"This is going to be big."

In watching some of the Senate Judiciary Committee's hearings on the Bush Justice Department last fall, I was impressed by Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) as an intelligent, clear thinker with a sharp lawyer's talent for probing a witness to get at the truth. He will be spearheading the Senate Judiciary Committee's efforts to establish a commission to investigate the Bush administration's policies on torture.

As reported by Slate.com:

As a member of both the Judiciary Committee and the Intelligence Committee, Whitehouse is privy to information about interrogations he can't yet share. Still, regarding a potential torture commission, he told Salon, "I am convinced it is going to happen." In fact, his fervor on the issue was palpable. When asked if there is a lot the public still does not know about these issues during the Bush administration, his eyes grew large and he nodded slowly. "Stay on this," he said. "This is going to be big."
. . . .

According to Whitehouse, current politics dictate that Congress should take the lead on establishing a torture commission. "When you look at the economic meltdown that [Obama] was left by the Bush administration, you can see why he would want to reassure the American public that he is out there looking at these problems and trying to solve them and not focusing on the sins of the past," he said.

Whitehouse, however, predicted that Obama would not object to a torture commission moving forward in Congress. Besides, he said, "When push comes to shove, we are the legislative branch of government. We have oversight responsibilities. And we don't need the executive branch's approval to look into these things just as a constitutional matter." . . .

Last week, retired Maj. Gen. Tony Taguba, known for conducting an honest investigation of prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib, discussed his support for such a commission . . . During that interview, Taguba stated that any review must include close analysis of claims from Bush administration officials that abusive interrogations worked.

. . .

Whitehouse agreed, and depicted as ironic the fact that . . . "the career, tough, serious military interrogators said that this just was not effective," he said. "But it is important to prove the point, because they [the administration] keep saying, 'We saved lives. We interrupted plans. We did this, that and the other.'" Whitehouse added, "Well, when you drill down, there is never a fact there. It turns into fog and evasion."

Whitehouse obviously knows more than he's able to say at this point. If he says "This is going to be big," I assume there's a lot there that needs to be uncovered. Stay on it, indeed !!

Ralph