Ethics

Leahy Endorses "Truth Commission"

By Ed Brayton

Pat Leahy, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said in a speech at Georgetown that he favors the formation of a Truth Commission to investigate possible war crimes by the Bush administration:

In a speech at Georgetown University, Leahy suggested the commission could have subpoena power and the authority to grant immunity from prosecution. He told reporters afterward that he envisions a panel that's bipartisan and looks at a wide variety of topics, including the Iraq war and politicization at the Department of Justice.

Others, including House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-Mich.), have made similar proposals. Leahy's comments (video from C-SPAN here) were his first endorsement of such an idea, and he would have a key role in shaping such a proposal because of his committee's jurisdiction.

"We need to get to the bottom of what happened and why," Leahy said. "The reason we do that is so that it'll never happen again. One path to that goal would be a reconciliation process--a truth commission."

Full post as published by Dispatches from the Culture Wars on February 12, 2009 (boomark / email).