Mark Benjamin: How to build a torture commission

[babylonsister]

How to build a torture commission

Experts are in surprising agreement: Decide later whether to prosecute Bush officials, and keep members of Congress off the panel.

By Mark Benjamin

AP Photo/Brennan Linsley

Shackles chained to the floor inside an interrogation room in Camp 5 maximum security detention facility, at Guantánamo Bay U.S. Naval Base, Cuba, Dec. 5, 2006.


March 4, 2009 | The revelation that the CIA destroyed 92 tapes showing the brutal interrogation of terror suspects provided another stark reminder of how much remains unknown about national security mischief during the Bush administration. On Monday, the Justice Department also released a raft of previously undisclosed legal opinions drafted during the Bush era articulating additional wartime power for the president, on issues ranging from curtailing free speech to conducting warrantless searches.

Against that troubling backdrop, on Wednesday the Senate Judiciary Committee will begin to study how to conduct an investigation of national security issues during the Bush administration, focused mostly or exclusively on torture. Staff say committee leaders remain genuinely undecided about almost every facet of how to proceed, including the mandate, scope and membership of any investigative body. The hearing will zero in on how, exactly, to move forward.

No decisions have been made on the question of whether, when and how to prosecute Bush officials who may have broken the law. There are certainly attorneys who believe the Obama administration should prosecute such officials for torture, and that the truth will come tumbling out during their trials while justice is also served. There may be more attorneys who believe those prosecutions would fail on both counts. Experts on government fact-finding missions interviewed by Salon, however, articulated surprisingly similar advice for Congress on how to conduct spadework on the torture issue, including unanimity on exactly who should not participate in an investigation: current members of Congress.

"My thought is that is probably not the way to go in this case," said Kenneth Kitts, author of "Presidential Commissions & National Security: The Politics of Damage Control." Kitts noted that Congress has investigated abuses by the CIA before, such as the famous 1970s-era Church Committee review of domestic spying and other issues. In general, though, Kitts said, current lawmakers complicate progress by bringing their own political agenda into the hearing room. (President Ford labeled the Church Committee "sensational and irresponsible," according to Kitts' book.)

"Whenever you talk about a committee composed of members of Congress, however good and however well-intentioned they are, they bring a lot of partisan baggage to the table and they are going to be encumbered by political considerations that those removed from active government service would not have," Kitts said.

Kitts and other experts suggested the creation of an independent commission, buoyed by force of law, generously funded and staffed and focused almost exclusively on detention and interrogation issues during the Bush administration. It would be something along the lines of the 9-11 Commission.

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http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2009/03/04/torture_commission/