Leahy Again Presses White House For Torture Documents
WASHINGTON (Thursday, October 16, 2008) – Senate
Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) sent a letter
Wednesday to the White House again pressing for disclosure of White
House and Justice Department documents and materials related to the
government’s use of torture, including the technique known as
waterboarding. A press account in The Washington Post
revealed the existence of two previously undisclosed White House
memoranda to the CIA from 2003 and 2004. Neither the Senate
Judiciary Committee nor the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence
were made aware of the existence of the memoranda. In a letter
sent Wednesday to White House counsel Fred Fielding, Leahy requested
information about existing materials that have not yet been provided
to the Senate Judiciary Committee. For more than five years,
Leahy has pressed the White House and the Justice Department for
documents related to the legal justifications of the
administration’s detainee interrogation program. In September,
the Judiciary Committee authorized subpoenas for the documents from
the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel pertaining to the
program.
The text of Leahy’s letter to Fielding follows.
A PDF is also available
online.
October 15, 2008
Mr. Fred Fielding,
Esq.
Counsel to the
President
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania
Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20500
Dear Mr. Fielding:
You and I have communicated several times about
the Judiciary Committee’s oversight and legislative interest in the
Government’s use of torture, such as waterboarding, and other harsh
interrogation practices. Most recently, Senator Specter and I
wrote to you in August, again seeking materials about the legal
justification for these practices. In your August 22 response,
you refused our requests while claiming that the White House has
been most accommodating to this Committee and to the Congress in its
inquiries on these matters. Several Judiciary Committee
Republicans went so far as to rely on your letter while contending
that the White House had been forthcoming and there was no need to
subpoena Department of Justice materials that have been withheld
during the last five years.
I now read in The
Washington Post that the White House issued two previously
undisclosed memoranda to the CIA in 2003 and 2004. It is
disturbing to be reminded, at this late date, of the stonewalling,
misdirection and lack of accountability that has characterized this
administration from its first days in office. Not only did
those White House memoranda come as a surprise to me and the Senate
Judiciary Committee, but I see from Chairman Rockefeller’s reaction
that he was kept in the dark, as well.
I would appreciate hearing from you as soon as
possible regarding what additional materials exist that have not
been shared with the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Sincerely,
PATRICK LEAHY
Chairman
cc: The Honorable Arlen Specter
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