Levin on Torture: "There Needs To Be An Accounting"

by: Chris Bowers

Wed Jan 21, 2009 at 16:35

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.

Chris Bowers :: Levin on Torture: "There Needs To Be An Accounting"

Tags: legislation project, Eric Holder, Harry Reid, Bush Administration, torture, Carl Levin, (All Tags)

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Levin on Torture: "There Needs To Be An Accounting" | 7 comments

Is it this? (4.00 / 1)

http://media.washingtonpost.co...

http://tinyurl.com/9y5el6

by: MattD @ Wed Jan 21, 2009 at 15:39:12 PM CST

by: you @ soon

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Here is the PDF (4.00 / 1)

http://levin.senate.gov/newsro...

by: existenz @ Wed Jan 21, 2009 at 17:56:24 PM CST

by: you @ soon

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Levin (0.00 / 0)

Is Chair of the Subcommittee on Investigations in the Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee.

His subcommittee has subpoena powers, that I don't believe Lieberman can mess with, but I'm interested to see what HSAGA's rules for the 111th look like.

Anyway, it's not an idle threat, Levin can hold hearings at least.

by: Daniel De Groot @ Wed Jan 21, 2009 at 18:00:30 PM CST

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Also (0.00 / 0)

The website of the Armed Services Committee fell right out of 1997. Animated flag gifs? Really? Maybe the Senate needs a Chief Webmaster to make sure the committee sites aren't being done by amateurs.

by: Daniel De Groot @ Wed Jan 21, 2009 at 18:02:25 PM CST

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Sheldon Whitehouse issued a call for major investigations/prosecutions today (0.00 / 0)

Walked onto Senate floor during the Ledbetter debate and gave blistering indictment of the criminality and "folly" of the Bush administration and the need to expose it all to the public to prevent the forces of evil from coming back.

Wow.

by: rootless2 @ Wed Jan 21, 2009 at 19:58:26 PM CST

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Awesome (0.00 / 0)

On Lou Dobbs, the windbags were saying that the Democrats risked upsetting Obama by investigating these crimes. I think they are crazy. Obama doesn't want to look like the guy who is investigating, but to think he would shut these things down is ridiculous.

And I still can't fathom why so many professional pundits scoff at the idea of investigating war crimes. Yet they were all on board to investigate and demonize Bill Clinton's infidelity.

by: existenz @ Wed Jan 21, 2009 at 20:12:59 PM CST

[ Parent ]

fewer surprises in the shit pile? (0.00 / 0)

"And I still can't fathom why so many professional pundits scoff at the idea of investigating war crimes. Yet they were all on board to investigate and demonize Bill Clinton's infidelity."

and, one does not antagonize the Pentagon or the CIA when investigating the sexual practices of Mr. Clinton.

"It sounds wrong...
...but its right."

by: SpitBall @ Thu Jan 22, 2009 at 08:49:54 AM CST

[ Parent ]