rssLeahy’s Truth Commission Idea Gaining Steam
Wednesday, February 11, 2009 at 6:46 am
- 6 Comments
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) has really started something.
He reportedly brought his idea for a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to the White House Tuesday, talking with President Obama’s new White House Counsel Greg Craig about the proposal. “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.”
Major legal advocacy groups today chimed in with their support for a truth commission, too, including The Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law School and Human Rights First, both stacked with prominent Democratic lawyers who supported Obama for the presidency.
So is it likely to happen?
Maybe. As I reported earlier, prosecutions are looking less and less likely, especially as the statute of limitations on many of the Bush administration’s most egregious crimes, including the torture, humiliation and abuse of prisoners, rapidly runs out.
But a bipartisan, independent, investigatory commission, along the lines of the 9/11 or Church commission — or even South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission — can be a pretty watered-down alternative; they don’t usually lead to criminal prosecutions, even if they’re warranted. On MSNBC’s “Countdown with Keith Olbermann” Tuesday night, George Washington Law professor Jonathan Turley called the idea “shameful,” saying it would ultimately protect war criminals from accountability.
That may be true. But as Scott Horton pointed out when proposing a similar idea in Harper’s back in November, it would offer one real advantage for President Obama: major political cover.
6 Comments
Comment posted February 11, 2009 @ 7:39 am
A truth commission?
Mmmm…perhaps we could start with the Johnson administration, the “great society” program and the untold trillions wasted and the millions of lives ruined.
The Carter adminstration's neglect which permitted Saddam Hussein to come to power and the radical islamists to come to power in Iran and start of the war we are in now.
Perhaps we could investigate the democrats who demogoged for action against Saddam Hussein in the Clinton years but did nothing.
And when pushed to take action after 6 attacks on the U.S., did so.
Yes, the truth.
Like a ribuks cube, it all depends upon your point of view.
Now, just how decades has Leahy been office as the disaster in front of us has unfolded?
Comment posted February 11, 2009 @ 9:15 am
Why not? Another Warren commission would be good for the country, right?
Comment posted February 11, 2009 @ 11:18 am
Ahh, “cover” for Just.Another.Politician.
If THAT's the bottom line, well, Turley's “shameful” comment doesn't begin to get at it.
Comment posted February 11, 2009 @ 3:39 pm
A truth commission?
Mmmm…perhaps we could start with the Johnson administration, the “great society” program and the untold trillions wasted and the millions of lives ruined.
The Carter adminstration's neglect which permitted Saddam Hussein to come to power and the radical islamists to come to power in Iran and start of the war we are in now.
Perhaps we could investigate the democrats who demogoged for action against Saddam Hussein in the Clinton years but did nothing.
And when pushed to take action after 6 attacks on the U.S., did so.
Yes, the truth.
Like a ribuks cube, it all depends upon your point of view.
Now, just how decades has Leahy been office as the disaster in front of us has unfolded?
Comment posted February 11, 2009 @ 5:15 pm
Why not? Another Warren commission would be good for the country, right?
Comment posted February 11, 2009 @ 7:18 pm
Ahh, “cover” for Just.Another.Politician.
If THAT's the bottom line, well, Turley's “shameful” comment doesn't begin to get at it.
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