TORTURE: Feinstein Now Wants A Formal Inquiry-WH Signalling It May Support Special Prosecutor

[kpete]

“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,” Feinstein’s letter says.
http://blogs.abcnews.com/theworldnewser/2009/04/obama-at-the-ci.html


Not Quite An Exoneration
by Deacon Blues

Except that the White House never said they would give a pass to the White House and DOJ lawyers and senior administration officials; they said they would give a pass to CIA officials who gave those orders. Obama is walking a fine line here, trying to keep the Agency on his side while not sending the Democrats in Congress into full investigation mode. And yet he may soon lose control of the matter because Senator Dianne Feinstein now wants a formal inquiry, and the UN's senior official on these matters says that Obama's unwillingness to investigate the culpability of Bush administration officials would itself amount to a violation of international treaties.


.....the White House is now signalling that it may in fact support a Special Prosecutor after all.

On Sunday, Rahm Emanuel, the White House chief of staff, said on the ABC News program “This Week” that “those who devised policy” also “should not be prosecuted.” But administration officials said Monday that Mr. Emanuel had meant the officials who ordered the policies carried out, not the lawyers who provided the legal rationale.

Even with this though, the Obama White House may only have the stomach to go after the law licenses of the White House attorneys who crafted the opinions, but not prosecute them.

The administration has also not ruled out prosecuting anyone who exceeded the legal guidelines, and officials have discussed appointing a special prosecutor. One option might be giving the job to John H. Durham, a federal prosecutor who has spent 15 months investigating the C.I.A.’s destruction of videotapes of harsh interrogations.

It all still sounds a little wimpish for my tastes, but I'll wait a little while longer before I thrash Obama for tossing away his campaign rhetoric.

But not much longer.

morer (plus links):
http://www.theleftcoaster.com/archives/014019.php

[SpiralHawk]

1. "I did not (smirk) have torture with terraists. Smirk." - xCommander AWOL

"But my republicon homelander cronies, like Dickie 'Five Military Deferments' Cheney and Condi 'Bootsy' Rice, were all over it. Smirk."

- xCommander AWOL (R)

http://www.internetweekly.org/images/bush_torture_its_ok

[pleah]

2. K&R But, there is that word again, "may" , I want to hear and see the word WILL.

Damn it.

[lazer47]

3. Be patient,, Be patient,, all will be well,,It MAY be taken care of soon.

:sarcasm:

[KharmaTrain]

4. Does That Include The "Sternly Written Letter", Too?

Methinks President Obama was more concerned with a shitstorm from the right and "moderates" by condoning boooshie's torture and forgot about the rest of us. Or maybe he wanted his hand forced...either way, the calls for investigation grow stronger as we learn more about how the US government tortured. Even worse was the parade of appologists who paraded on the teevee on Sunday, such as Michael Hayden, who tried to bullshit us that torture somehow worked and was a good thing. You'd think these people would slink away after these revelations...but they're rubbing not only in our faces, but in front of the world. President Obama must be seeing that the world is watching here...we don't want to "look foward"...we want accountability to make an important future statement.

I've strongly favored a Special Prosecutor to investigate these crimes...but the abuses of the booooosh regime are beyond just one...methinks we will need several. One handling the violation of international laws (ones we've signed to), another to expose the extend of the wirerapping of Americans, another to investigate the politicization of the Justice Department and another to determine who launched the Iraq war for profit. There's plenty to go around...and if this country is to ever "move forward" it needs to have a full accounting of the crimes of the past 8 years. We won't be able to "move forward" until...

[Canuckistanian]

5. So Rahm spoke out of turn?

That's encouraging. It could be that the whole process is in a state of flux with raging debates going on as we speak.

Imagine that - debate in the Oval Office.

[Demeter]

8. I Hope Rahm Finds Himself in Perdition by Christmas

and I'll settle for Peoria, as an alternate destination.

[ThomWV]

6. I can see no reason for Obama to wait. There is, and has been, ample evidence of wrongdoing.

There is no excuse for waiting to pursue clearly illegal activity and there is no excuse for no pursuing it at all levels, from the person who divined torture, the ones who devised it, and the ones that deployed it. That means you start with the President and end with the torturer and exempt no one in between.

[lazer47]

10. I keep hearing that CIC and Pres. Obama has a secret agenda about

prosecution,, Why do I keep wanting to go outside and wave my BULLSHIT flag??

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

7. I have no trust or confidence in Dianne Feinstein

If she wants a formal inquiry, it will probably be to obstruct and roadblock as much as possible. That's just my opinion. Her highly compromised ethics on voting on issues that materially effected her personally were one of Project Censoreds top unreported and ignored stories of the last year.

[Demeter]

9. Diane Might Be Trying to Build a Legacy

After all, Pelosi is going to investigate bankers all of a sudden. They are very competitive, these Californians, and not getting any younger. Sitting on their hands for 8 years looks bad. Got to spruce up the image for the history books.

[Supersedeas]

11. believe nothing out of Feinstein's office until you see it--Mukasey was her last great proposal

We know how that turned out.

[Supersedeas]

13. Consider this:

"But one member of the Judiciary Committee wasn't at the truth commission hearing yesterday - Dianne Feinstein. Through a spokesman, she sidestepped whether or not she supports a commission, saying she “hasn’t seen a proposal." But she is instituting a competing investigation, from her perch at the Senate Intelligence Committee, that is bound to be a whitewash."

http://d-day.blogspot.com/2009/03/difi-cant-handle-truth.html

[cascadiance]

12. I think DiFi might be afraid of what will come out about her with the Harman controversy...

It was no secret that DiFi was PO'd that Jane Harman wasn't selected as head of the CIA and Panetta picked instead.

Now, ask yourself as head of the Senate Intelligence Committee that's been reviewing the NSA Wiretapping and torturing cases. Don't you think she would have known about the AIPAC wiretaps made on Harman when she advocated she be put in charge of the CIA? Hmm... I wonder why she was so strong about wanting that to happen. There's some stuff that will come out soon.

If DiFi is still shown to be supporting a coverup of the torturers, she could be getting in bigger trouble later when some of this stuff comes out!

This is very much like what I believe motivated her to expose Gonzo going after the attorneys when she felt Gonzo might have been going after her earlier when Carol Lam was fired and the other attorneys were being fired. She was protecting her own butt from being prosecuted for what she was doing on that other committee she resigned from in helping out her husband's company get contracts. And later she helped put Mukasey in place, who's arguably almost as much of a problem as Gonzo was. She likely cut a deal with the Bush administration for her support of Mukasey I think.

So, I'm not really surprised her shifting gears here. You have to read between the lines to understand her motivations for all of these positions she puts out.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

14. All good points! nt