This NY Times editorial this am (16July) takes on the abuses of Bush & Co and details the findings and just how outrageous were the claims and the secrecy. Bob Woodward on Charlie Rose (15July) talked about how Bush and Cheney never opened up discussions with the wider staff or cabinet, and went ahead and created policy on their own. Woodward argues that this is not a productive approach to good policy and leaves too many potentially good ideas out of the loop. It seems clear Obama has a choice now, and, though he wants to move ahead with his many new agendas, the abuses of the Bush years need to be addressed. I think Attorney General Holder will concur, and probably begin working on it. We shall see. BP

Mr. Cheney has tried to head off a reckoning by claiming that the warrantless wiretapping saved thousands of lives. The report said the C.I.A. could point to little direct benefit. The F.B.I. said most of the leads it produced were false. Others never led to an arrest.

This is not an isolated case. Once the Bush team got into the habit of breaking the law, it became their operating procedure that any means are justified: ordering the nation?s intelligence agents to torture prisoners; sending innocents to be tortured in foreign countries; creating secret prisons where detainees were held illegally without charge.

Americans still don?t have the full story. Even now, most of what the inspectors general found remains classified, including other wiretapping that Mr. Bush authorized. Mr. Yoo?s original memo is also classified.

President Obama has refused to open a full investigation of the many laws that were evaded, twisted or broken ? pointlessly and destructively ? under Mr. Bush. Mr. Obama should change his mind. A full accounting is the only way to ensure these abuses never happen again.

NY Times Editorial
Illegal, and Pointless
July 16, 2009