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Conyers, Kennedy Join Push for Special Prosecutor
When news broke that the CIA had kept videotapes showing torture of detainees secret and then secretly destroyed them, Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE) was fast out of the gate: the scandal "leads right into the White House," he said, and the need for a special prosecutor was clear.
But that was about it. Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) was quick to dismiss the need for one, saying that Congressional inquiries were enough. And the hard-charging investigation led by the House intelligence committee seemed to indicate that might be true. When Rep. Rush Holt (D-NJ), a member of the House intelligence committee, wrote Attorney General Michael Mukasey to formally request the appointment of a special prosecutor, expectations were low.
As expected, Mukasey said no. Or as he put it in a letter to Congress Friday, "I am aware of no facts at present to suggest that Department attorneys cannot conduct this inquiry in an impartial manner."
But with the Department rebuffing Congressional inquiries, Rockefeller's rationale has been turned on its head. The momentum seems to have shifted.
On Friday, House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) said in a statement that Mukasey's "disturbing" refusal to answer Congressional questions about the tapes' destruction "calls into question whether the Department of Justice is best able to investigate these matters.”
And the same day, Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA) echoed Sen. Biden's comments from the week before.
Put all that together and you now have the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee and two prominent members of the Senate Judiciary Committee leaning towards a special prosecutor. Whether that momentum builds any more depends largely on how successful the House intelligence committee is in defying the Justice Department's attempt to stifle its investigation. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has said that he would call for a special prosecutor if the committee's don't get cooperation.
Comments (14)
Jeffrey wrote on December 17, 2007 2:22 PM:great
so Harry can "compromise"
Tim in N.H. wrote on December 17, 2007 2:24 PM:There should be a special prosecutor to investigate why Democrats and liberals are so unpatriotic
and don't beleive in God.
Shame on all of you
Howard wrote on December 17, 2007 2:36 PM:to Tim in NH:
so if you don't believe in making torture legal, then you don't believe in god? does that mean people who believe in god all condone torture?
chabuka wrote on December 17, 2007 2:40 PM:Senator Reid..shame on you, you capitulating little coward...you and Nancy Pelosi are the most worthless pair of Bush appeasers ever seen....I hope with all my heart that the people in California and Nevada have the good sense to throw you two out on you traitorous asses....! Connecticut are you finally convinced that Leiberman should be tossed out...he lied to you...or were you just "fooled" again..if thats the case, "shame on you, too"
naschkatze wrote on December 17, 2007 4:23 PM:How dare you criticize Nancy Pelosi, chabuka! Don't you realize that she has finally got the Congressional cafeteria to go organic? All within one year's worth of being in power. What more do you want?
oldtree wrote on December 17, 2007 4:39 PM:poor ol' rockyfeller. Everything he has touched stinks now. He has openly lied about his involvement in damn near everything his committee has done.
I'd wonder if he isn't being bought? Who owns Rocky?
shoephone wrote on December 17, 2007 5:13 PM:Oldtree - see for yourself just how bought Rottenfeller is.
http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/indus.asp?CID=N00001685&cycle=2008
Looks like he has collected over $118,000 from telephone utilities and telcom services for his 2008 re-election campaign.
shoephone wrote on December 17, 2007 5:18 PM:More Rottenfeller contributors for 2008:
$48,000 Oil and Gas (self-explanatory)
Anonymous wrote on December 17, 2007 5:57 PM:$158,000 Air transport (Boeing subsidiary > extraordinary rendition > secret prisons > torture)
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..."
Anthony Look wrote on December 17, 2007 6:03 PM:The DOJ has not changed, improved or is any less corrupt at lying, hiding and coving up.
judyinnm wrote on December 17, 2007 6:28 PM:We'd be so much better off if Harry Reid would just keep out of it. He'll get legislation passed stating that the Senate is forbidden to ever question the executive branch about anything.
parrot wrote on December 17, 2007 7:28 PM:How about they skip a "special prosecutor" and get on with impeachment by the House and trial by the Senate? Seriously, what are they, the Congress, even there for?
Mr JJ wrote on December 18, 2007 11:03 AM:AG Mukasey has a conflict of interest problem already, and should recuse himself and appoint a Special Prosecutor.
Jose Padilla's lawyers argued before the Florida Federal Court that Abu Zubaydah was tortured into saying Padilla was an al Qaeda associate. The DOJ dismissed Padilla"s allegations as "meritless," asserting Padilla"s legal team could not prove that Abu Zubaydah had been tortured. Well, it"s clear now that they certainly COULD have, if the tapes of the interrogations of Abu Zubaydah had been made available!
Now here is where Mukasey"s role comes into question. U.S. District Judge Mukasey, now attorney general, was the one who signed the warrant used by the FBI to arrest Padilla in May 2002. Court records show the warrant relied in part on information obtained from Abu Zubaydah"s interrogation. So we have a problem Houston.
The Attorney General can only issue a warrant based upon legally obtained evidence, and confessions under torture are certainly not "legally obtained". So either Mukasey was misrepresented the evidence, and would be liable to be potentially a party in those who were presented with "perjured evidence"; or he knew that torture was used in obtaining the confession and ignored it.
In either case he is unsuitable to run an investigation, as it will, inevitably, involve himself. Thus a Special Prosecutor is necessary... Odds that this will happen? Zero percent.
Dennis wrote on December 19, 2007 10:42 AM:Harry Reid is going to sell out on this one, too.
You don't have to be a blind conservative not to see it, just an ignorant one to deny it.