[Marxism] New poll on torture and investigations negates Beltway conventional wisdom

[Dbachmozart@xxxxxxx]

Glenn Greenwald - salon.com - 
 
clip --
 
 
Even more surprisingly for spouters of conventional wisdom, a  majority of 
Americans (50-47%) believe that the Obama  administration should investigate 
whether the Bush administration's treatment of  detainees was illegal.  When 
asked:  "Do you think the  Obama administration should or should not 
investigate 
whether any laws were  broken in the way terrorism suspects were treated under 
the Bush  administration?," Democrats overwhelmingly favor such investigations 
(69%),  while Republicans oppose them by the same margin, and independents 
are slightly  against.  
Relatedly, Americans would have opposed (52-42%) the  issuance of pardons by 
Bush to those "who carried out his administration's  policy on the treatment 
of terrorism suspects."  The poll confined itself  in these questions to 
investigations into detainee abuse, and did not ask about  investigations into 
other 
Bush crimes, such as illegal spying, _obstruction_ 
(http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/01/02/obstruction/)  of _justice_ 
(http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2007/04/12/lost_documents/)  and 
_various_ 
(http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=99307148)  DOJ _crimes_ 
(http://leahy.senate.gov/press/200807/073008b.html) . 
What's most remarkable about the fact that a majority of Americans favor  
investigations is that one has to struggle to find even a single politician of  
national significance or a prominent media figure who argue that position.   
The notion that Bush officials shouldn't be criminally investigated is about as 
 
close to a lockstep consensus among political and media elites as it gets, 
and  yet, still, a majority of Americans favor such  investigations. 
full -- 
_http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/01/22/torture/index.html_ 
(http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/01/22/torture/index.html) 
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