Conyers asks whether torture denial was a lie

[Tellurian]

WASHINGTON -- The ranking Democrat on the House of Representatives' Judiciary Committee wants a congressional probe into whether the Justice Department misled the Supreme Court last month when a government lawyer told the justices that the United States does not engage in torture.

On Wednesday, Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., asked committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., to launch an investigation into whether the Justice Department ''may have knowingly or recklessly communicated false and misleading information to the U.S. Supreme Court.''

Conyers' request focuses on arguments that a lawyer for the Bush administration made before the court on April 28, hours before the first pictures showing abused prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq hit the news.

That day, the justices heard arguments in cases that test whether U.S. citizens designated as ''enemy combatants'' can be held indefinitely without charges or access to a lawyer.

http://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/20040520/6218023s.htm

..well, now we're getting somewhere..