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.

Wait a minute.  With so many lawsuits ongoing pertaining to our detention policies - Maher Arar's (blocked) civil suit - and our rendition policies - 26 CIA officials are on trial for the rendition of Hassan Mustafa Omar Nasr to Egypt - it is obvious that this isn't simply about bad judgments.  This is about legal wrongdoing.

So why is Biden hedging?  And why does he say that it's up to the Justice Department to decide whether they will even review the case against BushCo?  Isn't up to Obama/Biden to ensure that they do review the information out there?  The Justice Department doesn't get to decide whether th