Obama Opposed Probe into Torture

President Obama can’t seem to get out from under the shadow of George W. Bush, much as he’s trying to move on. The Washington Post’s Dan Balz reports Obama released the CIA interrogation memos last week instead of forming a commission—like the one convened after 9/11—to look into abuses because such a panel would have dragged the issue out for months. The president wanted to move on with his own agenda, which is why he said no one would be prosecuted for the abuses. Now everyone’s mad: Critics on the right say he is soft commander in chief for making the information public, while critics on the left think he’s letting former Bush officials get away with murder. The administration is now backtracking, saying that while no CIA agents will be prosecuted for harsh interrogation tactics, those who authorized the tactics might be.