Why We Can't Afford to Let Obama Give Bush's War Criminals a Free Pass

Submitted by Anna on Sun, 02/07/2010 - 11:45

Charlotte Dennett
February 7, 2010

Join PDA’s Accountability and Justice Issue Organizing Team (IOT); learn more here.

Published by AlterNet.

Punishing the guilty for deeds they committed in the past is the only way to show the world that we are truly on a new path.

In a week when one-year report cards on the Obama administration were piling up and not all the grades were good, Americans searching for the real change we heard so much about on Obama’s campaign trail were hit with some news that would send his grades plummeting. Late last Friday, we learned that Obama’s Department of Justice plans to go easy on John Yoo and Jay Bybee—the two assistant attorney generals under Bush who penned the infamous torture memos. For those who have been working long and hard in the accountability movement to make sure no one—not even presidents or their top advisors—is above the law, this was a serious setback.