Leahy Renews Request For
White House Legal Documents On Torture
Administration’s Lack Of
Oversight Cooperation
Overshadowed Mukasey Confirmation Proceedings
WASHINGTON (Thursday, Nov. 8,
2007) – In a letter sent Wednesday to White House Counsel Fred
Fielding, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.)
again requested legal memoranda outlining the White House’s
justifications and policies on torture and interrogation. Such
documents have long been requested but not provided.
The New York Times
recently reported on two secret 2005 memoranda that reversed
government policy to allow combinations of extreme techniques,
and this week in a court filing the Government conceded there
were three such memoranda.
These issues became the focus
again in recent weeks during the confirmation proceedings on the
President’s nomination of Michael Mukasey to be the next
Attorney General of the United States. Leahy this week also
wrote to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice asking her to
rectify the position of a State Department aide suggesting that
the justification for the waterboarding of Americans abroad
would depend on “facts and circumstances.”
Leahy previously wrote to Fielding
two weeks ago renewing his requests. Fielding and the White
House have yet to respond.
A PDF of Leahy’s letter to
Fielding is
available here.
November 7, 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 have not received a reply to the
letter I sent to you almost two weeks ago seeking a fuller
accounting of this Administration’s legal justifications and
policies with regard to torture and interrogation. Another copy
of my unanswered October 25, 2007, letter is enclosed.
Over the past few days I have read
in the press that there may, in fact, be three legal memoranda
from the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel in 2005,
not just two, that have been withheld from us. Apparently, the
Administration has conceded the existence of three such
memoranda in court filings this week. Without even an
accounting from you and the Administration, it is impossible for
me to know.
As I have previously noted, 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 legal opinions
on these issues from the Office of Legal Counsel and elsewhere
in the Department of Justice and the Administration. I noted in
my previous letter that you have not, despite our repeated
requests, provided us with the 2005 memoranda that apparently
authorize the use of combinations of cruel and extreme
practices. We are fast approaching the one-year anniversary of
my November 15, 2006, request for “any and all Department of
Justice directives, memoranda, and/or guidance . . . regarding
CIA detention and/or interrogation methods.”
I regret that you did not take the
opportunity created with the announced resignation of Alberto
Gonzales to work with us to put these matters to rest. The
first step would have been disclosure of the legal memoranda
still being kept secret from the Senate Judiciary Committee.
That has yet to occur. As you have recently witnessed, without
these materials and a shared understanding of what the
Administration has been doing, is doing, its justifications, its
legal analysis, and its purported basis for overriding our laws
and treaty obligations, many Members of the Committee remain
very concerned.
Much of the controversy and
discussion surrounding the Committee’s consideration of the
President’s nomination of Michael Mukasey to serve as Attorney
General arose from these matters. The Administration’s lack of
cooperation greatly contributed to the controversy and
ultimately to the opposition to that nomination.
Sincerely,
PATRICK
LEAHY
Chairman
cc: Hon. Arlen Specter
