Promises, Promises

Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter now backs Obama nominee for Attorney General Eric Holder, after questioning his independence, citing, among other things, his role in the Clinton administration midnight pardon of Marc Rich. Marc Rich was a fugitive, and his former wife, Denise Rich, was pouring money into the Clinton Library and Democratic National Committee.

Specter, in his criticism of Holder, wondered out loud if he would be merely another Alberto Gonzales, Bush's White House counsel who moved over to Justice and seemed to be the puppet of Karl Rove and Dick Cheney no matter where he was located.

Here's what Specter promised: "After our recent experience with Attorney General Gonzales, it is imperative that the Attorney General undertake and effectuate that responsibility of independence. Mr. Gonzales left office accused of politicizing the Justice Department, failing to restrain Executive overreaching, and being less than forthcoming with Congress …

"I am convinced that many of Attorney General Gonzales’ missteps were caused by his eagerness to please the White House. Similarly, when Mr. Holder was serving as DAG to President Clinton, some of his actions raised concerns about his ability to maintain his independence from the president."

On the same day Specter published a letter in the Philadelphia Inquirer, again promising tough questions, Specter agreed not to filibuster Holder's nomination, and announced that he would vote for him as the next Attorney General.

According to a post on talkingpointsmemo.com, there were enough assurances from Holder that there would be no prosecutions of intelligence officers for use of torture in interrogating suspects in the "war on terror."

"The gist of" Holder's stance on the issue, "is that if you have an authoritative legal opinion, that's a defense in terms of mens rea, of intent. That's a broad generalization. I don't think you can go any further than that until you examine the specific facts of a case."

"[There may be] an opinion that allows an interrogator to go so far, and the conduct [in question] vastly exceeds that," Specter added, referring to the 2002 "Bybee memo" on torture that was later repudiated by the Bush DoJ. "It's really going to be fact-specific."

Prosecutions of the Bush administration officials who authorized and rationalized the use of torture on terrorism suspects should go forward. The White House influenced the supposed authoritative legal opinions coming out of the Office of Legal Counsel on the legality of excluding from domestic and international law the harsh and brutal treatment, amounting to torture, of terrorism suspects. Both Cheney and now Gonzales are using the same talking points: they have no liability because they acted on the basis of these legal memoranda, authored by Jay Bybee, now a federal judge and John Yoo, back as a Constitutional Law professor at US Berkeley. There is evidence, however, of David Addington's hand in these memos, which means that they were not independently authored.

America's stature in the world and the safety of our military personnel when captured by enemy forces depends on our repudiating the Bush era methods. Will we have the courage to do so?

Propublica.org published a listing of the memoranda that came out of the Office of Legal Counsel, and the ACLU is calling for the Obama administration to release to the public all of the memos so that they will become part of the public record.