WASHINGTON (AP) – The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee is proposing a “truth commission” to investigate abuses of detainees, politically inspired moves at the Justice Department, and whole range of decisions made during the Bush administration. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said the primary goal of the commission would be to learn the truth rather than prosecute former officials, but said the inquiry should reach far beyond misdeeds at the Justice Department under Bush to include matters of Iraq prewar intelligence and the Defense Department. Leahy outlined his suggestion for a “truth and reconciliation” commission during a speech at Georgetown University Monday.
“I’m doing this not to humiliate people or punish people but to get the truth out,” he said.
The panel he envisions would be modeled after one that investigated the apartheid regime in South Africa. It would have subpoena power but would not bring criminal charges, he said. Among the matters Leahy wants investigated by such a commission are: the firings of U.S. attorneys, treatment and torture of terror suspect detainees, and the authorization of warrantless wiretapping.“Rather than vengeance, we need a fair-minded pursuit of what actually happened” during the Bush administration, Leahy said.
Some Democrats have called for criminal investigations of those who authorized certain controversial tactics in the war on terror. Republicans have countered that such decisions made in the wake of the 2001 terror attacks should not be second-guessed.
“We need to be able to read the page before we turn the page,” Leahy said. “We need to come to a shared understanding of the failures of the recent past.”
No, seriously….c’mon, stop laughing. This could be really good. I mean, Battlestar Galactica finishes up this season, after that…there’s a vacancy in the schedule. I’m free. I’ll take em all on by myself and do so for free. PLEASE, just call me Sen. Leahy, I’ll be happy to clear anything up for you regarding allegations of abuse in the Bush Admin, AND-if you act now-I’ll even toss in precedents of identical, equal, or greater “abuse” done by the Clinton Admin (not sure our Sec of State will appreciate it, but I make the offer for free). I’ll also toss in examples from THIS administration just to make your faux hearings more pertinent.
PLEASE, CALL ME!
Cronyism? You say Brown and FEMA, I say Les Aspin from Clinton/DoD and Panetta/CIA for Obama
Political appointees? You say 8 Attorney General firings by Gonzolez, I say over 100 in the same dept by Clinton and point to the DoD where most of the Undersecs are to be replaced by Obama
You say Bush Lied re Iraq Intel, and I point to Clinton’s UBL indictment from 1998, sec 4 that stated Saddam had a working relationship w AQ, AND I point to Clinton’s 1998 Desert Strike claims. (just for fun, I’d toss in some of Leahy’s own comments and discussion w Dr David Kay where it’s made perfectly clear to Leahy that the WMD intel was too little and too vague pre-war. As to Obama…I’ll point to last night’s press conference where he claimed Iran had pursuits of a nuclear bomb-not peaceful nuclear power, and his campaign rhetoric where he claimed Iran was supplying arms to kill American forces, AND Obama’s claim last night that Iran has ties to terrorist groups.
How ’bout…911? You say Bush knew, and I’ll say Clinton knew MORE on 12/4/98 (oooo, and Able Danger too!), and he didn’t tell Bush during uber-short transition. Then re Obama, I’ll point out that he specifically said Bush didn’t know (he made that statement in response to a claim Howard Dean made on NPR).
You say Haliburton, I say SES International and Clinton ties to Oil For Food recipient list. Then I’ll talk about the head of the IRS failing to pay his taxes under Obama.
C’mon Leahy, I’m available. You wanna waste some time instead of working on the budget, helping protect from AQ, and overseeing two wars…yeah, that’s fine. I’ve got time. I’m not employed, and there’s nothing on TV on Fridays after Galactica ends. You’re the one w the job.
Author of “Reparations and America’s 2nd Civil War
Reparations and America’s 2nd Civil War: Malensek, Scott: 9798864028674: Amazon.com: Books
GO GET ‘EM!
LEAHY IS DOING THIS TO “FUTURE PUNISH” ANY CONSERVATIVES WHO DARE TO STEP OUT OF LINE FROM WHAT THE LIBERAL DEMS WANT
You can do it Scott, wouldn’t miss a minute of C-SPAN that day. It would be hot, they’d probably turn the cameras off.
It’d be a cakewalk. All I ask is that I’m allowed to bring a laptop-or even to USE a pc (I can put my files of quotes etc on a thumb drive and upload).
Why oh why won’t they call?
(btw, I thought my Les Aspin reference was nice-anyone else? C’mon, that took some recollection!)
Guess Congress didn’t find any wrongdoing with its 300 separate investigations and more than 1 million subpoenaed documents.
Leahy is basically admitting that he didn’t like the outcome of the process carried out according to the rule of law. “Truth commission” is an appropriate name, it’s got that 1984-ish, Stalinista feel to it. The outcome is a foregone conclusion; they’re just going to keep investigating until they find something, anything, to call criminal in the Bush administration. And if they don’t find anything, they’ll invent it.
Welcome to Obama’s America, where the Soviet past becomes the American present.
best be carefull democrates, whats goes around comes around.
With everything going on now that the Marxists are in charge, and some idiot Repubs going along for the ride, I feel like America has been lost….no, it’s been given away, traded away for a shiny new but much inferior product. I feel like crying every time I read the news now.
If Leahy and his gang of idiots in congress and all of their family members were split from Sternum to Ahole and dumped in the ocean the only charge would be dumping raw sewage in the ocean.
Family members?
Well if he only wants to get the truth out, he’d best remember that the Clinton administration had much of the same intelligence, and that Clinton agreed with the Bush Administration position that Saddam at one time had WMDs. (In fact we know that he used them to attack Iraqi citizens.)
My bet is he shipped them to one of his neighboring countries. Look in Jordan or Sudan.
@ditto
“(In fact we know that he used them to attack Iraqi citizens.)”
That’s right 1988 – and what did Reagan do?
“the Reagan administration agreed that Iraq had gassed the Kurds, but strongly opposed sanctions, or even cutting off financial assistance”
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2006/08/31/the_true_iraq_appeasers/
And if you are a murderous tryant like Saddam – why would you ship weapons to Jordan or Sudan? The idea of weapons is either to attack or defend. If US/allied forces are attacking – Saddam knew he had little chance and if had WMDs still – then the first thing he would of done would be to use them.
I believe Reagan sent an envoy to personally tell Saddam in no uncertain terms to stop using chem weapons. I think it was a Democrat named Rumsfeld.
As to why Saddam would send weapons to Syria (definitely not Jordan), I submit two things:
1) I have TONS of links and pic and media accts and reports of sat imagery that show Saddam moved multiple convoys and airlifts out of his country loaded with “stuff”. That “stuff” was moved out is not at all in question; it’s undeniable, BUT…
2) We have to ask what “stuff” and part of that is your question of WHY
3) We know from multiple accts-including Saddam’s own interrogation-that once he finally became convinced the US and others would invade, his strategy (the only military strategy that works against the US) was to fight an insurgency, and he planned to base that insurgency in his friendly ally of Syria (where as late as 2008 his successor was reportedly still issuing orders from, Izzat Ibrahim al Douri).
4) so the WHY is pretty clear, but the question remains WHAT…what was all that “stuff”? The UN (UNMOVIC) issued it’s last report in 2005, and that report paired well with the last CIA/ISG Duelfer Report which both took the 1998 UNSCOM WMD list that Iraq claimed it had, coupled that with the 3/6/03 UNMOVIC/Hans Blix “Unresolved Disarmament Issues” report, and formed a list of WMD that remains “unaccounted for”. Put another way, the UN and CIA say “stuff” is still missing.
Now, that “stuff” is likely money, toys (fast cars etc), weapons and ammo, documents (those that weren’t destroyed), and-MOST IMPORTANTLY-things that incriminate Saddam’s allies (this is the most likely because it was Saddam’s allies that did most of the convoys and airlifts). However, as I said, “stuff”/wmd issues remain unaccounted for. I believe that a lot of the wmd support Saddam got from other nations was moved out to prevent their being held accountable, AND that Saddam bartered a lot of that WMD to Syria in exchange for allowing him and the Baathists to base there for the insurgency….that, or Saddam got ripped off by Syria, and it wouldn’t be the first time for that either.
Does that help at all? I mean, I could give links to CNN and BBC reports of Russian convoys, Iraqi convoys, Russian airlifts, etc, show pics of the convoys, quote the US generals who saw them on their satellites, and more…but let’s at least agree w the UN: some wmd remains unaccounted for, a lot of “stuff” was moved out of Iraq, and Saddam planned to fight an insurgency once he finally became convinced Iraq was to be invaded.
Actually Gaffa, I’ve got TONS of articles on this subject saved in doc format as some of the links have expired. If you’d like to read them (and they’re not Newsmax, World Net Daily pieces, but CNN, BBC, ABC, etc), I’d be happy to email them to you. Send me an email at sampender@neo.rr.com, and I’ll reply w attachments if you’d like. Very eager to share information.
Yes Reagan’s envoy, Rumsfeld told Saddam in no uncertain terms…lol
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2002/dec/31/iraq.politics
That article’s a bit on the slanted side. It was my understanding that Rummy went there and told Saddam he should stop using CW or the US couldn’t support him anymore. He stopped, but continued development, then restarted when US support dwindled
IMO, this is Leahy’s avenue to feed the media Bush/Cheney/Rove negativity, the purpose is to keep the anti-Bush Administration sentiment going while they fade out of sight, out of mind. If this “ahem” truth panel gets off the ground, look for document drops everytime the current Administration or Congress get in the weeds. Leahy will release bits of information that will be spun enough to refocus the “American people,” bury their problematic issues and flare up the people against the evil Republicans.
It’s an old technique, remember the press dredging up old Iraq information at opportune moments to harrass President Bush. Couple of incidents being up-armor, not securing weapon sites on the march to Baghdad.
@Scott Malensek
Rumsfeld went in 1983 – 5 years before the famous attack on the Kurds. But according to Rumsfeld he raised it with Saddam (or in some reports – with Tariq Aziz) but it’s not in the records – strangely enough. And then the meeting wasn’t about chemical weapons. It’s like when Western leaders go cap in hand to bolster trade with China and usually claim they brought up human rights issues. ‘Oh could you stop doing this to your people.’ ‘No.’ ‘Okay – so about this deal then….’ At the end of the day – its’ geopolitics. The West is happy to deal with tyrants if it’s in their current national interest – and things change. But let’s not pretend the West (or anybody else) are really consistently concerned about the welfare of foreign people like Kurds.
Thanks-this is SO TRUE