Tuesday, November 25, 2008
The Hamdan release: George W. Bush's gift to Barack Obama
The United States has decided to release Osama bin Laden's driver, Salim Ahmed Hamdan, to the custody of his home country, Yemen. There he will serve out the remaining month of his term before returning to the warm embrace of his family.
The Bush administration's alternative -- and the likely one, given its reputation for stubbornness -- would have been to stick to its position that it could detain Hamdan indefinitely and hand the resulting litigation and sticky political problem to the Obama administration. Barack Obama will surely notice the gesture. Indeed, one cannot help but wonder whether the signals from Obama that he will not pursue prosecutions of Bush administration officials are predicated in part, at least, on the Bushies cleaning up some of the GWOT-related "issues" that have been festering for the last few years.
9 Comments:
By 
JPMcT, at
Tue Nov 25, 08:45:00 AM:
I think that the premise that Bush is "rewarding" Obama for a non-prosecution stance is off base.
If Obama chose to prosecute those involved in "torturing" terrorists, it would certainly nail down the general fear that he is "soft" on national defense. Let's be real about this, most Americans are more like Jack Bauer than John Kerry when it comes to being harsh with terrorists.
On Bush's part, I think the man just wants to tidy up loose ends, provide a seamless transition and get the hell out of Washington and back to Texas.
Say what you wish about Bush, the man has integrity. I don't see any "tit-for-tat" in his aganda.
By JPMcT, at
Tue Nov 25, 08:48:00 AM:
errr...that would be "agenda"...
dmn keyboard!
By Ray, at
Tue Nov 25, 09:33:00 AM:
I think this is less likely a Bushie favor than the bureaucracy trying to curry favor with their new bosses, and Bush not getting in the way to avoid being run over.
By Dawnfire82, at
Tue Nov 25, 10:35:00 AM:
The implication being that the bureaucracy has the ability to 'run over' the sitting President?
By 
, at
Tue Nov 25, 10:54:00 AM:
"Let's be real about this, most Americans are more like Jack Bauer than John Kerry when it comes to being harsh with terrorists"
I have to agree there. Somebody who thinks the general public has a problem with torturing, mistreating, or even summarily executing terrorists needs a drug test.
Trying Bush admin personnel for anything related to the WOT would harrass them, but the idea that a jury is going to send anybody to jail is crazy.
By Andrew X, at
Tue Nov 25, 03:53:00 PM:
I do think that Bushies are correctly not overly concerned with post-January prosecutions, etc, simply because for Obama to pursue them would be such an appalling idea as to stagger the imagination.
First and foremost, as Obama began to realize by November 6th at the very latest, every single thing he does is likely to be seen as precedent. Does he not see that the GOP could reclaim the House, or worse (from his standpoint) at some time? Gee, ya think Republicans are just as capable of "indicting a ham sandwich" as Democrats? Better believe it.
Then, consider that such prosecutions would ignite a firestorm of rage among a mere, um, 48% or so of the population.
We will sit still for our people being voted out. They, and we, blew it, for reasons a,b,c and d.
Are we going to sit still for our people being prosecuted or even sent to jail, essentially for fighting the War on Terror, for protecting Democrat American's sorry asses so they can turn around and jail them for it?
"Not in Their Name" they might say it was done? Well, fine, it's their football now. Let's all hope. And if they are wrong, and Americans die for it, can we prosecute THEM for negligence or even treason?
If they go after Bushies after the fact, you bet.
I'm betting Mr. Obama sees this, and thus this will be one more drooling masturbatory fantasy of the freaks that will stay just that, a fantasy.
By , at
Tue Nov 25, 07:29:00 PM:
There won't be any prosecutions because the Left knows that all the crap they've said the last 7 years isn't true, it was just to undermine the war because a Republican was in the White House. And then they could benefit from all the "divisiveness" that they were causing because the media would blame it all on the Republicans.
By chuckchuck, at
Tue Nov 25, 09:02:00 PM:
Call it reputation for stubbornness - I call it hard headed!
By Pax Federatica, at
Wed Nov 26, 12:26:00 AM:
Prosecuting a POTUS after he has left office would set a dangerous precedent for future holders of the Oval Office. If some future POTUS has reason to believe that he may be prosecuted after his term is up, the most obvious way to avoid that is to do exactly what, until not so long ago, a lot of Lefties fully expected GWB to do at the end of his term.
