Although you can argue about the overall justice of the verdicts, the Nuremberg Nazi trials established this legal principle for Western Civilization:
“The fact that a person acted pursuant to order of his Government or of a superior does not relieve him from responsibility under international law, provided a moral choice was in fact possible to him.”
President Obama, while he deserves credit for releasing the documents surrounding the torture of those prisoners in US control during the Bush Administration, is utterly wrong to shield from legal prosecution those CIA operatives and (God forbid) contractors who carried out these heinous acts.
This case highlights what is the fundamental characteristic, and in this case flaw, of the Obama temperament: He balances his decisions. Unfortunately, sometimes situations cry out for justice, and in the face of this evil there is very little balancing that needs to be done.
Those who committed crimes should be tried for them.