At the progressive media summit, Senate Armed Services Chair Carl Levin just said that "there needs to be an accounting of torture in this country." He was adamant that torture was a policy initiated at the highest levels of the Bush administration, and pointed the assembled media to a report on his website indicating as much. I cannot find this report on either the Armed Services website at this time, or on Levin's Senate page. If anyone else can find it, please post a link in the comments. Edit (Dan): Here it is.
Additionally, Levin insisted that he would continue his investigation on torture policies within the Department of Defense until it is completed. He urged the Senate Intelligence committee to do the same for torture policies initiated by the CIA. Further, Senator Levin indicated that he had urged Attorney General nominee Eric Holder to spend resources in the Department of Justice to finish the investigation.
Earlier, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid had indicated that he would provide all Senate committees with additional resources (money and staff) so that, among other things, investigations of the sort Levin was engaged in could be expanded and completed.
Finally, Senator Levin insisted that Eric Holder would be confirmed as Attorney General despite today's delay tactics by Arlen Specter. Also, while I did not have a chance to ask Senator Levin if he intended to introduce legislation to mirror House Judiciary Chair Conyers's bill on a commission to investigate Bush administration crimes, I should have a chance to do so later today. Stay tuned.
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