Justice Dept. Will Share Interrogation Opinions

[maddezmom]

Source: NYT

By SCOTT SHANE and DAVID JOHNSTON
Published: May 1, 2008

WASHINGTON — In a partial concession to Congressional pressure, the Bush administration agreed on Wednesday to show the Senate and House Intelligence Committees secret Justice Department legal opinions justifying harsh interrogation techniques that critics call torture.

The decision, announced at a Senate hearing where Democrats sharply criticized the administration’s secrecy on legal questions, did not satisfy other members of Congress who have pushed for the documents for several years, notably Senator Patrick J. Leahy, Democrat of Vermont and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

A spokesman for the Justice Department said officials were discussing whether to share part or all the opinions with Mr. Leahy’s panel.

At the hearing, a department official, John P. Elwood, disclosed a previously unpublicized method to cloak government activities. Mr. Elwood acknowledged that the administration believed that the president could ignore or modify existing executive orders that he or other presidents have issued without disclosing the new interpretation.



Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/01/washington/01justice.html?adxnnl=1&ref=washington&adxnnlx=1209640420-IedRFi/WcitiVnUZkPy6aA

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MEMOS ON INTERROGATION TACTICS
Lawmakers to See Secret Documents


By Carrie Johnson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, May 1, 2008; Page A17

The Justice Department yesterday agreed to grant lawmakers limited access to secret memos that authorized CIA interrogation strategies, an offer that Sen. Russell Feingold (D-Wis.) immediately criticized as "certainly too late . . . and too little, as well."

Bowing to intense pressure from congressional Democrats, senior Justice officials said they soon will release unredacted versions of memos drafted by staff members in the department's Office of Legal Counsel. Several of the controversial memos have been repudiated while others remain under fire from critics who say they encourage torture and civil liberties abuses.

Justice Department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse called the move an "extraordinary accommodation" to help members of the intelligence committees understand the Bush administration's legal reasoning on "vital" national security policies.

But Feingold, who presided over a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing yesterday on excessive government secrecy, said that access to the memos comes with strings attached that will make it difficult for lawmakers to conduct a thorough review.

more:http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/30/AR2008043003203.html

[soothsayer]

1. We have no sovereignty. Even Congress can't get access to government secrets.

Why do we pretend to live in a democracy? This is ridiculous.

[struggle4progress]

2. Congress should have said: No money!

[Supersedeas]

5. Congress is a little slow on the up-take these days

[Supersedeas]

4. now we learn that the opinions should have never been classified!?!

[Supersedeas]

3. Modifying the law without disclosing it to the public -- this is America???