Levin: I’ve Suggested To Eric Holder That He Should Appoint An Independent Investigator On Torture»

[babylonsister]

http://thinkprogress.org/2009/01/22/levin-torture-holder/

Levin: I’ve Suggested To Eric Holder That He Should Appoint An Independent Investigator On Torture»


Responding to a question earlier this month, President Obama didn’t rule out the possibility of appointing a special prosecutor to “independently investigate” the “greatest crimes” committed by the Bush administration. But he said that his “orientation” was “to look forward as opposed to looking backwards.” Congressional Democrats, such Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), have said that Congress should continue to investigate Bush’s torture policies regardless of Obama’s plans.

At the Progressive Media Summit on Capitol Hill yesterday, Marcy Wheeler asked Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI), the chairman of the Senate Armed Forces Committee, about congressional plans to continue investigating torture. “There needs to be, I believe, an accounting of torture in this country,” replied Levin. He then said that he had suggested to Attorney General-nominee Eric Holder that he appoint “an outside person who’s got real credibility” to continue to investigate:

LEVIN: We’re going to try to complete this investigation, at least on the DoD side, Ok. But on the intelligence, the CIA side, that’s going to be up to the Intelligence Committe. I know I suggested to Eric Holder, who will be the next Attorney General despite the delay that took place today, that he select some people or hire an outside person whose got real credibility, perhaps a retired federal judge, to take all the available information, and there’s reams of it.

Watch it/read transcript at link~

In December 2008, Levin’s committee released the executive summary of an investigation into the Bush administration’s detainee policy, which concluded that top Bush administration officials “bore major responsibility for the abuses committed by American troops in interrogations.” Levin said yesterday that the full report would be released “in the next couple of weeks.”

[calimary]

1. MUST kick this!

Here's my two cents - just on the whole thing. I'm not quite ready to unclench my fists.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x8125215

[babylonsister]

5. I'm not either, and every day convinces me further we can't let this slide. nt

[calimary]

7. No kidding, Sister!

If we DO let it slide, then we might as well start calling OURSELVES torturers. Because it means WE are okay with it. And I am NOT OKAY WITH IT. I will NEVER BE OKAY WITH IT. It was done in my name, and on my dime. And I didn't have Thing One to say about it, did NOT give my approval, did NOT agree to have my tax money spent that way, and couldn't have opposed the whole idea of torture more ardently if I'd gotten myself waterboarded to demonstrate my feelings in public.

We simply HAVE to stand up for this, as Americans, if we're ever to be able to look anyone else in the world straight in the eye again, much less start proselytizing about morals and ethics and how great an example we set here as leaders of the world (with God supposedly on our side).

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

2. As it should be

Let Obama remain above the fray--but let him also allow Congress and the DOJ to go ahead with the investigation.

[tekisui]

3. knr!~

[ThomWV]

4. There is both a problem and a solution to be found here

If you investigate on the Intelligence side then they deny information to the Committee telling them that what they seek is under the purview of the Defense Committee. Meanwhile they tell the Defense Committee that what they want to see lies under the jurisdiction of the Intelligence Committee. In the end we are no better off than today. However if the person or panel named to look into this is granted jurisdiction by both Committees then the potential for hidden evidence decreases.

[babylonsister]

6. That's the way business used to be done. I wouldn't bet on that now

with a new cast of characters.

[newtothegame]

8. thanks n/t

[hvn_nbr_2]

9. If revelations continue, they'll have to do something

If Seymour Hersch's band of whistleblowers materializes, and more guys like the one on Keith last night continue to come forward, and more international calls such as the one from the UN raporteur(sp?) come, and I see no reason to think that they won't, then they'll have to investigate eventually. I suspect that might be Obama's plan all along. I keep hoping that a president and VP who were both constitutional law professors will have an effect.

[Uncle Joe]

10. Regarding Obama's "orientation" of looking forward as opposed to looking backward.

I believe this is akin to driving without keeping a watchful eye in your rear view mirror.

If some driver behind you is breaking the law by speeding, while driving drunk and you don't keep them accountable by using your rear view "orientation," you're more likely to suffer disaster when they rear end you as you're Presidential Term slows down or comes to a stop.

Even if President Obama denounces torture during his administration, if no one is held to account, torturing captives will more likely rear it's ugly head again in some future administration.

[The Backlash Cometh]

11. He absolutely should.

The misinformation in the mainstream about GITMO is just as bad as the weapons of mass destruction in the early years.

They think these people are so evil that their own countries won't take them back and we're going to have to absorb them in the American landscape. They also think that these people are asking to die.

Would somebody in the press PLEASE get these people up to speed ASAP.

[chill_wind]

12. Stay on it, Sen Levin. K & R. n/t