Democrats Push for Interrogation Investigations

[babylonsister]

Democrats Push for Interrogation Investigations

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: April 26, 2009

Filed at 1:28 p.m. ET



WASHINGTON (AP) -- A leading Democratic senator said Sunday independent investigators should determine whether Bush administration officials ought to face charges over the harsh interrogation techniques used against suspected terrorists.

The White House had hoped to put the matter behind it by letting the attorney general make that call.

Other liberal Democratic lawmakers appearing on the Sunday news shows joined Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., in pressuring the Obama administration to pursue investigations into the interrogations policies. But they stopped short of demanding charges against the Bush-era lawyers and other officials who devised the policies that critics have denounced as torture.

Conservative Republican senators characterized the Democratic effort as counterproductive and politically motivated at the least and, at worst, damaging to national security.

Obama has said he would not seek to punish CIA officers and others who carried out interrogations resulting from high-level legal advice and policy decisions within the Bush administration. Obama said Attorney General Eric Holder would decide whether prosecutions were warranted against those who developed the policies.

Levin said he has recommended that the Justice Department select up to three people outside the department, such as retired federal judges, to recommend any charges or other actions against lawyers and others who developed the policies.

''That decision should not be made by politicians, by partisans, by Democrats or Republicans. It is made traditionally by a Department of Justice who is supposed to make these decisions independently,'' Levin said.

more...

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/04/26/us/politics/AP-US-Interrogation-Memos-Congress.html

[ixion]

1. The use of the phrases "liberal Democrats" and "Conservative Republicans"

I'm wondering why it was necessary to include these modifiers which add nothing to the point of the story.

They are, in my opinion, emotive modifiers designed to polarize -- and to play on independents who think of themselves as "conservative."

It plays right into the "witch hunt" and "partisan" memes floated by the GOP.