Posted on 04/26/2009 3:27:32 PM PDT by Jean S
The top Republican on the Senate Intelligence panel on Sunday warned that the Pentagon’s plan to release hundreds of photos documenting the abuse of U.S. military detainees will endanger troops and the American public.
"I don't think there's any question it would endanger all of us, because I think it will enhance recruitment for all kinds of terrorists willing to come after us,” Sen. Kit Bond (R-Mo.) said on Fox News Sunday.
The release of those photos will come after incendiary photos showing U.S. military personnel abusing prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq spurred an intense debate during the Bush administration. The new photographs directly follows the release by the Obama administration of Bush administration memos outlining the legal rationale for harsh interrogation tactics.
Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, strongly disputed that the photos would endanger the United States and argued that practicing harsh interrogation techniques poses risks for the troops.
“What happened at Abu Ghraib is what endangers our troops. It's the practices that were authorized by high-level civilian people in the Bush administration which endangers our troops,” Levin said on the same TV program.
The Armed Services committee this week released a 200-page report detailing the connection between the Bush administration’s authorization of interrogation techniques at the naval prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and the migration of those techniques to Abu Ghraib in Iraq and also in Afghanistan.
In the aftermath of his panel’s report, Levin -- who praised Obama’s release of the torture memos -- has called for the prosecution of anyone found to have broken the law.
Meanwhile, Levin’s Republican counterpart on the committee, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) on Sunday reiterated his opposition to calls for prosecuting those who gave the legal opinion for the use of harsh interrogation tactics.
“We've made a commitment that we will never do this again. No administration, I believe, would ever do this again,” McCain said on CBS’ Face the Nation. “And it's time to fight the wars that we're in. We're not done in Iraq by a long shot, and Afghanistan has very, very grave difficulties. We need a united nation, not a divided one.”
McCain, Obama’s former presidential rival, stressed that those responsible in the Bush administration for authorizing the tactics have already “been held accountable in the court of public opinion.”
Two other McCain allies, Sens. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), also came out strongly against prosecuting those who issued legal opinions on the tactics.
“This whole debate is moot,” Lieberman said on CNN’s State of the Union. “President Obama has prohibited these tactics from being used in interrogation, so ... what do we gain, first, by releasing the memos, but, secondly, what do we gain from indicting lawyers for their opinions, if that is a possibility here, or holding a so-called Truth Commission that the reality is, it will poison the water here in Washington.”
Graham, a military lawyer, said on CNN that the Geneva Convention “did not apply, until 2005, to the war on terror.”
“So I can't conceive of a statute that you could prosecute anyone under because their endeavor was not to commit a crime but to look at the law and come up with aggressive interrogation techniques to get information from an enemy that we all thought was coming after us again.”
Meanwhile, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, on Sunday pressed forward with his idea of setting up a “Truth Commission” to investigate Bush administration anti-terrorism policies.
“Frankly, I’d like to read the page before we turn it,” Leahy said on Face the Nation. “I want to know why they did that, what kind of pressures caused them to write [the torture memos] and make sure it never happens again.”
Leahy said he would be “delighted” if former Vice President Dick Cheney would talk to lawmakers about the torture memos, but only under oath. However, Leahy said he will not subpoena Cheney.
He said creating a commission would combine disparate efforts.
“My idea is instead of having eight or 10 separate committees in the House and Senate do little parts of it -- for example, in the Senate, we have the Intelligence Committee doing part of it, the Judiciary Committee, which I chair, does a part of it. Armed Services does a part of it, Homeland Security and so on,” Leahy said on Face the Nation. “Why not have a nonpartisan or bipartisan commission do it, like we did in 9/11, and just go back and find everything that happened?”
The idea is dividing Democrats on Capitol Hill, with Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) rejecting calls for an independent commission to investigate harsh interrogation methods. He said he wanted to wait for an investigation conducted by the Senate Intelligence Committee.
The chairwoman of that panel, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) also rejected calls for a commission, arguing in a Wall Street Journal opinion article Saturday that her panel is already “doing something.”
Feinstein said on CNN’s State of the Union that the Obama administration did not consult with her or her committee on release the memos authorizing the Central Intelligence Agency to use harsh interrogation tactics.
“Well, if they had, I probably would have said, as I said, let us do our work first […] so that at least the Intelligence Committee can see everything in context and make some decisions,” Feinstein said.
We get to do this to Levin and Leahy later on, right? And their families too?
That’s EXACTLY what the left want....to put the troops in extra harm’s way!!!!
Would it were that easy to police renegade elements in a military force that vast. We may have to eat those words.
It’s like the devil himself is egging them on. What can this do except precipitate new outbreaks of violence in the Middle East and other places where Mooses are aplenty? Troops, shoot. How about civilians???
I watched as much as I could stand and then called Carl Levin’s office. (BTW, his Washington office email box is full.) I don’t believe for a second it will matter, but it made me feel a little bit better. :)
Levin has held office long enough now. I never cared for any of his positions much, but this does it. How any American can support the release of photos and the resulting show trials is just beyond me.
There is NO reason for this. Michigan is blue, for sure, but I doubt that most Michiganders will support endangering the lives of patriots.
Levin is a communist fool and whore to the Michigan UAW............I hope this pig catches the swine flu!
Most of the socialists who voted for this pig never watch the news so there is nothing for them to remember. And come election day, the ones who do watch the news will be totally indoctrinated by the MSM anyway. Result: Levin re-election........
Levin is to Michigan as Kennedy is to Massachushits.......
Why do you think the empty suit, figurehead, hate America, POTUS is releasing them?
Levin is to Michigan as Kennedy is to Massachushits.......
Sounds to me like these people are secret co conspirators of the likes of william ayers. I can’t imagine any other reason to release those photos now except to bring harm to our troops and our country.
This is really bizarre! We are our own worst enemy. We are hell bent on prosecuting the patriots who protected us? Go figure.....OBL must be LHAO.
The top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Panel is named BOND!
Cool!
The ACLU has been harming the US for a long time now.
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