Senators want to know if waterboard authorizers (DECIDERS?) are criminalsNick Juliano
Published: Wednesday February 13, 2008
Two Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats are requesting that the Justice Department's internal watchdog investigate whether Bush Administration officials who authorized waterboarding are guilty of any crimes themselves.
Sens. Richard Durbin (D-IL) and Sheldon Whitehouse's (D-RI) request comes as the CIA and White House finally admitted the use of waterboarding, and as Attorney General Michael Mukasey is standing with the Bush administration in refusing to open an investigation. The senators say that Mukasey's refusal on grounds that the Justice Department had authorized the simulated drowning technique did not answer whether the authorizations themselves were legal.
In a letter sent Tuesday to the Justice Department's Inpsector General and Counsel for Professional Responsibility the two wrote:
http://durbin.senate.gov/showRelease.cfm?releaseId=292726 Waterboarding has a sordid history in the annals of torture by repressive regimes, from the Spanish Inquisition to the Khmer Rouge. The United States has always repudiated waterboarding as a form of torture and prosecuted it as a war crime. The Judge Advocates General, the highest-ranking attorneys in each of the four military services, have stated unequivocally that waterboarding is illegal and violates Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions.
Yet, despite the virtually unanimous consensus of legal scholars and the overwhelming weight of legal precedent that waterboarding is illegal, certain Justice Department officials, operating behind a veil of secrecy, concluded that the use of waterboarding is lawful. We believe it is appropriate for you to investigate the conduct of these Justice Department officials. As you know, a similar investigation is underway regarding Justice Department officials who advised the National Security Agency that its warrantless surveillance program is lawful.
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Sens. Durbin and Whitehouse asked the Justice Department IG to investigate:
* Did Justice Department officials who advised the CIA that waterboarding is lawful perform legal work that meets applicable standards of professional responsibility and internal Justice Department policies and standards? For example, did these officials consider all relevant legal precedents, including those that appear to contradict directly their conclusion that waterboarding is lawful? Did these officials consult with government attorneys who are experts in the relevant legal standards, e.g. Judge Advocates General who are experts in the Geneva Conventions? Was it reasonable to rely on standards found in areas such as health care reimbursement law in evaluating interrogation techniques?
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Were Justice Department officials who advised the CIA that waterboarding is lawful insulated from outside pressure to reach a particular conclusion? What role did White House and/or CIA officials play in deliberations about the lawfulness of waterboarding?more at:
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Senators_want_to_know_if_waterboard_0213.html