U.S. Lawmakers to Hear from Bush 'Torture' Dissenter

Source: AFP

US lawmakers to hear from Bush 'torture' dissenter
4 hours ago

WASHINGTON (AFP) — Senators on Wednesday will quiz a former top US official on his objections in 2005 to harsh interrogations of suspected terrorists, amid calls for a sweeping formal probe into alleged torture. Lawmakers from the Senate Judiciary Committee will question Philip Zelikow, a confidant of then-secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on the internal debate over such tactics after the September 11, 2001 attacks.

Another witness at the hearing, Ali Soufan, is a former Federal Bureau of Investigation who charged last month that extreme techniques yielded nothing that was not, or could not have been, obtained through regular means.

Similar hearings are expected in the House of Representatives, as US President Barack Obama's Democratic allies push ahead with investigations following his mid-April decision to release legal memoranda justifying tactics like the slapping, sleep deprivation, and the near-drowning of waterboarding. "The facts need to be on the table," House Democratic Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said Tuesday, as Republicans sought to focus any probe on whether top Democrats signed off on the practices they now hotly condemn.

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But Hoyer called that effort "a distraction" from how the policies were designed, approved and implemented under a Republican president and with the backing of Republican lawmakers. "The issue is not what was said, or what was known, the question and focus ought to be on what was done," Hoyer told reporters when asked about the Republican push to identify what top lawmakers knew and when.

Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jM1MZMeyeaymcwBjxk4cqaVpiUyw

http://judiciary.senate.gov/hearings/hearing.cfm?id=3842

Sen. Whitehouse is one of my heros. He is one sharp prosecutor.

Prof. David Luban:

"Memos: “ethical train-wreck”

Source: KOKC News

Torture under the Bush administration will be in the spotlight this morning. A Senate judiciary subcommittee will take up the issue. The lead witness is a former confidant and legal counselor to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice who drafted a memo opposing harsh interrogation methods. The Subcommittee on Administrative Oversight and the Courts will also hear from a former FBI official Ali Soufan. He's argued that torturing terror detainees yielded no valuable insights that couldn't have been gleaned through standard interrogation methods.

Read more: http://www.1520kokc.com/nationalnews/Channels/Story.aspx?ID=1092495

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Hearing on C-SPAN3 at 10 am (ET)

A Senate Judiciary Subcmte. looks into the legal conduct of Justice Dept. lawyers who approved harsh interrogation techniques.


http://www.cspan.org/

Source: Washington Post

Former State Department counselor Philip Zelikow will tell a Senate panel this morning that Bush administration officials engaged in a "collective failure" on detention and interrogation of suspected terrorists, according to testimony submitted in advance of the first congressional hearing to address allegations of torture.

Fresh accounts today by Zelikow and retired FBI special agent Ali Soufan, who dissented from Justice Department conclusions about the legality of waterboarding prisoners, likely will expose anew rifts within the highest levels of the Bush administration over the practices.

The testimony comes amid calls for criminal prosecutions, disbarment or a wide-ranging congressionally chartered probe of former government officials and contractors for their activities during the Bush war on terror.

The Justice Department last month released four legal documents that provided the justification for the harsh tactics that critics liken to torture. The clinically worded papers ignited fresh debate and prompted advocates on both sides of the aisle to call for release of more memos and reports, including findings from the CIA inspector general and the Justice Department's ethics watchdogs.



Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/13/AR2009051301281.html

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snip:

David Luban, a law professor at Georgetown University, called the Bush era legal memos "an ethical train wreck," in a prepared statement delivered this morning to the Senate panel.

"..And as for you Americans who were expected a modicum of honesty, integrity, or competence out of us Republicon Homelanders, all me and xVP Dickie 'Five Military Deferments' Cheney -- and our allied War Profiteering Cronies -- can say is: suckers. Smirk. Shock & Awe Baby. Smirk."

- xCommander AWOL