A Possible Explanation for No War-Crimes Prosecutions

[Bakustra]

President-Elect Obama’s advisors feared in 2008 that authorities would oust him in a coup and that Republicans would block his policy agenda if he prosecuted Bush-era war crimes, according to a law school dean who served as one of Obama’s top transition advisors.

University of California at Berkeley Law School Dean Christopher Edley, Jr., left, the sixth highest-ranking member of the 2008 post-election transition team preparing Obama's administration, revealed the team's thinking on Sept. 2 in moderating a forum on 9/11 held by his law school (also known as Boalt Hall). Edley sought to justify Obama's "look forward" policy on Bush-era lawbreaking that the president-elect announced on a TV talk show in January 2009.

But Edley's rationale implies that Obama and his team fear the military/national security forces that he is supposed be commanding -- and that Republicans have intimidated him right from the start of his presidency even though voters in 2008 rejected Republicans by the largest combined presidential-congressional mandate in recent U.S. history. Edley responded to our request for additional information by providing a description of the transition team's fears, which we present below as an exclusive email interview. Among his important points is that transition officials, not Obama, agreed that he faced the possibility of a coup.

Well, this certainly explains quite a bit about how the Obama administration operates. Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? It certainly isn't the Presidential staff who does it, if this is anything to go by. Then again, if this was a realistic threat to the rule of law, then it seems as though the CIA should be forcibly disbanded- they clearly have too much power in hand if they are considered to be capable and willing to launch coups d'etat against their erstwhile employers.

[Thanas]

Sorry, but after reading Edley's response this sounds like a non-story to me. Sounds more like several potential problems were brought up and at the end they decided on "no witch hunt and this might be too risky for Obama in the future".