Source:
http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/Leahy_to_RAW_Torture_memos_will_1213.html

Leahy to RAW: Torture memos will be made public

Brian Beutler
Raw Story
Wednesday, December 13, 2006

United States Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT), the incoming chairman of the
Judiciary Committee has informed RAW STORY that he will subpoena a
controversial detainee treatment memorandum if his request that the
Justice Department submit it to him is not met.

Leahy indicates that the document—acknowledged to exist in November by
the Justice Department after a FOIA request by the ACLU—should have been
sent to him many months ago, when he asked Attorney General Alberto
Gonzales to provide him with all memos concerning detainee treatment.

That memo—a companion of sorts to the infamous Bybee memorandum, which
broadened the range of permissible detainee questioning techniques—is
said to outline actual interrogation procedures that have been approved
by the Executive Branch. Many suspect that some of the procedures will
be found to be forbidden by the Geneva Convention against Torture.

"I want to find out what is in the...memo," he indicated at a forum at
Georgetown University. "I intend to continue to try to get it. I would
hope we could get these without a subpoena."

But the senator indicated he is willing to use legal authority, if
necessary.

"It is legitimately within our oversight," he insisted. "If we don't get
these things which are legitimately within our oversight, I'll ask the
committee to give me the power to subpoena them."

Should a subpoena reveal that key information has been classified, Leahy
offered that he is also willing to pursue other means of obtaining the
information. "I find it hard," he explained, "to think of what could
possibly be in there of a classified nature. If something is classified
you have the process within the congress to determine whether it can be
declassified.”

Leahy also indicated that he would reinstitute the so-called Thurmond
Rule, named for now-deceased Senator Strom Thurmond (R-SC), an informal
understanding whereby judicial nominations are not brought up in the
Senate between the party conventions and Election Day of a presidential
year.

During Leahy's hour-long talk, he pledged to work to see habeas corpus
rights that were removed by the recently passed Military Commissions Act
of 2006 restored, as well as to put an end to the warrantless
wiretapping policies instituted by the Bush Administration after
September 11, 2001.

When asked in a question and answer session whether and when he'd summon
Attorney General Gonzales to testify before the Judiciary Committee,
Leahy said that during a lunch with the Attorney General, he'd told him
that he could "expect an invitation," and declared that he would not
"accept answers like 'I can't answer that', or 'we'll get back to you'
because, of course, they never get back to you."

When pressed to say what he would do if faced with evasive responses
such as those from Justice Department officials, Leahy said he would use
his subpoena power to make sure he obtains all the information he seeks.
“I expect to get the answers. If I don't then I believe we should
subpoena...If the president wants to claim executive authority, let him
do so and then we can go from there.”