Nomination Ignores War Crimes nytimes.com, Glenn Greenwald | January 8, 2013

President Obama has expended extraordinary efforts to protect from accountability all Bush-era officials responsible for torture, rendition and warrantless eavesdropping, programs that numerous human rights groups have insisted constitute war crimes and violations of U.S. criminal law.

… By blocking any form of criminal and civil accountability for these acts, President Obama has transformed what were once universally unspeakable and taboo beliefs into little more than respectable, garden-variety political disagreements.

The president’s nomination on Monday of John O. Brennan [became CIA director March 8, 2013], a Bush-era C.I.A. official, to head the C.I.A. illustrates how complete this disturbing process now is. …