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Conyers Invites Ashcroft, Tenet, Feith, and Addington for Hearing on Use of Torture
It would be quite a party.
Earlier this week, House Judiciary Committee Chair John Conyers (D-MI) invited John Yoo to testify before the committee on May 6th about the infamous legal memos on torture that he issued while with the Department of Justice. If Yoo did not want to appear, Conyers wrote, then the panel would subpoena him.
Now Conyers, following up on the reports in the last couple of weeks about the role of top administration officials in authorizing the use of "enhanced interrogation" techniques including waterboarding, has invited a slew of current and former officials to testify at the hearing. Among those invited are former Attorney General John Ashcroft, former CIA Director George Tenet, former Undersecretary of Defense Douglas Feith, Chief of Staff to the Vice President David Addington, and former Assistant Attorney General Daniel Levin, who headed up the Office of Legal Counsel for a brief time.
Says Conyers: βNew and troubling allegations suggest that the decisions on torture came from the highest levels of government. These reports, if true, represent a stain on our democracy. The American people deserve to hear directly from those involved.β
Of course, you can be sure that this White House, the most ardent defender of executive privilege in our lifetime, would never, ever allow Addington, the great prophet of executive privilege, to testify under any circumstances. And it also seems unlikely that any members of the National Security Council's Principals Committee (Tenet and Ashcroft) will testify about content of those meetings. But it's worth a shot.
Josh
Zachary
RSVP! Come on John; time is awasting. These criminals aren't going to appear before a committee and the Repukes on your committee are going to support this Regime in any case, so why the grand standing?
April 11, 2008 3:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
Actually, I think Conyers' "grandstanding" can be an effective tool. Think of the great TV, internet ads featuring Bu$hco figures going AWOL from Congressional hearings and just tie them to John '100 Years War' McCain.
April 11, 2008 3:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
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April 15, 2008 4:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
Good luck
April 11, 2008 3:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
Unfortunately, they can't be held in contempt until they refuse to appear under subpoena. I'd like them hauled before the committee right now, but I understand that they already have a full slate of investigations. They also need time to conduct their own investigation and can't just rely on the ABC and AP reports.
April 11, 2008 3:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
Why not skip right to the subpoena? It'll cut weeks out of the dance.
April 11, 2008 3:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
Can we just skip the preliminaries and go straight to Impeachment Hearings?
It has to happen. The treasonous criminality of the Bush/Cheney cabal is beginning to come to light. It's just the merest twinkle now, but the more that is revealed the brighter the brilliance of sunlight will fully illuminate all their crimes.
I pray that the Evil-doers don't stage a "terrist" attack and create a situation for marshall law...
April 11, 2008 4:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
By demolishing both the right to habeas corpus and the prohibition on the use of the army for domestic disturbances (Posse Comitatus Act), the Bush-Cheney criminal cartel has set the stage for the imposition of martial law, i.e., law imposed by the military.
Would that we could return to "Marshall Law", which the U.S. enjoyed under Chief Justice John Marshall, who served in the American revolutionary army and was appointed Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court in 1800, to bcome its longest serving chief justice. He was a highly respected constitutional interpreter who knew, first hand, the inequities and dangers of imperial martial law.
We desparately need another John Marshall on our Supreme Court today who would, no doubt, restore Habeas Corpus and the Posse Comitatus Act, freeing us from the spectre of Bush's martial law.
For similar reasons, it would be great to have Justice Thurgood Marshall back on our Supreme Court too.
April 12, 2008 9:44 AM | Reply | Permalink
My question is, won't the Congress have an easier time issuing and putting teeth into subpoenas once we have a new administratio and a new attorney general? Maybe even a new Supreme Court Justice or two, if we can wait long enough.
On the other hand, do we lose too much moral authority if we wait even another week?
April 11, 2008 10:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
"I pray that the Evil-doers don't stage a "terrist" attack and create a situation for marshall law..." Posted by Jim the cynic.
Given the fact that prior to 9/11 certain phone calls into this country went purposely unheeded, there is no reason not to expect that these same peoplee would allow another "Wag the Dog" to happen again.
Ashcroft is a little of a puzzle to me in that he seems to be a part of the OK to torture team, but not OK to signing certain documents turning over the authority to run the DOJ to certain Bushites while he was convalescing in a hospital.
That these people are all war criminals is without doubt. That they will receive their due justice for their war crimes is without doubt. It's not going to happen.
That they are guilty of sedition if not down right treason by attempting to circumvent the Constitution and politicize the DOJ is not without doubt.
Unfortunately we have a Congress without the spine to prosecute them.
And we have a mainstream media helping the Bush aqdministration to keep the lid on the frustrations of Americans by not reporting these crimes and calling them such.
You don't have to be a blind conservative not to see it, just an ignorant one to deny it.
April 12, 2008 12:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
These reports, if true, represent a stain on our democracy. The American people deserve to hear directly from those involved.β
Well, on Friday, we DID hear from those directly involved: The president told ABC he knew of and approved the meetings.
C'mon, folks, what more do you need?
April 12, 2008 9:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
Approving of meetings where torture was approved just doesn't rise to the level of crime as a soiled blue dress, now does it?
Why aren't any Democrats in Congress willing to enforce the powers of Congress and start the impeachment process?
C'mon Nancy, get a backbone. Do your job. Take your oath of office seriously and start defending the Constitution.
April 14, 2008 8:45 AM | Reply | Permalink
You have no idea...what Dumsfield's CIFA was doing while allegedly protecting military bases and protecting SIGINT (hint: There talking about the Daschle Campaign Memo I wrote on my home computer that was picked up illegally by FBI?..NSA?...DOD?).
Notice how Mukasy recently said that "DOD CIFA does not operate domestically anymore" as he claimed that CIFA was now over with (like The NSA TSP is supposed to be over with).
WHEN DO THESE GUYS WANT TO REMOVE THE GPS TRACKING DEVICE WITH AUDIO CAPABILITY to illegally seize private communications made in my vehicle?
WHAT DOES THE US DOJ want to do about my 47 page US DOJ OIG Complaint?
Why hasn't Pat Leahy contacted me about testifying about "being chipped, tortured" after I contacted Sen Grassley with a 10 page memo?
What is wrong...with Leahy?
April 14, 2008 6:37 PM | Reply | Permalink