Exclusive: Leahy Talks To White House About Investigating Bush

Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy and White House Chief Counsel Greg Craig discussed on Tuesday the Senator's proposal to set up a truth and reconciliation commission to investigate potential crimes of the Bush administration.

"I went over some of the parameters of it and they were well aware at the White House of what I'm talking about," Leahy told the Huffington Post. "And we just agreed to talk further."

The dialogue between the Vermont Democrat and the president's office is a new phase in a delicate process concerning how best to handle potential crimes in the previous White House. Leahy proposed an investigatory commission on Monday, after which the president -- speaking at his first news conference -- said he did not currently have an opinion on the plan. Obama went on to say that he would rather look forward than backward, but he promised to prosecute any crime -- whether committed was a former White House official or everyday citizen.

Asked about the President's response, Leahy said that he believed the White House was right to maintain its focus on economic matters at this moment. "But I do intend to follow up and talk with him about this," he said. "I'm not wedded to any part of the plan so long as we get all the facts out. I would hate to see us take the attitude that that was then and this is now, let's not worry about any of the mistakes or the abuse of the law and give it a pass ... because it is my experience that you continue to make mistakes until somebody calls you on it."

Leahy did add an important ripple to the story in the interview with the Huffington Post: Congress will likely proceed with investigations regardless of whether Obama is on board.

"Oh yeah," Leahy said when asked if he would go forward without Obama's endorsement. "I think the Senate and the Congress as whole has an oversight responsibility that has to be carried out here anyway. Now it is much easier with the cooperation of the administration. A lot of things with the subpoenas I issued the past few years, we got a lot of information but a lot of it was held back."

This path could create a curious situation for the Obama team, in which the president has committed his administration to prosecuting illegality and the Congress provides the evidence of such.

"What I would much rather see is to see us working together," said Leahy. "We have a common interest, both the Congress and the administration to get this thing worked out ... In this instance, this is so important that our common interest is to get the truth out."

Comments

[freddiefreeloader]

Bush and his goverment (most of congress included) authorized a illegal invasion on a sovereign country (Iraq) they also authorized the occupation of Iraq which involved the commission of war crimes and human rights abuses (the tens of thousands of Iraqi deaths, Abu Ghraib, the distruction of Fallouja, and the civilian massacres in Hadita) they also authorized conduct that resulted in the commission of war crimes and crimes against humanity (torture & waterboarding) laws violated include, United Nations charter, Geneva conventions of 1949, the Nuremberg principles, Universal declaration of human rights, U.N.standard mininum rules for treatment of prisoners, the Kellogg-Briand pact. If the Bush govement is found guilty of any of these crimes than the U.S. could be ordered to pay compenstion to victims and familys of victims in Iraq by the world court. Do you really want to go there? I hope so.

[lagumbo]

Sen Leahy , I said do it. Justice has to be serviced. The world knows what criminal acts Bush and his croonies comitted and they should have to answer to them.

[AnotherMike]

So what happens ultimately?

We know enough about what they did to prove war crimes and spying, so there's bound to be WAY more than that we don't know...

Does anyone really expect to see BushCo. being frog-walked in front of cameras?

I can't.

Not because they don't deserve it, but because they've corrupted our values as a nation.

I wish Leahy and his soldiers the best of luck, but I'm not going to die of shock if the GW crew skates on the whole thing.

[elr50]

This action is about 8 years overdue, but should be done anyway. Didn't Kucinich try to get this ball rolling several years ago? Oh wait, the Republicans were in power then. Forget it.

[research]

Pelosi and Rahm hated Kucinich's attempts to impeach Bush and Cheney, and did everything they could to stop it.

[BandsofBlack]

How about a citizen's arrest?

Can we just show up at Bush and Cheney's houses and arrest them ourselves?

[Buddy McCue]

There are many individuals and more than one organization that want to do this. For example, Veterans Against Torture have issued a warrant for their arrest:

http://www.veteransagainsttorture.com/

[Jamshid Joon]

i say do it! there has to be justice.

[Maria Allison]

I think there can be a value to a commission, but the devil is in the details. This commission would grant immunity to people who testify to the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Anyone who refuses to appear or is less than completed truthful could be prosecuted. We are talking about serious crimes here. I can... almost live with immunity in exchange for evidence against the most serious offenders, such as those highest up the chain who decided on these policies (Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld) for example. The notion of the most aggregious offenders getting immunity in exchange for a public allocution doesn't seem to be much of a dissincentive to people who may be tempted to use similar tactics in the future.
Moreover, I also wonder what this says to current or potential war criminals in other parts of the world. No need to worry about legal accountability. Just hold a T&R Commission after the war crimes and everything will be fine?
Senator Leahy does make several valid points. First, the importance of understanding what happened, how it happened and how to prevent it from happening again. Second, deals are made in exchange for information that is valuable and otherwise unattainable without a price. It stinks, but it is a reality.
Senator Leahy deserves credit for trying to do something, rather than sweep it under the rug. But, I still want to know more about the final details of this Commission before deciding .

[Artos]

If our Government can't objectively investigate and prosecute the criminal behavior of our last administration, perhaps because it would be seen as partisan that in itself is a good argument for having more than two parties. Perhaps we should have the government pass on the mantle of investigating this matter to the World Court and Interpol. That way we should have a hopefully unbiased entity getting at the truth. But they must have full authority to do so and their judgement must be valid and final.

[dogwatch]

You can't get countries to submit themselves to higher authority in such matters, Artos. We prosecuted war crimes against Nazis in Germany in the Nuremburg trials after WWII, but Germany had no choice. There was no government at the time to submit Germany to the jurisdiction of the war crimes trials because their government was totally destroyed by the war. If this gets done, then we have to do it in our country with our system of laws.

[snellock]

NO! NO! A thousand times NO! A truth and reconciliation is not the answer here. There is no way to assess whether the thing worked in S.A. But lordy, if the state of that country is any indication their T&R Commission was a failure and it wouldn't be any more satisfactory here. JP Botha, the last stalwart of apartheid, remains unrepentant and refused to take part in the commission. He had been Prime Minister prior to de Klerk who worked with Mandela to turn the country over to free elections. Another 1700 participants including bad actors from all levels of society were involved. Here we don't have laws that support apartheid. We do have laws that forbid almost every major action the neo cons took. We don't have bad actors of the scale that would include them in such a commission. We wont get 1700 minor folk applying for forgiveness. What we have is about 10 people cast in the same mold as Botha: unrepentant, idealogical bullies who would have no interest in being forgiven by the unwashed masses whom they consider no more than cannon fodder.

[snellock]

Have they not proven over and over that they do not care. No remorse. If a judge in a murder case sees no remorse in the accused he is highly unlikely to show leniency.

Investigate them for all their crimes. They stole two elections, they foisted two unnecessary and unwanted wars on the peoples of the world they fiddled with themselves as New Orleans sank they tortured people in our name, they destroyed the constitution and willingly took this country beyond the threshold of what Mussolini himself called corporatism. And they spied on US.

[snellock]

In South Africa, prior to Mandela, apartheid was the law, so where acts promulgated by that doctrine were cruel, inhumane and immoral they were not necessarily illegal. Do you see the difference? Here we have laws against what the last administration did. And here we prosecute criminals of whatever name or address, right? I think Leahy is showboating. What he proposes is paplum. Window dressing and about as satisfying as a soda cracker to a castaway.

[Akat1973]

Yes.Go get those sorry excuses for human beings-that ran this Country into the ground for the last eight years!Remember their your either with us or against us b.s?And how any disagreement we the people had with Bush-Cheney was deemed unpatriotic !Very hypocritical is right!There are lies,lives,and so much blood on the oil coated hands of the Republican­s.........­.....Go Leahy!PLEASE!

[Hrotea]

SENATOR LEAHY IS RIGHT TO ADVOCATE THE INVESTIGATION OF THE BUSH REGIME FOR CRIMES IT COMMITTED IN THE PAST EIGHT YEARS, IF NOBODY IS REALLY ABOVE THE LAW

By Hermie Rotea

George W. Bush and Dick Cheney allegedly violated the U.S. Constitution, the United Nations Charter, the Geneva Convention and the Nuremberg Convention as they relate to 9/11 terrorist attacks on America and the subsequent Bush-Cheney wars on terror that led to U.S. war crimes committed in Iraq and Afghanistan during their invasions and occupations.

Bush and Cheney neglected to perform their constitutional duty to protect the nation from 9/11 when they ignored warnings from the CIA and 10 countries that Osama bin and his suicide bombers were poised to strike America. Then they recklessly invaded and occupied Iraq and Afghanistan although they had nothing to do with 9/11.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan ruled that such U.S. military aggressions violated the UN Charter, while the British 10 Downing Street memoranda to Prime Minister Tony Blair that revealed the White House had fixed policies around Iraq and Afghanistan demolished Bush great deceptions that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction and that the Taliban was behind 9/11.

With such Bush-Cheney records of war crimes, Senator Leahy is right in advocating the creation of a commission to investigate their violations during the past eight years. If nobody is above the law, they should answer for the war crimes they are accused of.

[JDHART]

These calls for justice always seem to come when something big is being voted on. Can't Bush be investigated because he broke the law and because it's the right thing to do? Enough already with talking about investigating Bush. That should have been done in 2002 just before the impeachment trial. How about someone out there follow the advice offered by the old Nike slogan and Just Do It.

[writerroz]

"PRAISE BE," I would yell with both arms thrust in the air if I were like the 'wingers" who support or collaberate with Bush and his buddies. But I do it for different reasons. I am most happy to hear of Leahy heading up an investigation of Bush/Cheney, and it is certainly more necessary now since Cheney won't "shut up" and the Republicans are working so hard to obstruct the change we support and believe in. The same old "divide and conquer" to keep minds off putting this country and economy back together, because Republicans prosper under mayhem and bad times for every one else. It helps them better in their stealing.