Leahy Bails on 'Truth Commission' Plan

[kpete]

Source: Consortium News

Leahy Bails on 'Truth Commission' Plan

By Charlotte Dennett
April 1, 2009

Editor’s Note: The U.S. government seems paralyzed at the prospect of holding ex-President George W. Bush and other senior officials accountable for war crimes, even as Spanish investigative judge Baltasar Garzon initiates an inquiry under international law regarding torture sanctioned by Bush’s lawyers.

In this guest essay, investigative journalist and former candidate for Vermont attorney general, Charlotte Dennett, describes a meeting with Sen. Patrick Leahy in which he acknowledges the failure of his plan for a “truth commission”:

Those of you following the George W. Bush prosecution trail will be interested to know that Patrick Leahy’s “truth commission” is a no-go. I was in a meeting with Leahy and four other Vermonters on Monday when he broke the news to us.

We had asked for the meeting to learn why he supported a truth commission over the appointment of a special prosecutor.

Halfway through the allotted 30 minute meeting (with him taking up much of the time explaining why he was not generally opposed to prosecution, since he had been a DA for eight years and had the highest conviction rate in Vermont), he told us that his truth commission had failed to get the broad support it needed in Congress, and since he couldn’t get one Republican to come behind the plan, “it’s not going to happen.”


Read more: http://consortiumnews.com/2009/040109b.html

[villager]

1. oh, well. I didn't realize the last election meant we were still waiting for Republican "approval"

No the fuck wonder I can't bring myself to register as a Democrat again, even if I do vote for 'em. Usually.

[yurbud]

20. why the obsession with bipartisanship? The republicans have gone off the deep end

why do the Democrats keep trying to pull them up from the bottom?

[Norquist Nemesis]

28. The Cons understand something the rest of us are failing to understand

Simply...yeah, we voted for Obama and change. They don't give a flying fuck.

The Cons are going to do everything in their power to divide, snub, undermine, and demean anything that we voted FOR! Elected Cons understand, "you got yer vote, and we've got OURS now!!!" What these guys are telling you is basically and simply, "I will vote 'my' constituents, however I perceive that to be and fuck the rest of you."

The only way to overcome this, and truly OVERCOME it is to do what is essentially grassroots against these Cons. IOW, if you are in a Red area...pressure BOTH your Senate and Congressional representatives through phone calls to their local and DC offices followed up by written correspondence. If you are in a Blue are...show your support!

Then play a little bit of the same game as Cons. If you're in a blue area, do a google for the same last name as yours that is a Congressman or Senator in a Red area. Make that phone call to them and go ahead and use the address of someone you just googled if you have to...so what if Joe the Plumber gets a thank you letter he wasn't expecting! YOU have made your voice known to that member of Congress!!!

[rudy23]

48. Cons play to win, while we play to cooperate.

Bipartisanship is just an invitation for them to game the debate, and skew the political negotiation towards the right.

We are continuously finding the middle ground between the already compromised left, and the extreme right. They know to always start a negotiation asking for more than you want. Our side stupidly falls for this trick every time. Or is it intentional?

[wroberts189]

50. I believe they call it using a "red herring" and I agree its one of their signature methods nt

[Enthusiast]

39. Wise words, Villager.

And I could not agree more. It seems like on every issue we must get Republican approval.

[Dinger]

41. O.K., I'll Say It

Who did we elect? This is like the goddamned twilight zone. cheney has moles alright. Lot's of 'em.

[roguevalley]

47. commissions are where truth goes to die. the spanish will force us

to step it up and hopefully with an independent prosecutor.

[Juche]

2. I'm not surprised

Honestly. A serious investigation into Bush's wrongdoing is probably going to uncover democratic wrongdoing and compliance as well, so its not like politicians are ever going to investigate these issues.

[Name removed]

30. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[mwb970]

34. We'll have to wait until everyone involved is gone.

The truth about the bush administration will come out, be assured of that. But it will take time.

[stillcool]

3. If it is to be, it is up to we..

Obviously Congress feels no pressure at all to do this. There needs to be huge organizing effort to get people to unify and demand either a special prosecutor or an investigation..even if it's all for show. But, that won't happen either..who am I kidding?

[rosesaylavee]

4. Well, it was a non-starter from the get go.

We don't need a frigging truth commission. There is enough evidence gathered now for prosecution. Enough of this dilly-dallying at taxpayer expense. We need a DA with balls... NOW.

[Lugnut]

14. Exactly.

Another whitewash is stupid. Prosecute the damned criminals.

[derby378]

45. I like the way you think

:hi:

[rwheeler31]

5. If we do not hold theses crooks accountable they will do it

again, why do they not understand?

[SwiperFox]

7. The DO know

They understand it all too well. Thing is, they are the crooks themselves. Republicrat party investigating itself was a total no-go since the beginning.

[merh]

6. it will be our great grand children holding hearings and

investigating these crimes, long after the players are gone. (If our nation and society survives.) Then they will have trials and hearings and apologies made and reparations paid.

Justice will not be had in our lifetimes, not with regard to the war crimes and all of the abuses of the bush administration.

[babylonsister]

8. That sucks. Maybe we need more than a commission? There's no way

this is going away.

[Dr Fate]

9. I never believed him in the first place. n/t

n/t

[snake in the grass]

24. Neither did I and I said so on several occasions.

A few stood up to defend him and told me to leave him alone. They sure look stupid now. As much as I detest Bush, I hate Leahy, Reid, and Pelosi even more. Bush was acting in accordance with his nature, but our leaders know better and still let this happen. Vote these turds out finally!

[XXXMADAM]

10. Military Inspector Generals

http://www.fas.org/sgp/news/2009/03/ig-interim.html

24 November 2008

The Honorable John D. Rockefeller IV
Chairman
Senate Select Committee on Intelligence
United States Senate
Washington, D.C. 20510

Dear Mr. Chairman:

Title III of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) Amendments Act of 2008, which was signed into law on 10 July 2008, requires the Inspectors General (IGs) of the elements of the Intelligence Community that participated in the President's Surveillance Program to conduct a comprehensive review of the Program. The Act requires the IGs to submit to the appropriate committees of Congress, not later than 60 days after the date of enactment, an interim report that describes the planned scope of the review. This letter constitutes the interim report required under the Act. This report was originally submitted on 10 September 2008 in a classified form. The report was recently declassified, with the exception of one sentence, which has been removed, and is being resubmitted in an unclassified form as required by the Act.

The IGs of the Department of Justice (DoJ), the Department of Defense (DoD), the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), the National Security Agency (NSA), and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) will participate in the review required under the Act. The CIA IG has agreed to coordinate the conduct of the review and the preparation of the interim and final reports. The participating IGs have met to discuss their individual and collective responsibilities in conducting the review, the extent to which work currently underway or already completed addresses the review's objectives, and the scope of additional work that needs to be accomplished to fully meet Title III requirements. Representatives of each of the participating IGs have discussed these areas in detail to ensure that the requested scope of the review will be fully addressed. The following paragraphs summarize the key areas to be examined by each IG.

The DoJ IG is completing work on a broadly-scoped review of the Program, which the DoJ IG has been conducting over the past 18 months. In accord with its normal procedures and consistent with classification requirements, the DoJ IG will release its report when completed. The DoJ IG's review examines the involvement of the DoJ and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the Program, including the use of and control over Program information; compliance with relevant authorities governing the Program as these authorities changed over time; and the impact and effectiveness of Program information on DoJ's and FBI's counterterrorism efforts. The review also describes various legal assessments of the Program, legal and operational changes to the Program, any use of Program information in the FISA process, and the transition to Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court orders related to the Program.

The NSA IG's review will examine the evolution of the Presidential authorization as it affected NSA, the technical operation of the Program, the preparation and dissemination of the product of the Program, and communications with and representations made to private sector entities. The review will address access by NSA to legal reviews and information concerning the Program and will also examine NSA's interaction with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court and the transition of Program activities to operations under court orders. The review will also include a description of NSA's oversight of the Program. To conduct the review of the Program, the NSA IG will both initiate new work and draw upon a substantial body of completed evaluations.

The DoD IG will examine the involvement of the Office of the Secretary of Defense in the establishment and implementation of the Program.

The ODNI IG will examine the involvement of DNI senior leadership in the Program and DNI communication with private-sector entities concerning the Program. The ODNI IG will also examine the role of the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) in drafting and coordinating the threat assessments and legal certifications supporting periodic reauthorization of the Program; NCTC's role in identifying targets and tasking Program collection; and NCTC's use of the product to support counterterrorism analysis.

The CIA IG will examine CIA's participation in the program, including the Agency's role in preparing the threat assessments and legal certifications supporting periodic reauthorization of the Program.

Representatives of each of the participating IGs will meet regularly to discuss the status of their work, avoid unnecessary duplication of effort, and ensure that the full scope of the review prescribed in the Act is being addressed. Each of the IG teams will be alert to other matters not specifically identified in the Act that should be examined as part of a comprehensive review of the Program.

The IGs will provide the CIA IG, in writing, the results of their reviews from which a comprehensive final report will be prepared that will include both unclassified and classified volumes. If you have any questions concerning the interim report or the overall review, please contact the CIA Office of Inspector General Executive Officer,

An original letter is being provided to Vice Chairman Bond.

Sincerely,

John L. Helgerson
Inspector General
Central Intelligence Agency

Glenn A. Fine
Inspector General
Department of Justice

Gordon S. Heddell
Acting Inspector General
Department of Defense

Edward Maguire
Inspector General
Office of the Director of National Intelligence

George Ellard
Inspector General
National Security Agency

[pmorlan1]

11. A Cancer Growing on the Government

This is truly distressing news. I'm outraged that we have to beg our government to follow the rule of law and that our politicians actually expect us to be grateful for the scraps that they throw to us.

The cancer that John Dean said was growing on the presidency consumed Nixon but we didn't kill it when we had the chance. It's now spread to the rest of our government. Until we have the courage to cut it out it will continue to spread it's destruction across the country until the patient called America is dead.

[Hannah Bell]

51. dean = part of the cancer.

[Duke Newcombe]

12. First thing I thought of, this quote from Robocop.

What's the matter, officer? I'll tell you what's the matter. It's a little insurance policy called Directive Four - my little contribution to your psychological profile. It says that any attempt to arrest a senior officer of OCP results in shutdown. What did you think, that you were an ordinary officer? No, you're our product! And we can't have our products turn against us, can we?

Seems fitting here. Seems the assclows Bush and Cheney will never be held to account.

[Zhade]

13. Gee, what a surprise. They're letting the criminals walk.

I'm fucking done with this shit.

[garybeck]

15. we don't need a truth commission, we need a grand jury and a prosecutor.

I did not want a truth commission. It would wrongfully grant immunity.

[Ganja Ninja]

37. Exactly.

And could it be that Leahy has realized that the rest of the world isn't going to let them get away with sweeping this under the rug?

Any "truth commission" will have it's work contrasted to the investigations that are already underway in other countries. They aren't going to be able half-ass this away with a couple of hearings.

[FiveGoodMen]

43. And a firing squad.

[JDPriestly]

16. The economy is the current focus -- at least that is the establishment's excuse for avoiding duty.

It is, perhaps, no coincidence, that the same time Leahy downplayed the truth commission, congressional aides were quoted by reporter Jason Leopold of Consortiumnews.com that “the focus has shifted to the economy and that pressure for a special prosecutor to bring criminal charges over the Bush administration’s past actions could become a distraction to that focus.”

Leahy’s aide Ross had said the same thing. Everyone was focusing on the economy.

So now, it seems, the wrecked economy – complements of the Bush administration -- is becoming the excuse for congressional inaction after eight years of unremitting malfeasance by the Bush administration.

http://consortiumnews.com/2009/040109b.html

[earcandle]

19. It is really wrong not to hold criminals accountable. That is why the S&L rip off happened

again, a repeat of the crime but now as the sub prime deal.

These guys take turns robbing the treasury as we play kiss the
ass of the idiots looking for a way in.

grrrr..... how do we get out.

get noodlebrained

or exercise actions around critical thinking to get our
regulations back.
Obama is selling the new world order in Europe.

[JJ]

17. Good, a "Truth Commission" is a bad thing IMO

It'd just shield wrong-doers from prosecution through immunity deals to get at the "truth."

A special prosecutor is what is needed.

[earcandle]

18. Sorry Senator Leahy; some people have shit for brains. They need their money taken away.

[Last Stand]

46. Got my email from Senator Lahey last night pleading for a last-minute donation.

Must have known today would be too late to ask me. Glad I didn't send any cash.

[snot]

21. I haven't actually sent this yet, but:

I mean, w/in the last 2 DAYS, I GAVE to Leahy (and he's NOT from my state) based on an email from him touting how he was going after these people. So here's what I've written so far:

"Dear Senator Leahy:

"I just read a report on your refusal -- not two full days after you solicited and I gave you my contribution based on your assurance that were seeking real justice regarding the many high crimes and misdemeanors committed by top Bush admin officials -- that you are NOT, after all, going to push even for a "truth commission," let alone a special prosecutor.

"I feel defrauded. I am enraged unto sickness at what my government has done to its citizenry; and now, even the few, even you, who I hoped had left some shred of integrity, have apparently pulled a quick bait-and-switch at my expense.

"I want my money back."

[earcandle]

22. Send it!

[SwiperFox]

27. second that!

Do it, you deserve a full refund. False advertising is what he did.

[NewJeffCT]

32. please send it

I hope you get your money back.

[GreenTea]

23. A republican administation clearly breaks the law-No republican wants to prosecute-So case close?

That's democracy?

[EFerrari]

25. Leahy is full of it. No one is interested in prosecuting Chuck who got the coffee.

What a crock.

[SwiperFox]

26. criminals all of them, I say!

How about Obama's position? He just reinforced at the G20:

"Looking for those who are to blame is history. We must move forward; we are all responsible." -Obama

Screw him! I am NOT responsible for the current depression or the genocides committed in our name.
We need JUSTICE and these criminals are not going to investigate themselves. There is only one party.
The party of death for the peasantry and blood money for the rich. God I am pissed off.

[acmavm]

29. The 'we are all responsible' is a nice little gimmick to try to shift the blame

onto the backs of the American people. They've already stuck out children and grandchildren and on and on for generations to come with the tab for Wall Street's crimes. Apparently that wasn't good enough. They have to stick 'em with the blame as well.

Nothing will be done. We'll still be watching cheney on Sunday television giving his excuses and telling the world what a wonderful bunch of citizens they were, protecting Amurika from the terraists.

[leveymg]

40. I heard him say, "Some are to blame, but all are responsible." That means something else.

We are all responsible for bringing those to justice where there has been clear instances of law-breaking. That is a repeat of his mantra, "Nobody is above the law and if there are clear instances of wrongdoing, people should be prosecuted just like ordinary citizens. But generally speaking, I'm more interested in looking forward than I am in looking backwards."

If we want justice, we truly, clearly have to demand it. Keep demanding it. Eventually, we'll see something like it.

[acmavm]

42. You think so? I am NOT reassured when I read:

<snip>

But generally speaking, I'm more interested in looking forward than I am in looking backwards."

[FiveGoodMen]

44. Almost as if he was allowed to win so that he could cover up for them!

Maybe all the Obama hatred on RW TV & Radio is just a mislead so that we don't see how well their plan is working.

[SwiperFox]

52. ...

Please, do not play semantics with this. It is clear he wants to "move forward", "look to the future" and all that crud we got after Vietnam, Watergate, Iran-Contra, etc. Enough! How can you not be angry at the inaction shown? 8 years the dem congress enabled the war criminals, protecting them even (impeachment off the table, refunding wars)! Obama is another criminal cog nothing more.

[iamthebandfanman]

31. cowards! n/t

[NewJeffCT]

33. Meanwhile, if the presidential dog chases a cat

the Republicans will fall all over themselves demanding an investigation into how much time the Secret Service spent trying to control the dog that chased the cat.

[santamargarita]

35. Bullshit, the World demands the prosecution of these War Criminals

I believe that the Goddamn Bush Crime Family is still running the show!

[Hubert Flottz]

36. He's either against them or he's with them...

Another Zellout!

[cali]

38. I'm not saying it isn't true BUT

until it gets confirmed by someone other than Dennett, I'm holding off on piling on. I don't have a lot of faith in Dennett's reliability.

[L. Coyote]

49. K & REC. Meanwhile, the Rs are filibustering Obama's OLC appointment, obstructing Justice

and their usual obstructionism is a felony if obstructing prosecutions.