July 20, 2007

Intel Committee Chair: What Does the Executive Order Mean?

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Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, reacts to the news posted by Jonathan Stein below, that Bush has signed an executive order governing CIA interrogation techniques that supposedly bans cruel, degrading and inhuman treatment.

Rockefeller:

I just received the news this morning from General Hayden. We now need to determine what the Executive Order really means and how it will translate into actual conduct by the CIA. The only way to do that is to have the CIA come before the Committee and explain in detail how it intends to apply the Executive Order. It is also absolutely essential that the Department of Justice provide the Committee with its full legal analysis.

The stakes are too high and the issue too important to provide any comment until the Committee has been given the opportunity to fully evaluate the President’s action.

Rockefeller’s skepticism is fully warranted, says former Justice Department official Marty Lederman: “It is, in a word, worthless. … As I’ve explained in several posts, however … non-criminal does not equal legal.” Lederman’s post is worth a close read.

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WE'LL BE BLUNT

It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

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