WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama said Monday he wants to look forward, not back on the Bush administration to see whether any misdeeds were committed. Obama, in his first prime-time news conference as president, was responding to a question about an announcement by Senator Patrick Leahy, a Democrat from Vermont, that he wants to establish a committee to investigate the Bush administration. Obama said he hasn't seen the proposal, and didn't want to express an opinion "on something that I haven't seen." "What I have said is that my administration is going to operate in a way that leaves no doubt that we do not torture, that we abide by the Geneva Conventions, and that we observe our traditions of rule of law and due process, as we are vigorously going after terrorists that can do us harm," he said. He said he believes "nobody's above the law" and if clear instances of wrongdoing were found, prosecutions should occur. Leahy, the Senate Judiciary chairman, proposed creating an independent "truth and reconciliation commission" empowered to subpoena witnesses to investigate several controversies that erupted during the administration of former President George W. Bush, The Wall Street Journal reported. The panel would examine the warrantless wiretapping programme, the firings of several U.S. attorneys and memos regarding the handling of terrorism prisoners, newspaper said. "Many Americans think we need to get to the bottom of what went wrong and I agree," Leahy said in a speech at Georgetown University. Leahy said it would be a compromise between those Democrats who want to prosecute former Bush officials and those, including Obama, who have advocated not digging into possible past transgressions. Witnesses would have immunity from prosecution unless they commit perjury, Leahy said.