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02-25-2009, 11:48 PM #1
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US senator to launch probes into Bush's abuses
US senator to launch probes into Bush's abuses
Wed, 25 Feb 2009 20:46:26 GMT
Senator Patrick Leahy
A US senator is mulling over forming a commission to probe potential abuses committed under the Bush administration.
Senator Patrick Leahy, Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he has called a March 4 hearing to explore how to establish an inquiry to get to the truth about "one of the most secretive administrations in American history."
"We need an independent inquiry that is beyond reproach and outside of partisan politics to pursue and find the truth," said Leahy in a statement.
"Such a commission would focus primarily on the subjects of national security and executive power in the government's counterterrorism effort," he said.
Leahy said the formation of such a commission should not close the door to criminal investigations into potential misdeeds.
But he said it would serve as a "middle ground," aimed at assembling the facts of how the previous administration polices were formed and exercised.
"We do not yet know the full extent of our government's actions in these areas, and we must be sure that an independent review goes beyond the question of whether crimes were committed, to the equally important assessment of whether mistakes were made so we may endeavor not to repeat them," he said.
"As I have said, we must read the page before we turn it," he added.
On issues such as harsh interrogation tactics, extraordinary renditions of detainees, and the executive's override of the laws, he said, "the last administration successfully kept many of us in the dark about what happened and why."
Leahy said it "justified torture, presided over the abuses at Abu Ghraib, destroyed tapes of harsh interrogations, and conducted 'extraordinary renditions' that sent people to countries that permit torture during interrogations."
"The last administration used the Justice Department -- our premier law enforcement agency -- to subvert the intent of congressional statutes. They wrote secret law to give themselves legal cover for these misguided policies, policies that could not withstand scrutiny if brought to light."
"Nothing has done more to damage America's standing and moral authority than the revelations that, during the last eight years, we abandoned our historic commitment to human rights by repeatedly stretching the law and the bounds of executive power to authorize torture and cruel treatment," Leahy said.
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