“We do not yet know the full extent of our government's actions in these areas, and we must be sure that an independent review goes beyond the question of whether crimes were committed, to the equally important assessment of whether mistakes were made so we may endeavor not to repeat them. As I have said, we must read the page before we turn it.”
When Leahy first announced his commission plan on Feb. 9, he made clear that his approach would substitute for possible prosecutions and would even try to avoid partisan hard-feelings.
“I don't want to embarrass anybody,” Leahy said. “I don't want to punish anybody. I just want the truth to come out so this never happens again.”
Leahy said the truth commission would have the power of subpoena and the authority to grant immunity from prosecution.
When President Obama was asked about Leahy’s proposal during a news conference on Feb. 9, he declined to comment, but reiterated his ambiguous response from the campaign, that no one is above the law but that he favored looking forward, not backward.
“What I have said is that my administration is going to operate in a way that leaves no doubt that we do not torture that we abide by the Geneva Conventions and that we observe our traditions of rule of law and due process as we are vigorously going after terrorists that can do us harm,” Obama said.
"My view is also that nobody is above the law, and if there are clear instances of wrongdoing then people should be prosecuted just like any ordinary citizen. But generally speaking I am more interested in looking forward than I am in looking backwards.”
Leahy said Wednesday that he has entered into discussions with Obama’s White House, presumably to gain its support for his commission idea. Leahy added that he also has started speaking with other members of Congress and outside experts.
Bush/Cheney Admissions
Over the next few weeks, several critical documents about the Bush administration’s torture practices are expected to be released.
Sen. Carl Levin, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, is set to make public a voluminous, declassified report about the U.S. military’s role in harsh interrogations. The Justice Department is expected to release a summary of a four-year long investigation into the genesis of legal opinions that cleared the way for torture of detainees.
A special prosecutor also is expected to make public the findings of year-long probe into the destruction of videotapes that showed “war on terror” detainees being waterboarded, a technique that subjects a person to the sensation of drowning and that has been regarded as torture for centuries.
Before leaving office, President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney admitted that they authorized the waterboarding of at least three "high-value" detainees and the harsh interrogations of 33 other prisoners.
Leahy singled out Cheney’s comments on Wednesday, saying that the former Vice President “continues to assert unilaterally that the Bush administration’s tactics, including torture, were appropriate and effective. But interested parties’ characterizations and self-serving conclusions are not facts and are not the unadulterated truth.”
Following Leahy’s address to his Senate colleagues, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-Rhode Island, who has spent more than a year calling for an independent investigation of the Bush administration’s torture policies, spoke in support of Leahy’s proposal and excoriated the Bush administration for the “wreckage” it left behind.
