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This has been the greatest celebration that Washington ever witnessed.
About 2 million people greeted the man, who is supposed to change a lot.
Now Barack Obama is president,
and now it's getting serious.
Under his predecessor America has tortured prisoners,
even if for George Bush, those were only "harsh interrogations methods".
Obama called methods like the infamous "water-boarding" plainly "torture"
but at the same time says, he doesn't look for big reckoning with the former administration.
But the UN Special Rapporteur for torture tells us,
Obama would be legally obligated to go after Bush & Co.
Jörg Brase and Thomas Reichert report:
Rarely so many people rested their hopes on a new presidency as on Barack Obama.
In his inauguration speech he made clear,
he wants to break with the heritage of the Bush administration
of torture and lack of rights in the war on terror.
"As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals."
His predecessor betrayed American ideals in the war on terror.
A human rights advocate in Berlin, Wolfgang Kaleck, sued members of the Bush administration
for torture and mistreatment in German courts - so far to no avail.
That Obama clearly rejects torture and crime is a good start, he said.
"Now an investigation has to follow
of all the turpitude which happened in the name of fighting terror during the past 8 years
and a compensation for the injured has to follow
and if necessary a criminal prosecution of the culprits."
Human rights advocates like Kaleck demand that Obama again
declares brutal interrogation methods like simulated drowning, the so called "water-boarding",
to what it always has been: torture.
The Bush administration legalized water-boarding.
With flimsy opinions it was declared right, what had always been wrong before.
Until the very end the Bush administration kept its controversial mindset.
"Are you ready to start a criminal investigation
into whether this confirmed use of water-boarding by US agents was illegal?"
"That's a direct question, and I will give you a direct answer: No, I'm not."
And "water-boarding" wasn't the only torture method the CIA and Army has used.
For example, the Guantánamo prisoner no. 063:
Mohammad Al Qahtani is considered an important member of Al-Qaeda.
These are the interrogation protocols of Nov. and Dec. 2002.
Al Qahtani was interrogated for weeks, 20 hours per day.
The interrogations end at midnight. Four hours later they woke him up again.
He is prohibited from sleeping, sexually humiliated and abused.
"Detainee’s head and beard were shaved with electric clippers."
"Detainee started to struggle when the beard was touched but quickly became compliant."
"The interrogator began teaching the detainee lessons such as "stay", "come", and "bark"
to elevate his social status up to that of a dog."
"Detainee became very agitated."
On the aftermath of this treatment, Al Qahtami almost perished.
This clearly constitutes torture, human rights experts say.
And even the highest legal authority of military commissions Susan Crawford now comes to the same conclusion.
She would not allow the prosecution to go forward.
His confessions are worthless, she says, because "we have tortured him".
She now confirms what UN Special Rapporteur Manfred Nowak already noted in a report 3 years ago.
Today he demands, the responsible must be brought to court, the evidence is unambiguous.
"We have got all the documents, which are public today, that those interrogation methods
have explicitly been ordered by Rumsfeld,
but of course with knowledge within the highest ranks of the US."
The highest rank is the president.
According to the US Constitution, he is responsible for everything the government does or omits.
"It means, that every act the executive branch carries out, if the president approves
and does not intervene, it has to be attributed to him."
"That means, regarding to torture, if the president does not intervene..."
"...then the president tortured. It has to be said that drastically."
Obama would have to hold him accountable for that.
He is obligated to do so by the UN torture convention.
The US signed and accepted it as binding.
"Then the US have the obligation to do everything that persons, who are accused of having tortured,
that they will finally be cited before the court and get prosecuted."
Will George Bush be in the dock?
Never in US history a president needed to defend himself in court,
not even Richard Nixon.
Because of the Watergate scandal, he had to resign in 1974.
Some of his staff members were convicted, but Nixon himself was pardoned by his successor Gerald Ford,
even before charges were brought in.
George Bush could escape too, the words of President Obama in US TV suggest:
"Obviously we will be looking at past practices. I don't believe, that anybody is above the law."
"On the other hand, I also have a believe, that we need to look forward as opposed to looking backwards"
"His vision is to look forward and not behind,"
"therefore it rests with the legal community, who defend torture victims,"
"to push on him and the congress, so that we designate a special prosecutor"
"because at the end of the day, Barack Obama will surely want to know what really happened,"
"and that is the very least that he can do."
Obama will close Guantánamo and there will be investigations on the interrogation methods.
But whether there will be charges pressed is very uncertain. And if, experts believe,
only the myrmidon will stand in court, but not the mighty ones.
"Those who are politically responsible, the important people in the administration,
Cheney, who defended "water-boarding" even in recent days, or the president himself,
those will not be prosecuted, probably."
"Finally this is a political question as well, whether those people will in fact be held accountable.
But legally there is a clear obligation on the US of America.
Obama will have to deal with this legal obligation.
From his first day in office, he will want to fulfill his campaign promise to bring about change.
Part of it is to decide, whether he will hold his predecessor accountable, or not.
One of the notorious rules of former defense minister Rumsfeld was: "If you doubt, don't do it". But still they allowed torture.