October 04, 2007
CIA Interrogations To Take Center Stage In Mukasey Hearings
UPDATED.
Democratic members of the Senate Judiciary Committee are incensed at the revelations in this morning's New York Times report outlining secret legal opinions the Bush administration has used to justify harsh interrogations techniques for terrorism suspects.
"It would be bad enough if this administration had disgraced itself and this country by engaging in cruel and degrading treatment of detainees. It is worse still that it enlisted the Justice Department in the effort to justify and cover up its activities," said Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy, speaking on the floor of the Senate today.
Kennedy is a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which yesterday announced that confirmation hearings for attorney general nominee Michael Mukasey would begin as early as two weeks from now. Chairman Patrick Leahy appeared to be signaling that he would not hold up Mukasey's hearings despite an ongoing confrontation with the White House over the NSA surveillance program and U.S. attorney firings scandal. While the revelations about DOJ possibly signing off on torture will probably not affect the hearing timeline, they will almost certainly have a huge impact on Mukasey's confirmation.
A congressional source with close knowledge of the committee said that "a lot of people are really, really angry" about the secret opinions. According to the Times report, the White House took backdoor measures to keep CIA interrogation techniques like "head-slapping, simulated drowning and frigid temperatures" in play by way of secret DOJ memos asserting their legality -- even as it publicly bowed to demands by Congress and the Supreme Court to outlaw them.
Leahy had requested a one-on-one meeting with Mukasey on Oct. 16 -- standard practice for nominees, who generally make the rounds of committee members' offices before hearings. The hearings could begin as soon as Oct. 17. That schedule is likely to hold, since members have aired concerns about the disarray DOJ is in following a series of resignations, including that of former AG Alberto Gonzales, during the U.S. prosecutor firings scandal.
The committee isn't "going to hold the Department of Justice hostage just because" of the most recent scandal involving it, the congressional source said. At the same time, the report caused Leahy to get "really fired up," the source added.
It's likely the anger crosses party lines. The Detainee Treatment Act was spearheaded by Republicans John McCain and Lindsey Graham, who insisted that engaging in torture undermines the war on terror and places U.S. servicemen and women at risk of in-kind treatment. Arlen Specter, the ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee, did not yet have a statement on the Times report, a spokeswoman said.
The congressional source said that members plan to grill Mukasey on the secret memos. As much as they are eager to see stability restored to DOJ, they are equally determined not to install an AG who will act as an enabler to the Bush administration, a role Gonzales appears to have taken on after a near-insurrection at DOJ over surveillance and detainee treatment policies.
The White House steadfastly denied that CIA interrogators were practicing torture. "Look, under the United States' interpretation and that December 2004 opinion [PDF] that is publicly available at the Justice Department for everyone to see, we believe that we are following our laws and that we are meeting our international obligations in order to prevent attacks on Americans and our allies, and we're meeting that," press secretary Dana Perino told reporters.
But according to the Times report, DOJ issued a secret opinion in 2005 that basically ruled that certain techniques internationally considered to be torture were not, in fact, torture.
Problematically, the administration has never publicly outlined in detail its definition of torture. And in signing statements, President Bush has conferred upon his office the right to act outside the confines of the law in the name of national security. The Times sources were "officials briefed on" the opinions. Without the memos in hand, there is no smoking gun.
The House Judiciary Committee fired off a letter this morning to acting AG Peter Keisler requesting the secret opinions be handed over "immediately." The Senate committee later followed suit. It's doubtful the requests will be met to their satisfaction. One ray of hope for lawmakers is that Mukasey is by reputation an independent broker. And again, restoring leadership to DOJ is a primary concern for everyone. This puts the truly outraged lawmakers in a bind -- so long as they remain reluctant to escalate this battle and take the executive branch to court. In the meantime, we're assured a more highly pressurized confirmation hearing for Mukasey than previously anticipated.
Bring it on, seems to be the message from the White House.
"If at his hearings members of the Senate want to have a conversation about whether or not this country follows its laws when it comes to interrogation techniques, we can have this conversation. Senators are free to have whatever views they want," Perino said. "If they want to have a conversation about that with Judge Mukasey, that'd be fine."
Photo of Mukasey courtesy of Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler LLP.
Posted at 6:15 PM
Posted to:
Alberto Gonzales, Attorney Scandal, Bush Administration, CIA, Congress, Constitution, Detainees, House, Michael Mukasey, Patrick Leahy, President Bush, Senate
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