ABC's George Stephanopoulos asked Vice President-elect Joe Biden whether Donald Rumsfeld and other high officials should be prosecuted for torture. Biden did everything he could to avoid answering:

STEPHANOPOULOS: The Senate Armed Services Committee last week had a unanimous report that said that the prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib, at Guantanamo, at prisons around the world is a direct and indirect result of decisions made by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other high officials. Should they be prosecuted for that?

BIDEN: First of all, that's a judgment, remember, four years ago on your program I made, so I haven't changed my mind. And this confirms.

But the questions of whether or not a criminal act has been committed or a very, very, very bad judgment has been engaged in is -- is something the Justice Department decides.

Barack Obama and I are -- President-elect Obama and I are not sitting thinking about the past. We're focusing on the future. Obviously, that if the Justice...

STEPHANOPOULOS: But should the cases be reviewed?

BIDEN: Well, that's a decision I'd look to the Justice Department to make.

STEPHANOPOULOS: But you're not ruling it out at this point?

BIDEN: I'm not ruling it in and not ruling it out. I just think we should look forward. I think we should be looking forward, not backwards.

When Obama chose Biden as his running mate, Biden made a much better statement:

"If there has been a basis upon which you can pursue someone for a criminal violation, they will be pursued – not out of vengeance, not out of retribution, out of the need to preserve the notion that no one, no attorney general, no president -- no one is above the law."

The two statements are not incompatible, but Biden's current position is to avoid taking a position and to dump the decision in Attorney General Eric Holder's lap. We won't let Biden (and Obama) off the hook, but we will concentrate our efforts on Holder. So please sign our petition urging Holder to appoint a Special Prosecutor.