Feinstein: Holder's Torture Probe Timing "Not Very Good"
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One of the highest-ranking Democrats in the Senate expressed displeasure on Sunday with Attorney General Eric Holder's decision to investigate the use of torture under the Bush administration, arguing that a Senate probe into the matter should be completed first.
Senator Dianne Feinstein, who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee, told CBS' Face the Nation that the timing of Holder's move was "not very good."
"The intelligence committee has underway now a total look at the interrogation and detention techniques used for all the high value detainees," she said. "We are well along in that study and I'm trying to push it along even more quickly at this time. We are not going to be deterred from completing this study. And candidly, I wish the attorney general had waited."
Feinstein did not specifically object to the notion of examining the use of torture by the Bush administration. She did, however, suggest that the appointment of a special prosecutor to conduct a preliminary investigation into the topic would lead to misinformation and confusion about what actually took place.
"Every day something kind of dribble out into the public arena, very often it has mistakes," she said. "Very often it is half a story. And I think we need to get the whole story together and tell it in an appropriate way."
For example, Feinstein highlighted the debate over the efficacy of using torture on terrorism suspects. "It did produce some information," she said. "But there is a great discrepancy and I think a good deal of error out there in what people are saying it did produce. And we need to straighten that out and the only thing that is going to straighten it out is a really comprehensive look at it."
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First Posted: 09/30/09 06:12 AM ET Updated: 05/25/11 02:55 PM ET