And Michael Mukasey was supposed to be an improvement over Alberto Gonzales? ........

[marmar]

Thanks again, Chuck Schumer. :argh:



Report Delayed
A newly revealed e-mail indicates the Justice Department was close to completing an internal investigation on senior lawyers who wrote controversial positions on the legality of waterboarding.

By Michael Isikoff | Newsweek Web Exclusive
Feb 16, 2009 | Updated: 4:35 p.m. ET Feb 16, 2009


A Justice Department investigation into the conduct of senior lawyers who approved waterboarding was on the verge of completion last fall when then-Attorney General Michael Mukasey raised objections to the findings, according to an e-mail from a Justice official and two legal sources who have been briefed on the inquiry.

The e-mail was disclosed Monday by Democratic Sens. Dick Durbin and Sheldon Whitehouse following a NEWSWEEK story reporting that a draft of the report by the department's internal ethics watchdog unit, the Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR), sharply criticizes three former top lawyers at Justice who authored controversial legal memos about interrogation practices.

The OPR report has been eagerly anticipated on Capitol Hill for some time because it deals directly with one of the central issues in the contentious debate over Bush-era interrogation policy: whether a small group of senior lawyers violated professional legal standards when they concluded that waterboarding (or simulated drowning) and other "enhanced" interrogation tactics could be used by the CIA against Al Qaeda suspects without violating a federal law banning torture.

Last Oct. 1, a lawyer on Durbin's staff at the Senate Judiciary Committee e-mailed the Justice Department about the "status of OPR's investigation of DOJ attorneys who provided advice on interrogation matters," according to a letter to Marshall Jarrett, the chief of OPR, sent today by Durbin and Whitehouse. .......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.newsweek.com/id/185072

[SpiralHawk]

1. "Smirk." - Republicon Homelander cabal o' cronies

"Hell yes, anything we Republicon Homelanders can do to make America FAIL, and to pervert its traditions and systems of truth, justice and honor. Smirk."

- Republicon Homelander cabal o' corrupt cronies

[Me.]

4. Sadly, It's Not Just The Cons

One NY senator has stood proudly in front of the cameras and vouched for both Mukasey & Chertoff. Schumer! Further, he and Difi convinced the committee that Mukasey would be an improvement.

[dixiegrrrrl]

2. Speaking of shit, where did Mukasey wander off to after 1-20-09?

Anyone know, sersly?

[xxqqqzme]

3. Feinstein is my particular fave

on this matter primarily because she didn't listen to her constituents either.

[Solly Mack]

5. depends on how you look at it

If you need a liar and go from a so-so liar to a better liar - that's an improvement.

If you need the veneer of respectability and go from publicly compromised to not yet obvious to all compromised - that's an improvement

If you're like me and know shit is shit even if you do dip it in gold - then Mukasey was never an improvement

[SpiralHawk]

6. Shit is shit. I gotta agree

Republicons thru and thru

[EFerrari]

7. I have this theory that the only reason Torquemada got AG

was because he signed off on illegal wiretapping when Ashcroft would not. He was just there and he had no authority to do it.

So, to make it smell better later, they gave him the job when Ashcroft left.