David Addington, Cheney's Chief Of Staff, Subpoenaed To Discuss Interrogation Practices

WASHINGTON — The House Judiciary Committee voted Tuesday to compel a top aide to Vice President Dick Cheney to testify to the committee about the Bush administration's interrogation practices.

David Addington, Cheney's chief of staff, refused to testify without a subpoena. No date has been set for his appearance before Congress.

Addington is one of several lawyers believed to have played a key role in crafting the administration's interrogation policies shortly after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, policies which some say amounted to torture.

John Yoo, the former Justice Department lawyer who wrote a now-repudiated memo allowing the harsh interrogations of military prisoners agreed late Monday to testify to Congress about those practices, averting a subpoena. Yoo is now a law professor at University of California-Berkeley.

Yoo's memo, dated March 14, 2003, outlines a legal justification for military interrogators to use harsh tactics against al-Qaida and Taliban detainees overseas _ so long as they did not specifically intend to torture their captives.

Former Attorney General John Ashcroft, former Under Secretary of Defense Douglas Feith, and former Assistant Attorney General Daniel Levin have also agreed to give testimony at a future hearing. Former CIA Director George Tenet is still in negotiations with the committee, according to House Judiciary Committee spokeswoman Melanie Roussell.

The Judiciary Committee hearings are meant to determine what role administration lawyers played in creating and approving interrogation procedures that went far beyond those traditionally used by U.S. forces, and whether any of them violated their legal or ethical obligations, said Committee Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich.

Comments

[richcpl]

Could be interesting if Yoo agrees to testify and the administration goes to court to keep him from testifying but he insists. Of course, considering his rather expansive view of executive power, it's hardly credible that he's agreed to testify, at least w/o condition.

[BigTiddies]

Well, of course Yoo can always "commit suicide" before he takes the stand.

Be prepared for "the authorities" to find a "suicide note"

Is this a great country, or what?

[breakfast]

This evil man will not honor the subpoena and Congress will do nothing about it.

Business as usual.

[lornejl1]

You are dead on accurate.

[marinemomof3]

I think there is a plan to go after all theses thugs, January 20th, 2009 @ 12:01 pm

I think that is why they took impeachment off the table. That way there could be NO PARDONS.
Wishful thinking??
I pray not!

[nirek]

Boy, do I ever hope you are right (correct). It would go a long way towards healing this country if justice was actually served. I have racked my brain thinking why they took impeachment off the table until now . Thank you for the ray of hope.
marinemomof3 is now one of my favorates

[davidpeace]

An interesting idea: the new Congress ratifies the International Criminal Court treaty and they all get sent to the Hague. The bush mob can pardon themselves all they want, but that would make no difference in international law.

[instagladiator]

Sounds very comforting, but (I'm sorry to say) empty. Two age old/time proven theories come to mind - 1. Actions speak louder than words and 2. Seeing is believing.

[Mike169]

It should only take them a couple of minutes before this corrupt and arrogant administration refuses to allow him to speak before Congress.

[instagladiator]

Hey! I got an idea. Why not use executive privilege?

[proudliberal4truth]

After the I. "Scooter" Libby debacle who really cares? Obviously no one is really going to be held accountable for anything in the Bush administration.

[LibRS]

Yeah you're right. Once we let Bill Clinton gt away with lying about screwing Monica its been down hill from there.

[SmootyBooty]

Exactly how did we let him "get away with it?"
You're not very bright...

[wmfor]

That's it! Let one guy get a blow job, and the next one will spend $3,000,000,000,000 destroying a foreign country, our military, our international reputation, our economy, and our lives, and tell us God told him to do it--while he giggles about the war dead.

See what Monica started?

[ranger5]

Oh my God, the torture mongers must be really squirming. A congressional hearing! How scary. We're about to see and hear a repeat of countless other hearings that investigated and castigated this administration's conduct over the past 7 years. In other words, nothing will come of it. Yoo and the rest could loudly and proudly proclaim to all that yes, we tortured! We broke all kinds of domestic laws and international treaties! We've violated the Constitution at every opportunity! We have been working hard to marginalize the other two branches of government and invest ALL power in the executive! What are you gonna do about it?! At which point, those scary congresspersons would say something like a collective "Hummph, well I never", and go back posturing for C-Span or whatever. Nothing will come of this. Pardon my scepticism, but so many blatantly illegal activities have occured, and so many have been "investigated" by Congress, and nothing meaningful has happened. Why bother.

[instagladiator]

Squirming? Doubt that. This is all staged and will end up amounting to zip-zilch-nada-zero!!

[greencap]

He won't testify and if he did he wouldn't be honest and forthright. He is one who helped Cheney and Bush rewrite the constitution. He affirmed illegalalites to be right for the bush administration. He is as much in this snake pit as the rest.

[Soulsurfer]

Actually, more so. This is the guy who actually figures out how to make all the sh*t these guys have been pulling off be covered by a thin shroud of legality...B & C are idea men, Addington & Yoo provide cover. With a limp d*ck congress, no oversight, no foul. These guys are all hoping it'll blow away after the next election, which it will if McShame gets elected.

[BigTiddies]

Yes, and he's going to get away with it just like Libby

[obscurant]

5 years, a US policy of torture (with the APA complicit, ffs)...this country is morally bankrupt, that it is taking so long, and this isn't getting play in the news.

The military tribunals of WW2 could serve as models for US officials' guilt and they deserve similar prison terms.

[markusmarkus]

In the words of Clint Eastwood - "Hang em high."

[drblack]

Addington is less known than some of the Bush Boys but he is one of the masterminds in the republican plan to undermine the US Constitution.
Addington is by all legal definitions a traitor and should be treated as such.

[lornejl1]

Hung by the neck until dead I believe is the proper penalty for his crimes against the Constitution.

[LibRS]

Sounds good to me. Let's start with trial lawyers and liberals.

[Dap]

)))))))))))))))))))))))))))) BINGO (((((((((((((((((((((((((((

[mgloraine]

I'll believe it when I see / hear it. If they manage to get anybody to testify, expect to see re-runs of the Alberto Gonzales testimony, which is to say, duck'n'dodge, "national security" excuses for why they won't actually say ANYTHING of value. At the very least, these so-called "lawyers" need to be dis-barred for enthusiastically promoting torture and human-rights abuses, and they should be prohibited from teaching budding law students how to sidestep the rule of Constitutional law for fun and profit.

[bitabingbitabangbitaboom]

Time for the Hot Lead Enama boys

[AdobePhsyko]

Since when do you have to "agree" to testify when you are subpeana'd

[leatherneck]

The fact they are agreeing to testify, is something that should make Bush/Cheney and company worry, since it is notorious, that the first criminals to testify, get the immunity deals, and the fact is Bush/Cheney will have no "get out of free jail cards" in 2009 when they leave office, a democrat will be sitting in white house, and senate is predicted to pick up 6 or so seats, and some in congress to for democratic party side of equation and I see the writing on the wall, investigations, speical federal prosecutors appointed, federal grand jury indictments, and the subsequent trials, potential convictions, and appeals this one will be on going for the next 10 years one can bet but then cannot say I have any sympathy for "war criminals" whom thought they were above the law, if no justice is given them on this earth, they surely will face it before Jesus on judgment day!

[RnR]

I say waterboard them publicly at the hearings - just to prove that waterboarding is not torture. Just trying to be patriotic here :)

[markusmarkus]

Amen!

[plainsman]

Yeah, Congress should employ "enhanced interrogation techniques" once the litany of "I don't recall" is paraded out.

[LibRS]

You're not so stop trying.

[Chavez08]

I'm not sure the environmental conditions in Washington are adequate for his questioning. However, there is an "office" or two in Cuba that would be very conducive in conducting interviews of such importance.....

[gcallaghan]

Oooh, it's the "A" list's premeire performance. Next stop - the Hague.