[Updated at end of article, with details on hearing announced for next week.]
The Senate Judiciary Committee could announce a hearing to consider various plans to probe allegations of torture as early as today, according to Salon’s Mark Benjamin, citing Committee Chairman Pat Leahy and members of his staff.
Leahy’s office told Raw Story Wednesday morning that a press release would be sent out shortly.
Sen. Whitehouse said he’s “convinced” the investigation will move forward.
“Stay on this,” he told Benjamin. “This is going to be big.”
Whitehouse, Senator from Rhode Island, is “spearheading” the efforts, and as a member of both the Judiciary and Intelligence Committees, “is privy to information about interrogations he can’t yet share,” the magazine noted.
Neither Salon’s nor RAW STORY’s coverage made it completely clear whether the Senators are discussing an idea that is different from Leahy’s previously-floated “Truth Commission” — where immunity would be granted to many who testify, in questionable exchange for making “the truth” known — though this investigation does seem to be distinct from that one. We’ll try to keep our eye out for Leahy’s press release today, in case it offers some clarity. [Update: See details of Leahy’s announcement added at bottom of article.]
One point from Salon, also worth highlighting, is that the tenacious Sen. Whitehouse seems keen on using this investigation to help disprove the often asserted notion that the Bush, um, “enhanced interrogation” policies saved lives, despite the lack of evidence supporting that wishful thinking, and the growing body of evidence and testimony — from those who actually know — which plainly disputes it.
Retired Maj. Gen. Tony Taguba, who led the investigation of prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib, is quoted from a recent interview as disputing those who have claimed — from the comfort of their keyboards — that torture saved lives: “Some of those activities were actually not effective and those who thought so were in the academic or pristine settings of their offices,” Taguba told Salon. “What would they know?”
Whitehouse adds: “It is important to prove the point, because they keep saying, ‘We saved lives. We interrupted plans. We did this, that and the other.’…Well, when you drill down, there is never a fact there. It turns into fog and evasion.”
Again, with Whitehouse on both the Senate Judiciary and Intelligence Committees, with access to much more information than has been made public to date, he oughta know. At least slightly more so than the Wingnuts who rule the public airwaves and, with it, the public “debate” on these issues to date.
UPDATE 1:34pm PT: On the Senate floor today, Leahy announced his plans for a hearing next Wednesday, March 4th at 10am ET (including a live webcast), called “Getting to the Truth Through a Nonpartisan Commission of Inquiry.”
Details follow…As RAW STORY reports (with video):
“Such a commission’s objective would be to find the truth. People would be invited to come forward and share their knowledge and experiences, not for the purpose of constructing criminal indictments, but to assemble the facts, to know what happened and to make sure mistakes are not repeated,” Leahy said. “While many are focused on whether crimes were committed, it is just as important to learn if significant mistakes were made, regardless of whether they can be proven beyond a reasonable doubt to a unanimous jury to be criminal conduct. We compound the serious mistakes already made if we limit our inquiry to criminal investigations and trials.”
…
Though Leahy stressed that his commission would not be about just prosecuting criminal cases, Glenn Greenwald speculated that the presence of Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island on any fact-finding war-crimes commission might result in prosecutions anyway. Whitehouse is on both the Senate Intelligence and Judiciary Committee.
“Critically, he is also a former federal and state prosecutor and thus instinctively considers lawbreaking to be wrong no matter who is doing the lawbreaking,” writes Greenwald.
I suddenly had a flash idea peeking at the corners of my brain: will this so-called Commission turn into a debate over “what is torture” and “should we torture?”?.
Do you trust these people? I still want a special prosecutor, investigations and prosecution. see http://www.marjoriecohn.com for Marjorie Cohn’s legal view on the subject.
It’s settled: what is torture and that it’s not effective. Why is a Senator hinting at it coming up again?
If the US government doesn’t investigate and prosecute, other countries will. Countries with universal jurisdiction. I remember Philippe Sands on “DemocracyNow” saying how he’d spoken with a prosecutor in Europe (Spain?), when discussing the Torture Memos, who brought up that another country will investigate/prosecute war crimes by the US government (top on down), if it doesn’t happen in the US. He also added that the lawyers who wrote the illegal torture memos are culpable,also according to Nuremberg precedence.
DemocracyNow is at http://www.democracynow.org
How do we prevent the granting of immunity, should there be a Commission? (I can’t type “truth” in front of it.) Can immunity ever be thrown out in a prosecution in court? I remember how Iran-Contra hearings in Congress, giving immunity led to overturning of conviction of that Col. North.
I STILL want a special prosecutor no matter what the commission.
i remember the first hearing i watched,on c span 3 with senator whitehouse present,it was a hearing on gonzoles and the politicalization of the justice department…whitehouse came at gonzoles like a real prosecutor,asking him about legal definitions of perjury,building the obvious case for perjury,i was thinking ,wow,this senator might actually get something done
fast forward to the next hearing and whitehouse was MUCH more contained altho he still made a great point in his questioning about how bush had enlarged the circle of justice contacts to whitehouse contacts from like 8 to ovr 400
after that hearing i wondered what do they tell these new senators to keep them in check? why do they change once they get to washington dc…..my own joking theory is..do they show em the aliens or what?
all that being said,i hope bushco is prosecuted for war cries but i am disappointted that the violations of millions of american citizens civil rights doesnt seem to even have “made the list”, i refer to the years of warrentless wiretaps and the political prosecutions by justice(83% dems prosecuted by bushco)
i can forgive president obama for 19 monthes instead of 16 monthes in leaving iraq,i can even forgive him for leaving that neo con gates in at dod,but not making cleaning up justice a priority and restoring our civil rights,that makes any other change meaningless
just to be clear,i believe local prosecutors r still picking a dem suspect and looking to build the case after,with any bs charge they can come up with…i hope i am wrong
btw..what about that ubs “mistake” of ordering 30 billion dollars worth of buying of bonds last night because of an internal glitch?
lol
looks like the programs that buy and sell r no more reliable than the programs used on vote counting machines
special prosecutor works for me too!!!
One of the major things I hope we’ll see from some sort of “commission” is low-level grunts who followed orders rolling over on those who actually gave the orders. If they want to cover their own asses, this would be a way to do it – and if they have been wanting to come forward but are afraid for their careers, this would give them incentive.
The commission MUST have subpoena power – and none of this “absolute immunity from testifying” bullshit either.
I think that LIMITED immunity from prosecution, given on an individual case by case basis, is not an unreasonable sacrifice for learning the truth – BUT ONLY for those at the bottom, and ONLY if they tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, with the threat of perjury charges and having their immunity revoked if it’s found they are not telling everything they know.
This bunch needs to be prosecuted like the usual crime family – slowly, methodically, meticulously, from the bottom up.
I’d love to see Patrick Fitzgerald and David Iglesias in on the questioning.
I dunno KestrelBrightEyes, Ingesias yes, but after blo-what-ever-his-face…Fitz maybe protecting something…?
Libby was GREAT… but a pefect hero it does not make.
That would be perfect above. 🙂