[Peace-discuss] Bet Obama won't do it

[C. G. Estabrook]

	Americans favor probe of 'war on terror' excesses

WASHINGTON (AFP) — Two-thirds of Americans favor investigating whether the 
George W. Bush administration overstepped legal boundaries in its "war on 
terror," according to a poll released Thursday by USA Today and Gallup.

A majority of respondents said a probe should be launched into allegations that 
the Bush team used torture to interrogate terror suspects.

Investigators also should look into the former president's program of 
wiretapping US citizens without first securing court-issued warrants, 
respondents said.

About four respondents in 10 polled by USA Today (38 percent) favored criminal 
investigations, while about a quarter (24 percent) said they want an 
investigation without criminal charges being filed.

Some one-third of those polled (34 percent) said they want nothing done at all, 
the pollsters said.

The survey comes as the American Civil Liberties Union and other rights groups 
press for formal inquiries into whether the Bush administration flouted US and 
international laws banning torture and the constitutional right to privacy.

The group said in a statement that it plans to mount a campaign next week urging 
the public to press lawmakers "to fully investigate the US government?s abuses 
in the war on terror and hold accountable those responsible."

"The human rights organization is calling on President Barack Obama and the US 
Congress to create an independent and impartial commission to examine the use of 
torture, indefinite detention, secret renditions and other illegal US 
counterterrorism policies," the Amnesty statement added.

Two leading Democrats, House Judiciary Committee chairman John Conyers and 
Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Patrick Leahy has proposed commissions to 
investigate possible Bush administration violations.

Bush's successor President Barack Obama, at a press conference this week 
expressed reticence about a probe, saying it was time to move forward.

But he did not rule out possible prosecutions, adding "my view is also that 
nobody is above the law. And if there are clear instances of wrongdoing, that 
people should be prosecuted just like any ordinary citizen." And he said he 
would look at Leahy's proposals.

The telephone survey of 1,027 adults, taken between January 30 and February 1, 
had a plus or minus three percent sampling error.