Obama unlikely to probe Bush policies

WASHINGTON, Jan. 12 (UPI) -- U.S. President-elect Barack Obama indicated he probably won't authorize a broad inquiry into several controversial Bush administration programs.

However, he said during an interview on ABC's "This Week with George Stephanopoulos," Obama said prosecutions would proceed if the Justice Department found evidence that laws were broken.

During his presidential bid, Obama broadly criticized some counter-terrorism tactics of the Bush administration as well as White House claims the measures were justified under executive powers, The New York Times reported Monday.

Obama said on the ABC News program prosecutions should take place if "somebody has blatantly broken the law" but that his legal team was evaluating interrogation and detention issues and would examine "past practices."

He said he also believed "we need to look forward as opposed to looking backwards.

The Bush administration has authorized harsh interrogation tactics such as waterboarding that critics say skirted federal laws and international treaties, and warrantless domestic wiretapping. But details of the programs were not made public, with administration officials saying their actions were legal under wartime powers of the president, the Times said.

Lawyers who represented Bush officials told the newspaper they weren't surprised at Obama's apparent shift.

"A new president doesn't want to look vengeful," said former Bush White House lawyer, Bradford Berenson, a Harvard law classmate of Obama, "and the last thing a new administration wants to do is spend its time and energy rehashing the perceived sins of the old one."