Legal Commentary

Is Cheney The Leading Advocate For A Torture Investigation?

By Big Tent Democrat

In comments to this post, I speculate that the Obama Administration's possible release of a 2004 CIA report on torture may be motivated by former Vice President Dick Cheney's insistence on release of more information on the subject and his assertions that President Obama's abandonment of torture has made the country less safe. Josh Marshall notes the irony that Cheney has become the de facto leading advocate for a torture investigation:

[W]ith his on-going round of aggressive public appearances [Cheney] not only seems to be inviting a public inquiry into Bush administration anti-constitutional practices . . . -- but actually inviting it -- in the sense that he really seems to be pushing for it to happen. In his interview this weekend he seemed to say that he'd be happy to testify under oath about his torture policies. And intentionally or not, he's the one moving the ball forward on the release of various classified documents detailing torture practices.

Beltway stalwarts Fred Hiatt and Stuart Taylor are on board already. What's the hold up?

Speaking for me only

Full post as published by TalkLeft on May 11, 2009 (boomark / email).