Dems tell Justice Dept. to examine Bush admin about torture

Dems tell Justice Dept. to examine Bush admin about torture

Nearly 60 House Democrats want a special counsel created within the Justice Department to determine whether top Bush administration officials have committed crimes in authorizing the use of harsh interrogation tactics against suspected terrorists, Joby Warrick reported for the Washington Post Saturday.

In a letter to Attorney General Michael Mukasey, the lawmakers cited what they said was "mounting evidence" that senior officials personally sanctioned the use of waterboarding and other aggressive tactics against detainees in U.S.-run prisons overseas, according to the article.

"This [new] information indicates that the Bush administration may have systematically implemented, from the top down, detainee interrogation policies that constitute torture or otherwise violate the law," it said. The letter was signed by 59 House Democrats, including House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers.

The Bush administration first admitted to the authorization of waterboarding in February and later defended it as a legal interrogation method that has saved American lives, the Associated Press reported.

A spokesman said President Bush could authorize waterboarding for future terrorism suspects if certain criteria are met, according to the article.

Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, one of the Sept. 11 attackers whose arraignment began Thursday, was one of three Guantanamo detainees subjected to waterboarding, The New York Times reported.

Mr. Bush’s administration appears to have calculated that many Americans, if not most, do not necessarily object to harsh interrogations or eavesdropping if they were used to prevent further attacks, The New York Times reported in an analysis of the detainees' trial.

At a fund-raiser on Friday in Pennsylvania, Vice President Dick Cheney, pictured above, vigorously defended the use of waterboarding and other harsh interrogation techniques, referring to them as “a tougher program for a very few tougher customers.”

“He and others were questioned at a time when another attack on this country was believed to be imminent,” Mr. Cheney said of Mr. Mohammed and other Qaeda members. “It’s a good thing we had them in custody, and it is a good thing that we found out what they knew.”

Bush to veto anti-torture bill next week.Congress recently passed the Intelligence Authorization Act, which contained a provision creating a single in

Bush to veto anti-torture bill next week.

Congress recently passed the Intelligence Authorization Act, which contained a provision creating a single interrogation standard for the U.S. government that bans the use of waterboarding. CQ reports that President Bush will veto the bill next week:

“The president’s expected to veto it next week,” said Emily Lawrimore, a spokeswoman for the White House. “We received it today.”

Although the exact date for the veto is unclear, the president likely will not act until after Tuesday’s primaries, since numerous lawmakers will not be on Capitol Hill then.

The Gavel has House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) statement urging Bush to sign the legislation.

Expert: Crime of torture could only have been ordered by the president David Edwards and Muriel Kane

It was announced on Wednesday that the Justice Department has opened an official criminal investigation into the destruction of CIA torture tapes. However, rather than appointing an outside special council, Attorney General Mukasey has assigned an assistant US Attorney from Connecticut to handle the proceedings.

At the same time, the chairman and co-chair of the 9/11 Commission are charging in a New York Times op-ed that the CIA obstructed their own investigations in 2003-04 by not disclosing the existence of the tapes.

Constitutional expert Jonathan Turley told Keith Olbermann that as many as six criminal offenses could be involved in the 9/11 Commission charge alone, including obstruction of Congress, obstruction of justice, perjury, and conspiracy.

However, Turley emphasized that the real crime under investigation is not merely obstruction, but the actual torture documented by the tapes. "It is still, even after the last seven year, a crime to torture suspects," Turley commented.

Turley suggested that under those circumstances, the failure to appoint a special prosecutor was a serious problem, because "the investigation will essentially be the Justice Department investigating itself. ... Picking some guy in Connecticut or Cincinnati or Delaware or any other state doesn't make any difference. His boss is Michael Mukasey. And Michael Mukasey's boss is the president of the United States. If torture occurred, he was the guy who ordered it."

Turley suggested that there is a reluctance throughout official Washington, not "just Republicans," to pry into an underlying crime which is potentially far more serious than the burglary which was the start of Watergate. When Olberman asked if the investigation "could still lead to criminal culpability for the president," Turley replied, "Most certainly it can. That original crime could only have been ordered by the president and it leads directly to his office."

Turley finally expressed a concern that the Justice Department might try to "narrow this, define it in a way to avoid torture." He explained, "Nobody in this town wants to talk about it because they know that there's a lot of people in the country that like the idea of torturing these people. And that's just a painful fact. But it's also a painful fact that it's a crime. And when the president says that we got some useful evidence, I don't know if that's true or not, but it's immaterial. Just because it had good results or good motivations, it remains a crime."

A full transcript of Jonathan Turley's appearance on Countdown is available here.

This video is from MSNBC's Countdown, broadcast on January 2, 2008.