Durbin Calls for Inspector General Investigation of Torture Memos
By Paul Kiel - February 8, 2008 -
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/02/durbin_calls_for_inspector_gen.phpWe know what Attorney General Michael Mukasey thinks about investigating the CIA's use of waterboarding. Not gonna do it.
And that's precisely what he said in a letter to Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), who's been hounding him on the issue, yesterday (you can read Mukasey's letter here
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/docs/mukasey-reply-durbin/). But Durbin thinks that Mukasey is missing the point. He writes:
...I did not request nor suggest that those who relied on the Justice Department’s advice should be investigated. Rather, as I said in my letter, “a Justice Department investigation should explore whether waterboarding was authorized and whether those who authorized it violated the law” (my emphasis).
In other words, Mukasey's responses have been focused on whether the CIA agents (and possibly contractors) who carried out the waterboarding should be prosecuted. But Durbin says the emphasis should be on those who authorized the activity. He explains: "Under U.S. law, command responsibility is a well-established theory of liability that covers those who authorize violations of law."
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