Biden Repeats Call For Special Prosecutor and Other News

This past week, we learned that an administration official in the CIA had destroyed videotapes of the agency’s use of severe interrogation techniques on detainees held in secret, extra-legal prisons. Responsibility for this sad stain of dishonor on America’s integrity rests squarely with the president. The evidence destroyed depicted the president’s policy of snatching terrorist suspects from the streets of foreign countries, hiding them away in secret prisons, and torturing them. The president has created a culture of criminal misconduct and cover up, has injected politics into the administration of justice, and has made public policy a slave to his ideology. I have called for a special counsel to conduct a thorough but unbiased investigation of this matter.

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I do not make the call for a special counsel lightly. For 34 years, 16 years as the chairman or ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, I have been a supporter and steward of the Department of Justice. I still maintain the utmost respect and admiration for the career prosecutors who enforce our laws every day without bias. But when a president abandons our cherished national values of upholding the rule of law and respecting human dignity, and when he allows our system of justice to be influenced by partisan politics, the attorney general he appointed cannot preside over an investigation that goes to the heart of the administration’s conduct. In such circumstances, our law requires the appointment of a special counsel.

White House faces hearing on CIA tapes

The Bush administration has made its position clear in legal filings and now gets a chance to say it to a judge in open court: Hold off on inquiring about the destruction of CIA videotapes that showed suspected terrorists being interrogated.

U.S. District Judge Henry H. Kennedy ordered the hearing Friday over the objection of the Justice Department after lawyers raised questions about the possibility that other evidence also might have been destroyed.

Kiriakou in hot water for admitting the US has tortured?

As reported by  RAW STORY (with video), John Kiriakou, who led the squad which captured the suspected terrorist, told ABC’s Brian Ross that although he did not witness the waterboarding himself, fellow agents told him about it and said it broke Abu Zubaydah’s resistance in less than a minute.

Now the CIA has sent a “criminal referral” to the Justice Department to investigate whether Kiriakou disclosed classified information in that interview. However, according to CNN, these referrals rarely lead to criminal charges, and it is not yet clear whether there has been any violation.

Jonathan Turley

 

“I think it’s more than an inference at this point, which is one of the reasons there’s a call for a special prosecutor,” he said. “There are at least six identifiable crimes here, from obstruction of justice to obstruction of Congress, perjury, conspiracy, false statements, and what is often forgotten: the crime of torturing suspects.

   Added Turley, “If that crime was committed it was a crime that would conceivably be ordered by the president himself, only the president can order those types of special treatments or interrogation techniques.”

• obstruction of justice.

• obstruction of Congress.

• perjury.

• conspiracy.

• false statements.

• the crime of torturing suspects.

As long as the Nancy and Harry Collaboration Theatre doesn’t get involved in this, there is a chance that this could actually go somewhere! With WH lawyers involved, this COULD be the scandal (#8,742, iirc) that rips away the Bushco Cloak of Teflon and spurs both the media and the politicians to action. Conyers and Kennedy are on board, despite Jay Rockefellers insistence that there is nothing behind the curtain. If pursued, in my opinion this puts us one more juicy revelation/scandal away from people getting serious about going after Bushco. Despite the Dem leadership trying it’s best not to rock any boats.

Cross your fingers, but don’t hold yer breath.