Leahy: ‘Torture will be a major issue’; ‘All that’s going to be reviewed.’
Leahy: ‘Torture will be a major issue’; ‘All that’s going to be reviewed.’
During a press conference today, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, echoed President-elect Obama’s vow to end torture and pledged to continue investigating the Bush administration’s torture policies. “All that is going to be reviewed,” he said:
Q: Do you think Congress should continue to seek a final reckoning of what happened behind the White House orchestration of the firings of the U.S. attorneys and also the adoption of the policies of torture?
LEAHY: Personally I would like to know exactly what happened because — more of a past is prologue kind of thing. I would like to make sure that it doesn’t happen again. Torture is going to be a major issue. Torture is going to be a major issue. … And so all that’s going to be reviewed.
Watch it:
Leahy — who praised Obama’s pick of Eric Holder to lead the Justice Department — condemned Bush’s torture policies for their affect on worldwide opinion of the United States: “I can’t tell you how much we have hurt our image abroad.” He added, “But we were better than that. And this has hurt our image.”
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Not only review the policies, but prosecute the torturers. Both the underlings who actually done it, and the ones at the top who endorsed it.
December 1st, 2008 at 1:55 pmLet’s hope this “review” ends with a few cats being marched into Leavenworth.
December 1st, 2008 at 1:56 pmSubpoena every SCRAP of paper that has to do with torture. Anyone who approved it, anyone who took part in it, anyone who facilitated it prosecute them to the full extent of the law that includes Bush, ESPECIALLY Bush.
December 1st, 2008 at 1:58 pmthe brown acid Says:
Hell yeah, orange jumpsuits all around
December 1st, 2008 at 1:59 pmreviewed … yeah, and then what?
considering leahy’s cowardice these past eight years, i’m not expecting anything from a senate judiciary cmte review.
December 1st, 2008 at 2:00 pmWell Pat, when you get done investigating start the ball in motion to prosecute a few of the torture guru’s. The names Bush and Cheney immediately come to mind. I think they would be a great place to begin.
December 1st, 2008 at 2:00 pmJoe Lieberman is not gonna like this!!!
You know what that makes him mad (Droopy voice), you know investigations into the past and stuff. We’ll see what happens.
RIP
December 1st, 2008 at 2:01 pmSGT Stephen R. Sherman
C CO 1-5 IN (STRYKER)
KIA 3 Feb 2005
Mosul, Iraq
While convictions would be a bonus at the very least prosecute them so that the world will know who they are and what they’ve done. By taking impeachment off the table the Democrats have led the ditto heads to believe that these criminals have done nothing wrong. It it time to shine light on all these dirty deeds.
December 1st, 2008 at 2:05 pm“I can’t tell you how much we have hurt our image abroad.” He added, “But we were better than that. And this has hurt our image.”
Image aside, this has HURT a whole bunch of people, Senator.
December 1st, 2008 at 2:08 pmLet’s not forget that ‘minor’ point, please.
GO PAT. TAKE THEM DOWN.
December 1st, 2008 at 2:10 pmHolder found no problems in Chiquite banana’s hiring and equipping Colombian para-militaries to intimidate, and even to kill, labor organizers in the Chiquita plantations…In fact, he felt sorry for ‘em.
December 1st, 2008 at 2:12 pmNOBODY’S GONNA GET PROSECUTED!
gay-ron-fuukin-TEED, chers…
December 1st, 2008 at 2:13 pm“I would like to make sure that it (torture) doesn’t happen again.”
Well in my opinion, the ONLY way to make SURE that it doesn’t happen again is to prosecute with extreme prejudice ANYONE that can be proved to have had a part in this black stain on America’s reputation! Rumsfeld, Addington, Woo, Rice, Cheney, Bush, Gonsalez, Mukasey, Rove…here are some names to get you started, Leahy. These criminals need to pay the piper for the song and dance that they have tried to pull for the last five years. Then and ONLY then can we have a shred of hope that a future President of the United States would not dare to condone and enact a policy of torture.
December 1st, 2008 at 2:13 pmSo-ooo- is Pat up for re-election?
Ibett
December 1st, 2008 at 2:16 pmWe can only hope that these WAR CRIMINALS get what they deserve….
….but I wouldn’t hold my breath about it.
December 1st, 2008 at 2:16 pmGive ‘em hell, Leahy! Let’s just hope that the Republicans don’t practice obstructionism again and actually embrace accountability during the 111th.
December 1st, 2008 at 2:21 pmBuckie Boy Says:
We can only hope that these WAR CRIMINALS get what they deserve….
….but I wouldn’t hold my breath about it.
KARMA is our only “real” hope, I fear.
¶ AIO
December 1st, 2008 at 2:21 pmibett Says:
So-ooo- is Pat up for re-election?
Don’t even start with this blather.
December 1st, 2008 at 2:22 pmLeahy is a Vermonter.
They are reknowned for speaking truth to power.
.
Congress has been reviewing this for some time now…
… NOTICE: Pat called it torture!
Q U E S T I O N:
Where’s the obvious question…
… Now that Congress is calling it TORTURE and no longer emphasising the ubiquitous “Enhanced Interrogation”, what does Congress intend to do to re-establish that the Rule of Law calls for consequential accountability?
.
December 1st, 2008 at 2:23 pmSpeaking of torture, the turkey slaughtering bimbo is down in GA campaigning for Chambliss.
That’s all the more reason that I hope he loses.
¶ AIO
December 1st, 2008 at 2:25 pmI have to agree with Tokin Librul. I think this is a mutual admiration club and they will make gestures and feel good motions but, no one is going down for it.
December 1st, 2008 at 2:30 pmI want to believe you, Pat, but in the end you will cave on prosecuting those who committed any crimes in this administration. Hope you prove me wrong.
December 1st, 2008 at 2:44 pmWe’ve decided that past law doesn’t necessarily apply in this case because we are in the process of making torture retroactively legal while at the same time making it illegal in the future.
December 1st, 2008 at 2:50 pmWe think the American people appreciate this approach and deserve nothing less.
If Leahy prosecutes war criminals like Bush and Cheney he may end-up with another Antrax letter.
Why do you think he has been silent on the Bush war crimes?
911 like the Anthax attacks was an Inside Job.
We are a fascist police state that pretends to be a Democracy.
It is all an illusion.
No wonder Americans want change sooooo bad.
Evil sucks.
December 1st, 2008 at 2:53 pmWithout the possibility of being held responsible for the actions that they took, then all of this is simply a sham.
John Yoo and his memos would be a VERY good place to start.
December 1st, 2008 at 2:58 pmAs much as I would like to believe that there will be people locked up in jail, I just don’t see it happening.
December 1st, 2008 at 3:46 pmWho’d have thought AblCluster would show up at the same time?
December 1st, 2008 at 3:58 pmNOW they start? Maybe we should have instant replay in NCAA football, let’s look into it…
Hopefully everyone will buck up now, if they were afraid of being Wellstone’d and now can do their jobs with less threat of dying.
December 1st, 2008 at 5:03 pmIf the USA is serious about restoring its internatinaol image, they have to hold accountable its own War Criminals, Bush/Chenney & Co. otherwise it will never be taken seriously again. It will never be trusted again. HAGUE 2009!
December 1st, 2008 at 6:51 pmGrammer, please – “their effect on…”
Thank you
December 1st, 2008 at 8:43 pmAh, once again you folks are showing your ignorance, particulary those of you who think enhanced interrogation techniques are “against the law.”
President Bush gave the Congress EVERY OPPORTUNITY to pass a law outlawing waterboarding, etc., but THEY WOULDN’T.
So, you folks who claim that there’s something to be “investigated” are all wet! (pun intended)
December 1st, 2008 at 10:19 pmHi Tim. Still using the jackass approach. Did anyone here on this one hurt your little feelings to justify your poor behavior? That is the operative excuse right?
December 1st, 2008 at 10:56 pmSenator Leahy is one of the few genuine voices of integrity in Washington, and let’s hope he prevails in the teeth of Obama’s indifference. I think that Obama, unlike George W Bush, is a fundamentally decent person, but he’s too much a pragmatist and too conflict-avoidant on the imperative to restore the rule of law, validate the suffering of the victims, regain the respect of our friends, vitiate the grievances of our potential enemies, and deter future crimes.
December 1st, 2008 at 11:12 pmHAGUE 2009!
December 2nd, 2008 at 2:04 amWaterboard Tim!!!
December 2nd, 2008 at 2:05 amTim Vaculik Says:
Timmeh you DEFINE ignorance. You are listed as a synonym for moron. Waterboarding IS torture which is already against the law according to the Convention against torture statute you moronic twit. Bush is just PRAYING that is silly memos will redefine torture but those memos do NOT have the force of law. Hopefully Bush and Cheney will soon be wearing orange jumpsuits and then be frogmarched to the Hague to stand trial for warcrimes. If the Nuremeberg laws were applied they would be hanged. Fortunatly for YOU abject stupidity even of YOUR galactic level is not illegal or you would already be doing life.
December 2nd, 2008 at 3:14 am