Leahy Presses White
House For Torture Documents
October 26, 2007
[WASHINGTON
(Friday, Oct. 26, 2007) – Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman
Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) Thursday sent a letter to White House Counsel
Fred Fielding renewing requests for full disclosure of the
Administration’s policies on torture and interrogation techniques
for detainees. Earlier this week, the White House provided Leahy
with four previously undisclosed documents, including one classified
document, relevant to the Administration’s policies on torture prior
to the tenure of former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. Leahy
has sought documents from the White House and Department of Justice
in order to define the Administration’s legal policy on torture and
interrogation.
A PDF is available.]
October 25, 2007
Mr. Fred Fielding, Esq.
Counsel to the President
Office of the Counsel to the President
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20530
Dear Mr. Fielding:
I appreciate your providing Senator Specter and me several of the
documents we have requested relevant to the treatment and
interrogation of detainees. The release of these documents restarts
the incremental process of providing necessary information to
Congress and to the American people about the Administration’s legal
justifications and policies with regard to torture and
interrogation. I have long called for full disclosure of the
Administration’s legal opinions in this area and have been
frustrated by continued stonewalling. This release represents a
step in the right direction.
This is only a first step, however. I remain deeply troubled by the
Administration’s attempts to justify the use of harsh interrogation
techniques and even torture, and I intend to get to the bottom of
what this Administration’s legal policy has been on this issue, and
what it is today. One of the documents you provided this week, per
your unclassified cover letter, is a classified March 13, 2003,
Memorandum for William J. Haynes, General Counsel, Department of
Defense, from John C. Yoo, Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Office
of Legal Counsel. This memorandum should also be provided in
non-classified form as completely as possible consistent with
national security requirements. To the extent possible, this
document should become part of a frank and public discussion on
these crucial issues.
Further, the Committee does not yet have a complete picture of the
Administration’s historic position on the legal basis and standards
for detention, transfer, and interrogation in connection with
counter-terrorism efforts. It is important that you share with the
Senate Judiciary Committee all other legal opinions on these issues
from the Office of Legal Counsel and elsewhere in the Department of
Justice and the Administration.
Finally, and most importantly, these documents aid our understanding
only as to the Administration’s policy until the beginning of
Attorney General Gonzales’ tenure in February 2005. You have
provided to us some documents demonstrating the Administration’s
expansive and disturbing position on torture and related issues in
2002 and 2003, as well as documents from 2004 and very early 2005
withdrawing and minimizing those previous positions. However, we
have not yet seen the 2005 memoranda recently reported in the
New York Times, which
apparently authorize the use by the Central Intelligence Agency of
combinations of cruel and extreme interrogation techniques and
indicate that enumerated harsh techniques do not constitute cruel,
inhuman, and degrading treatment of detainees. These documents fall
squarely within the scope of requests that I and other Senators have
made, including my November 15, 2006, request to Attorney General
Gonzales for “any and all Department of Justice directives,
memoranda, and/or guidance … regarding CIA detention and/or
interrogation methods.”
I would ask that you promptly respond to the following questions and
document requests, many of which I and others have made on numerous
previous occasions:
1. Please produce any and all Department of Justice
directives, memoranda, and/or guidance, including any and all
attachments to such documents, regarding detention and/or
interrogation methods by the Central Intelligence Agency, the
military, or any other component of the United States government,
including but not limited to the two memoranda identified by the
New York Times on
October 4, 2007, as well as the August 2002 Memorandum from the
Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel to the CIA General
Counsel regarding CIA interrogation methods (the “2nd
Bybee memo”).
2. Please provide a non-classified version of the March 13,
2003, Memorandum for William J. Haynes, General Counsel, Department
of Defense, from John C. Yoo, Deputy Assistant Attorney General,
Office of Legal Counsel, to the extent possible consistent with
national security requirements.
3. Please produce any and all documents produced by the
Department of Justice regarding the legality of specific
interrogation tactics, and the legal basis for detention and
transfer of terrorism suspects, and the applicability of federal
criminal prohibitions on torture and abuse.
4. Please produce any and all Department of Justice
documents that interpret, or advise on, the scope of interrogation
practices permitted and prohibited by the Detainee Treatment Act or
the Military Commissions Act.
5. Please state which of the documents produced in
accordance with the above requests remain in effect and which have
been withdrawn, replaced or modified. Please produce any and all
revisions or modifications.
6. Please produce an index of any and all documents relating
to investigations and/or reviews conducted by the Department of
Justice into detainee abuse by U.S. military or civilian personnel
in Guantanamo Bay, Abu Ghraib prison, or elsewhere.
I look forward to your responses.
Sincerely,
PATRICK LEAHY
Chairman
