Wednesday, February 25, 2009
The Senate Launches Truth Commission
According to Senate Judiciary Chairman Pat Leahy (D-VT) and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), the Senate is launching a "truth commission" to investigate Bush-era torture. See this, this and this.
Given that torture is ineffective and harms national security, and given that it is illegal and a war crime under international laws which the U.S. is a party to, many argue that there should be prosecutions, and not more investigations.
Indeed, government investigations are almost all whitewashes.
However, Leahy previously suggested a “truth commission” could be modeled after a panel that probed apartheid in South Africa. The commission should have “subpoena power and witnesses would not face charges except if they commit perjury," Leahy told the Wall Street Journal earlier this month.
I have previously suggested such an approach with regards to 9/11 (I am obviously open to prosecutions as an alternative).
Indeed, there is no reason that 9/11 should not be added to the subjects of the commission since - at the very least - Bush officials were criminally negligent in allowing 9/11 to happen and covering up the facts.
http://georgewashington2.blogspot.com/2009/02/senate-launches-truth-commission.html
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