Closing Statement Of Sen.
Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.),
Chairman, Senate Judiciary
Committee,
Department Of Justice
Oversight Hearing With Attorney General Mukasey
January 30, 2008
I had hoped today would provide more clarity on so many critical
issues. Instead, we heard references to legal opinions,
justifications, and facts that remain hidden from Congress and the
American people.
It is a hallmark of our democracy that we say publicly what the laws
are and what conduct they prohibit. We have seen what happens when
hidden decisions rendered in secret memos are withheld from the
people’s elected representatives and from the American people. It
erodes our civil liberties and undermines our values as a nation of
laws.
As I said when opening this hearing, it is not enough just to say
that waterboarding is not currently authorized. The Attorney
General of the United States should be able to declare that it is
wrong, it is illegal, and it is beyond the pale. It has been for
over a century.
Earlier today, I put in the record
a letter I received from Major General John Fugh, Rear Admiral
Don Guter, Rear Admiral John Hutson and Brigadier General David
Brahms. They write
with absolute clarity: “Waterboarding is inhumane, it is torture,
and it is illegal.” They also quote the sitting Judge Advocates
General of the military services from our Committee’s hearing last
year in which they unanimously and unambiguously agreed that
waterboarding is inhumane, illegal and a violation of law.
By not declaring that waterboarding is off limits, this
administration undercuts the moral authority of the United States.
Repressive regimes around the world are saying that whether they
waterboard or torture will depend on the circumstances as they see
them and whether they think they need to. This endangers American
citizens and military personnel around the world and lowers the
standards of human rights everywhere.
If an American were waterboarded anywhere in the world, no Senator
and no other American would have to know the “circumstances” and
purported justifications for it before condemning it. Tragically,
this administration has so twisted America’s role, law and values
that our own Attorney General cannot say that waterboarding of an
American is illegal. That is how far from our moorings we have
strayed.
Oversight helps make government work better, and hearings like this
are accountability moments. The answers we have heard today leave
the American people considerably short of what they deserve and what
they should expect from the government that acts in their name.
This Committee wants to help you repair the damage that has been
done to the Justice Department. I look forward to working closely
with Attorney General Mukasey, and I hope that together we can find
ways to restore strong leadership and independence to the Department
of Justice.
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