Obama Open to Interrogations Probe

By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 21, 2009 12:32 PM CDT
Obama Open to Interrogations Probe
In this Jan 20, 2009, file photo President Barack Obama talks to former President George W. Bush as former Vice President Dick Cheney listens.   (AP Photo/Jeff Christensen, File)

President Obama today said he’d be open to the idea of creating a panel to investigate the Bush administration’s interrogation methods in the war on terror. Obama and his aides have been dismissing the idea for weeks, but today in a press conference with King Abdullah of Jordan, Obama sounded amenable, provided it was “done in a bipartisan fashion, outside the typical hearing process that can sometimes break entirely along party lines.”

“I’m not suggesting that that should be done,” Obama was quick to add. “But I’m saying, it’s very important for the American people to feel this is not being done—to provide one side or the other political advantage.” He also said that while he’s promised not to prosecute CIA interrogators acting under legal advice, those who drafted that legal advice could be held accountable. (More Barack Obama stories.)

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