I just received an email from the office of Dick Durbin (D-Il). In it Mr. Durbin described his approach to an independent truth commission regarding U.S. policy of torture.
In today’s email Sen. Durbin said,
“Some, including Senator Pat Leahy of Vermont, have called for an independent “truth” commission to investigate decisions of the previous administration relating to detainee treatment and interrogation. I am not aware of any legislative proposals having been put forward in the Senate to establish an independent commission to investigate these issues.
The Senate Intelligence Committee is currently conducting a thorough investigation of the detainee issue. This investigation will likely take several more months to complete and the committee should be given the time needed to complete its work. Meanwhile, more information than ever is available to the American people regarding these policies.”
The Senator is referring to a Senate Intelligence Committee investigation concerning the very same topic. The report asserts that it will likely take one year to complete. So an independent truth commission would probably be seen as superfluous, at best, and undermining, at worst, to the Senate Intelligence investigation. That official press release can be read here: http://intelligence.senate.gov/press/record.cfm?id=309152
The Senator ended the email with his own allegations.
“On February 12, 2008, Senator Whitehouse and I sent a letter to the Justice Department’s Inspector General requesting an investigation of Justice Department officials within the Office of Legal Counsel who issued legal opinions authorizing waterboarding and other abusive interrogation techniques. That investigation was allegedly completed before the end of the Bush Administration and then-Attorney General Michael Mukasey refused to release it because of objections to the report’s findings.
Senator Whitehouse and I sent another letter to the Justice Department on February 16, 2009 inquiring about the status of the report. While the preliminary report has been completed, Steven Bradbury, one of the lawyers being investigated, was provided access to the pre-release report and had the opportunity to respond to its content before its release outside of the Justice Department. This is a cause for concern. The report is now being reviewed by the CIA. It is my hope that this report will be released soon and that an unclassified version of the report will be made available to the public.”
This meeting aired on July 09, 2008. It’s fairly long but his main point is between 0:56 and 1:30. He tells, then Attorney General, Michael Mukasey that initiating investigations would be within the “clear standard of the law.”
