The NYT has rather bluntly (and appropriately) called the Obama Administration on its irresponsible positions regarding torture and government accountability:
The Obama administration has clung for so long to the Bush administration’s expansive claims of national security and executive power that it is in danger of turning President George W. Bush’s cover-up of abuses committed in the name of fighting terrorism into President Barack Obama’s cover-up.
…
Victims of the Bush administration’s “enhanced interrogation techniques”… have already spoken in harrowing detail about their mistreatment. The [Obama Administration's] objective is to avoid official confirmation of wrongdoing that might be used in lawsuits against government officials and contractors, and might help create a public clamor for prosecuting those responsible. President Obama calls that a distracting exercise in “looking back.” What it really is is justice.
If we don’t hold torturers accountable for their actions, then we don’t have rule of law, do we?