Senator Feinstein Urges President Obama to Withhold Judgment on Prosecutions Related to CIA Interrog

[sabra]

Source: Senator Feinstein

Washington, DC – U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, today urged President Obama to withhold judgment on potential criminal prosecutions related to CIA interrogations until the committee completes its review of the Agency’s program.

Here is Senator Feinstein’s letter to the President:

April 20, 2009

The President
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, D.C. 20500

Dear Mr. President:

I am writing to respectfully request that comments regarding holding individuals accountable for detention and interrogation related activities be held in reserve until the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence is able to complete its review of the conditions and interrogations of certain high value detainees.

This study is now underway, and I estimate its completion within the next six to eight months. A study of the first two detainees has already been completed and will shortly be before the committee.

Sincerely Yours,

Dianne Feinstein
United States Senator


Read more: http://feinstein.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=NewsRoom.PressReleases&ContentRecord_id=c8e4ceb8-5056-8059-7617-2fc6d556e11e

[Rosa Luxemburg]

1. I thought it was perfectly clear without waiting 8 months

The administration responsible for carrying out torture was the Bush/cheney administration. Maybe she doesn't know that? Bush as president then was ultimately responsible.

[EFerrari]

2. I don't trust Diane Feinstein. Wasn't she the ranking member

of this committee the entire time this torture program was in place? If so, she was briefed . . .

[Solly Mack]

15. In a thread in GD, "DiFi says that it wasn't CIA officers who tortured but

CIA contractors"


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x5507129

[EFerrari]

16. See what I mean?!

She's disgusting.

[Solly Mack]

17. I know

[robinlynne]

25. She openly supported torture AND wiretapping. We picketed her office many times.

It did no good whatsoever. I mean a lot of people not just a few.

[joeybee12]

3. I would like to think it's because she wants to do the right thing...HOWEVER...

hiistory has shown this is just another ego-inflated power grab by DiFi.

[ananda]

4. Another Jane Harman?

Wouldn't be surprised.......

[cascadiance]

19. She was actually PO'd that Jane Harman didn't get appointed to head of CIA!!

Remember that little set of bad feelings she voiced when Panetta got appointed?

http://www.wowowow.com/post/sen-feinstein-hits-back-against-obamas-cia-pick-rep-jane-harman-passed-over-job-167674

And you know that as the Senate Intelligence Committee Chair, she had to know that Harman was being looked at for this AIPAC thing at that time too! What does that make her agenda in this mess?

Delay another 8 months? F' NO! We should be able to do it NOW!

[Wizard777]

5. Why in the hell would he pass Judgement at all? He's in the Executive Branch. Not the Judiciary.

This is the problem we had with Bush. Legal Questions were being decided by the Executive Branch and Congress. Hell they even used polls. Legal decission were being render by any and everyone but the Courts. Obama is Supposedly a Constitutional Scholar. It's now time for him to show that at the very least he knows that determinations of Guilt or Innocense are made by a Judge or Jury. Not a President or Congress. It's way past time for the president and Congress to quit playing Judge and Jury on this. That is the Judicaries job. It's time to let them do that job. The only thing they can accomplish is obstructing justice. It doesn't mean a damned thing at this point for a President or Congress to find them guilty. That must be done by the courts. If Congress wanted to find them guilty. They could have done that through Impeachment. They let that opportunity slip through fingers. It's too late for that now. The only decission Obama has to make is to allow holder to pursue Justice IN THE COURTS or to issue Bush & Cheney a full pardon. THAT'S IT! Nothing more and nothing less. Pardon or prosecute. Decide wisely.

[DUlover2909]

8. I agree. Well put. NT

[amandabeech]

13. Perhaps she should have used different words.

I'm supposed to be a lawyer, and I took her words as a request to the President and the executive branch to put off any decisions to prosecute or take administrative action until the Senate committee has finished its investigation.

Before executive branch lawyers bring a suit, either in court or before administrative law judges, the lawyers are supposed to do a thorough investigation. Then the lawyers, the policy folks and the political folks make a decision on whether to move forward based on the strength of the evidence and on policy and political considerations. No decent lawyer goes around half-cocked filing suits that he or she knows very little about, and the Obama administration is filled with a lot of much-more-than-decent lawyers.

Here, IMHO, Sen. Feinstein is not using the phrase "passing judgment" to refer to the ultimate court decision, but to the executive or prosecutorial decision to move forward, or not, in a court of law or an administrative hearing.

[liberalhistorian]

14. Exactly, thank you. I was just about to point

that out myself.

[SlingBlade]

6. K & R, Dianne Feinstein should be

Immediately water boarded in order to find the truth !

[Dumak]

7. LOL, she writes him an open letter to tell him to shut his mouth

Definitely playing politics for the next election.

[MasonJar]

9. His comments so far have exonerated them from punishment; perhaps she sees that as

poor judgement or at the least precipitous action. Why is it just assumed that Feinstein is in error in this instance and not Obama?

[freemarketer6]

10. Diane Feinstein needs to be booted from office..........nft

dd

[sansf]

11. Don't get your hopes up

Di always gets her verbal dander up when her power is rivaled. She will say the right things, and then vote the wrong ways (Mukasey, Alito, etc. ad nauseum).

Even if she was not being blackmailed too (a la NSA), she is a hopeless corporatist.

[goforit]

12. May California kick her out of office!!! She supports SICK acts of crime!!!!

[bottomtheweaver]

18. "Please don't interfere with our whitewash junior. We're good at it.

And anyway we got a tip from a 'friend' that there might be a little distraction on the horizon to get everybody back on board the gravy train so please cool your jets."

[chill_wind]

23. I just keep thinking of Senate Intel Phase II

(PreWar Iraq)-- 2+ years, was it?

[Gregorian]

20. All of these investigations are separate!

Let the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence do it's thing. Let a special prosecutor do their thing.

What I predict is that there will be many strong attempts to minimize and blur the truth of what happened. Discrediting of Holder, attempts to discredit the truth.

I'm afraid we've reached a critical point in America. We were asleep when Reagan sold arms to Iran. But now there is enough water under the bridge that we simply cannot ignore the facts.

I see this as being similar to the bundling of toxic mortgages. So many people were marginally involved because they knew they could get away with it. Profiting from the war, mainly. This is about money. Just as the economic meltdown is about money. War is about money.

I'm afraid the time of reckoning is here. Short of repeating historical disasters in American history, I believe we are going to see the eclipse of Watergate.

[chill_wind]

21. Di-Fi's Whitewash (emptywheel)

http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2009/02/27/difis-whitewash/

Worries about a Limited Hangout back in February when it was announced,
but too much is out there, now.

http://www.democrats.com/dianne-feinstein-plans-torture-coverup

For example, reports/data on torture-deaths...

http://www.democrats.com/torture-deaths

[yurbud]

22. since Feinstein is a war profiteer and back Iraq War, she has no credibility when she says to wait

[robinlynne]

24. She was one of the big torture supporters!