Jason Leopold: Conyers Seeks Probe of Bush Crimes

[laststeamtrain]

Conyers Seeks Probe of Bush Crimes

By Jason Leopold
January 7, 2009

In one of the first acts of the 111th Congress, House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers proposed legislation to create a blue-ribbon panel of outside experts to probe the “broad range” of policies pursued by the Bush administration “under claims of unreviewable war powers,” including torture of detainees and warrantless wiretaps.

Conyers’s proposal for a National Commission on Presidential War Powers and Civil Liberties also signals that Congress will devote significant time this year to investigating the Bush administration’s most controversial actions with an eye to rolling back its expansion of executive power.

Many civil liberties and human rights groups feared that the Democratic-controlled Congress and Barack Obama’s administration would duck any sustained inquiry into wrongdoing by George W. Bush and his subordinates, to avoid angering Republicans.

While Conyers’s plan falls short of the criminal probe that civil rights groups have sought, neither would it prevent a criminal investigation by Obama’s Justice Department if the new administration moves in that direction, said two aides on Obama’s transition team who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Obama has been ambivalent about how to proceed regarding wrongdoing by the Bush administration. He said during the campaign that willful criminality should be punished because “nobody is above the law,” but also expressed concern that an investigation might get bogged down in recriminations and could be viewed by Republicans as “a partisan witch hunt.”

Obama also has suggested he might support some form of truth commission as a way of ascertaining the facts, which would be in line with Conyers’s plan.

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http://www.consortiumnews.com/2009/010709a.html
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Why does this almost seem like news from a few years ago finally arriving?

[Cronopio]

1. "... and could be viewed by Republicans as 'a partisan witch hunt.'"

And how are Republicans viewed by everyone else these days?

And what does that tell us about how important the "Republican view" is?

[slipslidingaway]

2. Crimes of the Bush administration were important until the Dems

gained control in the 2006 elections.

Is this just to appease the people calling for accountability.

:shrug:

[MasonJar]

3. It is time for Obama to quit worrying what the GOpers think and do what is right.

[Baby Snooks]

4. Sort of like the Warren Commission?

It's just now coming out that Carlos Marcello admitted to the FBI that he set up the assassination. The Warren Commission withheld that from the American public. Of course we don't know if Carlos Marcello set it up because he didn't like the Kennedys or because someone asked him to set it up. Truth rarely comes out of Washington it seems.

[Recursion]

5. Update: Conyers gives them 24 "business hours" to respond

Leopold is still a liar or still protecting one, so I still don't care what he has to say.

[bobthedrummer]

6. Conyers sat on the impeachment of war criminal and traitor Richard Bruce Cheney long enough K&R#5

[jtrockville]

7. Commission = Whitewash

Please! No more "commissions". We need INVESTIGATIONS and PROSECUTIONS.