Republican senators join the coverup
Quote of note:
At last week's hearing, Ashcroft said it was not the Justice Department's policy to define torture. But he said international rules governing treatment of detainees apply to countries, not groups like al Qaeda.
Let's assume this bit of evasion is a valid interpretation of the international rules.
The Iraq invasion is an action against a country (if you try to go with "it wasn't against the country, it was against a regime," I will vomit into your mouth).
Senate Panel Refuses to Subpoena Torture Memos
Thu Jun 17, 2004 04:54 PM ET
By Thomas Ferraro
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A divided U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday refused to subpoena Justice Department memos on U.S. torture policy toward enemy combatants.
On a party-line vote of 10-9, the committee rejected a Democratic proposal that would have given U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft until June 24 to turn over the materials or make an acceptable claim of privilege not to do so.
Failure to have reached a negotiated agreement with the committee's top Republican and Democrat would have required Ashcroft to have turned over all the documents before July 1.
"It's a dumb-ass thing to do," Chairman Orrin Hatch, a Utah Republican, said in rejecting such a confrontational move, urging all sides to try instead to reach a voluntary accord.
Ashcroft refused to last week to release the memos, telling a Judiciary Committee hearing they were part of his private advice to President Bush in the war on terror.
