Special Counsel Needed to Probe CIA Videotape Destruction

This past week, we learned that an administration official in the CIA had destroyed videotapes of the agency's use of severe interrogation techniques on detainees held in secret, extra-legal prisons. Responsibility for this sad stain of dishonor on America's integrity rests squarely with the president. The evidence destroyed depicted the president's policy of snatching terrorist suspects from the streets of foreign countries, hiding them away in secret prisons, and torturing them. The president has created a culture of criminal misconduct and cover up, has injected politics into the administration of justice, and has made public policy a slave to his ideology. I have called for a special counsel to conduct a thorough but unbiased investigation of this matter.

There are two circumstances under which federal law requires the attorney general to appoint a special counsel: when the investigation would present a conflict of interest for the Department of Justice and when it would be in the public interest for an independent prosecuting authority to assume responsibility for the investigation. Seldom in our history have the facts and circumstances surrounding an investigation made a more compelling case for appointment of a special counsel.

At his confirmation hearing this fall, the president's nominee for attorney general confounded legal experts and the American public by testifying that he was not sure whether waterboarding constituted torture. American military courts have condemned waterboarding as torture since the United States occupation of the Philippines in 1902. Michael Mukasey's refusal to answer directly that waterboarding is torture and violates federal law raises serious questions regarding whether he can conduct an unbiased investigation into conduct involving the waterboarding of detainees.

Unfortunately, under this administration, the Department of Justice has been riddled with ideological influence and partisan politics, from providing legal cover for the president's "alternative interrogation" policy to advising him that he had unreviewable authority under Article II of the Constitution to define the scope of his own powers. The administration has even gone so far as to hire and fire top prosecutors based on whether they were "loyal Bushies."

Moreover, the investigation necessitates that criminal investigators pose direct questions to, and demand answers of, high-ranking administration officials. We know that former White House Deputy Chief of Staff Harriet Miers was involved in the decision regarding whether the tapes should be preserved. We know that both the president and the vice president took a keen interest in the implementation of their policy regarding the detention and interrogation of terrorism suspects. And I am concerned that the president's spokesperson reported that "the president said that he does not recall being made aware of [the tapes'] existence or their destruction until [his Dec. 6, 2007] briefing."

I do not make the call for a special counsel lightly. For 34 years, 16 years as the chairman or ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, I have been a supporter and steward of the Department of Justice. I still maintain the utmost respect and admiration for the career prosecutors who enforce our laws every day without bias. But when a president abandons our cherished national values of upholding the rule of law and respecting human dignity, and when he allows our system of justice to be influenced by partisan politics, the attorney general he appointed cannot preside over an investigation that goes to the heart of the administration's conduct. In such circumstances, our law requires the appointment of a special counsel.

Comments

[whimsicalpig]

QUICK, close your eyes and picture hillary, obama. edwards and biden responding to a crisis such as a teRrorist attack or large economic melt-down.

'Now, really who would you want responding with their years of experience, contacts with multiple foreign governments and long standing associations with most members of congress and the functionaries of Washington DC

Who is going to hit the ground running?

BIDEN

[cblcar]

All I want for Christmas is Joe Biden for President, so instead of asking for all sorts of crap I don't need, I asked my friends and family to make a donation to Biden's campaign. Joe Biden will be a President we can all be proud of. Oh, and Senator, when you're deciding on a running mate, how about Gov. Richardson? Merry Christmas to you and your family.

[doug108]

Yep, totally agree. Will the Dems make it happen? Probably not. Will they get outflanked, outwitted, out-balled, and out-maneuvered again? You bet.

[Merry]

Joe for President!
Have you donated to his campaign?

ONLY Joe has the experience, focus, connections and intelligence needed to untangle these catastrophes. Why settle for less?

[drblack]

I Agree Senator Biden.
I hope You Stand with Senators Dodd and Feingold and only pass FISA bill if it doesn't allow for telecom immunity or basket warrants.
Protect American FREEDOM.

[US55588144]

"Joe is just too cerebral for the American public. He could possibly get elected in UK but US is just not a country who would vote in an intellectual like Biden.

I have watched him many a times on CSPAN. His presentation, though very gripping for an individual familiar with issues is not very appealing for the average voter who likes to have issues formulated in the way he or she can relate to them.

He is more suited for a cabinet position. Al Gore couldn't pull it off neither can Joe Biden. I am just stating the facts, just look at the polls".

A poster named hu.man made this comment on a previous Biden post. If one buys his theory, it means we end up with another non-cerebral president like George W. Bush. No thanks!

[US55588144]

To all the posters. Have a Very Merry Christmas or Happy Hannukah and a Happy New Year. And vote for Joe Biden early and often.

[veracity]

Dear Senator Biden:
It's About Time Democrats started running aggressive, criminal investigations, Senator Biden! After investigating the "destruction of CIA torture videos" scandal, Congress could look at the "Brooks Brothers riot" that stopped Miami/Dade vote recounting in November 2000.
http://www.bushwatch.com/bushdec1.htm
Or Mr. Bush's career connections to Enron, and Dick Cheney's continuing profit from his Halliburton stock options with every billion-dollar, no-bid, no-oversight contract he hands his "former" company. We could even go back and look at Cheney's dealings with Saddam after the first Gulf War, when Cheney (as Chairman and CEO of Halliburton) was using European subsidiaries to skirt US enforced embargo and sanctions on Iraq all through the late 1990s - at a time when Iraqi guns were trying to shoot down US aircraft enforcing the 'no fly zones'!
http://globalpolicy.igc.org/security/sanction/iraq1/oilforfood/2001/0627chen.htm
These abuses of power but a prelude to the seven years since Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney have had control of the White House. They once said in Columbia "to try to not notice the influence of cocaine money is like trying to blot out the sun." As regards the appalling string of criminal conduct and abuses coming out of the Bush White House, it looks like the Democrats and media have mastered that very art (blotting out the sun)!
Given the millions of dollars that Democratic voters, activists, and supporters donate every election season, the LEAST the Democrats could do is keep a running LIST of BushCo scandals, so individual candidates could pick-and-choose which one they want to run against.
(Short list: Abramoff visits to White House; New Hampshire phone bank jamming leads to White House; Libby obstruction of justice and perjury from within White House; DOJ suppresses Halliburton/KBR rape investigations; State Dept. Inspector General Krongard resigns without any serious consequences for perjury re Blackwater oversight; and then of course there is the huge black hole of vast war contracts corruption...)

[US55588144]

FROM THE BOSTON GLOBE




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Biden on Front Page of Monitor
Link By John V. Kjellman December 19, 2007 05:42 PM
Today's (12/19) Concord Monitor has a front-page story by Ethan Wilensky-Lanford about Senator Biden, an outgrowth of his meeting with Monitor editors and reporters earlier in the week. What jumps out about Biden, again, is his incredible knowledge and understanding of world affairs, and in particular, his ideas of what we as a country should be doing to enhance our own standing and interests in the world.

Biden offers simple, no nonsense solutions to complex problems. He's the only candidate who's offered a specific plan for Iraq, which the Senate finally approved overwhelmingly a couple of months ago. The situation in Iraq is developing along the lines that Biden has proposed.

Biden's plan for health care is not for what is commonly called universal coverage, which is something not likely to pass Congress in the next few years, regardless of what other candidates promise. Biden would provide universal coverage for all children and for catastrophic medical events, which he says can be done for only $50 billion and which is supported by most Americans. If most Americans support it, it can get through Congress. That makes it a campaign promise that can be kept.

[US55588144]

IOWA AND NEW HAMPSHIRE VOTERS,

Folks, it's only a few short weeks till the Iowa Caucuses and the New Hampshire Primary. I know that you will be occupied with the Holidays, but please take the time and consider the candidates. Remember that you are nominating your party's candidate for leader of the free world. Don't ignore the most outstanding and qualified candidate running from either party, I mean Joe Biden the Democratic Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee. Bush has made such a mess of our Foreign Policy that it will take Biden's knowledge, experience and expertise to straighten things out. This is not time for on the job training.

[Tellmethetruth]

"I don't have confidence in the president. I don't have confidence in the vice president. And I don't have confidence in the Justice Department. That's as simple as I can put it," said Biden, a 2008 presidential contender.

Biden appeared on CNN's "Late Edition." on Sunday 12/16/07

[Thabit]

After a year of Impeachment being "OFF THE TABLE " and confirming an Attorney General and his new assistant "That don't know if waterboarding is Illegal or Torture " WHY BOTHER with a special prosecutor. You , Both houses of congress and the Bush Administration aren't going to do anything but run out the clock and do your best to rig an election (both ways by the way, repugnatins and donothingcrats) Its pretty sad when the perception on the street is that new senators and congressmen sell out as soon as they get to washington (if they didn't sell out on the way there ) and that a president doesn't even make it to a nomination unless he's bought and paid for long ago. Rule of Law only applys to the "Peons" in this country. If you are above a certain income level its slap wrist city if that much happens and we see it nowhere as much as washington dc. I knew we were sunk when you put nazi helmuts on our military and that's been a while ago

[PKSSK]

With all due respect Senator Biden, you are barking up the wrong tree if you are looking for support for a special counsel. We, the American people, have been asking for a special counsel for impeachment since 2006 and neither house of congress has listened to anything we have to say.

So, if you want a special counsel you have to convince "your do nothing congress" to dooooo something!!!! Maybe if something had been done when we originally asked we would have resolved these issues, maybe torture would be eliminiated and our soldiers would be home or on their way!!!

Sorry for the cynicism, but I think most of us are FED UP with congress!!!

[gateley]

Biden called for Special Counsel on DAY ONE. The response has been that it's "not necessary". He explains not only why it IS necessary, but it's CRITICAL.

Of the candidates, I believe only one has agreed with this approach, and only then after a week or so after Joe made his position known.

The guy has the integrity, courage and know-how to get things done. We need him at this crucial time in our history.

[VSamuels]

Mr. Biden, I certainly admire your service to the nation however the problem with our problems can be summed up in what happened today. While Mr. Conyers was convening a hearing on this very subject and denoting that no representative from the Justice Department accepted his offer to appear and discuss the CIA torture tapes, Mr. Mukasey is speaking to a group of conservatives---free from the arm of accountability and responsibility, as he wove his own narratives.

If our next election simply brings us a democrat in the Whitehouse and a republican minority who now sees the 'justice' in hearings and special counsels, we are only replacing the deck chairs on the Titanic.

While I do understand the 'spirit' of which you raise the questions regarding the use of the Special Counsel to look into this matter, our system is nonetheless broken. My perception is that there are too few Congressperson will to concede that 'wrong' is wrong and should punished, not based on whether there is a (R) or (D) by their name, but based on the presentation of the facts.

We need politicans who want to solve problems and not protect those problems that point to their side of the aisle, this is precisely the reason why I won't support Hillary. One must not vote to continue partisanship, as I believe it is all her campaign represents, and she more than the other candidates seems to relish fighting the republicans.

If you, Mr. Biden can honestly admit if this 'problem' occurred on your watch that you would step up and fire the offenders--saving the taxpayers money--and retoring some confidence to the political process,---you sir, would have figured out how to win this American's vote.