message to Pakistan that they are endangered as much as we are by the continuation of those operations and that we've got to work in a regional fashion to root out those safe havens.
It's not acceptable for Pakistan or for us to have folks who, with impunity, will kill innocent men, women and children. And, you know, I -- I believe that the new government of Pakistan and -- and Mr. Zardari cares deeply about getting control of the situation. We want to be effective partners with them on that issue.
Again, safe and reserved. He was also safe and reserved when asked about the proposal that Sen. Leahy has for the establishment of a truth commission to investigate the crimes of the Bush Administration.
I haven't seen the proposals, so I don't want to express an opinion on something that I haven't seen.
What I have said is that my administration is going to operate in a way that leaves no doubt that we do not torture, that we abide by the Geneva Conventions, and that we observe our traditions of rule of law and due process, as we are vigorously going after terrorists that can do us harm. And I don't think those are contradictory; I think they are potentially complementary.
My view is also that nobody's above the law and, if there are clear instances of wrongdoing, that people should be prosecuted just like any ordinary citizen.
But that, generally speaking, I'm more interested in looking forward than I am in looking backwards. I want to pull everybody together, including, by the way, the -- all the members of the intelligence community who have done things the right way and have been working hard to protect America and I think sometimes are painted with a broad brush without adequate information.
Obama ultimately said he would look at the proposal to hold Bush Administration members “accountable”, but believed that we must “get it right looking forward.”
Constitutional law professor Jonathan Turley dealt with this flawed argument in this video from Countdown w/ Keith Olbermann weeks ago when he explained how Obama must prosecute or investigate war crimes.
Turley suggested he (or any lawyer) would be laughed out of court if he said something like what Obama might be saying---Yeah, a crime was committed, but let’s not look in the past, let’s look forward. (VIDEO)
At this point, Americans have a president consumed with an economic stimulus package which is having its message controlled by Republicans. Two military adventures continue in the Middle East --- the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Strikes are occurring in Pakistan. And, Obama cannot find the moral clarity to call for the restoration of the rule of law in America.
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