With Both Parties Seeking Increases From Cia Interrogation Debate, Obama Must Stand And View
Republicans, challenging President Barack Obamas national security credentials, hope new information will show that useful intelligence came from the brutal tactics that he has condemned and banned.
Democrats say that is unlikely. But they hope investigations in Congress and possibly elsewhere will disclose how the administration of former President George W. Bush approved the practices, which many consider torture. Only by exposing the story, they say, can the country learn from its mistakes and restore its moral standing in the world.
Obama is somewhere in the middle. He has effectively nixed the idea of an independent “truth commission” and shown little interest in congressional inquiries, saying he would rather look forward than back.
But at least three congressional committees are making plans for hearings, which could begin as early as May. The Senate Intelligence Committee says its inquiry could last all year, a pace that might allow the issue to cool down a bit.
The House Judiciary and Intelligence committees, which are more partisan than their Senate counterparts, appear poised to move more rapidly.
“Critical questions remain” about the origin of the CIA interrogation practices, “which our committee is uniquely situated to consider,” House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., said this week.
Obama, in a somewhat testy exchange with House GOP Leader John Boehner in front of other congressional leaders at the White House on Thursday, pointedly warned Republicans that further revelations might hurt their cause more than help it.
But Boehner isnt backing off. He said Friday the Obama administration “has given the American people an incomplete picture by withholding information about the intelligence we received from the advanced interrogation techniques.”
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said the administration is weighing a Republican request to declassify two documents that detail whether the harshest interrogation techniques produced valuable intellligence.
After Thursdays meeting, Boehner suggested the dispute shows that the president is falling short in keeping the nation safe.
“This week, we saw the latest example of the administrations disarray when it comes to national security,” he told reporters. “What is the administrations overarching plan to take on the terrorist threat and to keep America safe?”
Democrats say the Bush administrations interrogations policies hurt the nation more than helped it, and they accuse Republicans of twisting the debate. They note, for instance, that former Vice President Dick Cheney and others say suspected al-Qaida terrorist Abu Zubaydah underwent harsh interrogation, including waterboarding, and yielded vital information. But records show that some of his most important information, such as the identity of would-be bomber Jose Padilla, came before the harsh treatments were used.
White House officials appear wary of how the interrogation inquires might proceed in the Democratic-controlled Congress. They know that some of their staunchest liberal supporters, including the group MoveOn.org, want robust investigations of the Bush administrations policies.
But Obama, who campaigned as a forward-looking man of hope, has little to gain from televised hearings focused on events from 2002 initiated by a Republican president who left office in January, strategists say.
With congressional Democrats and Republicans eager to keep the dispute alive, for their separate and possibly conflicting reasons, the president may have little ability to control what happens.
As Boehner said on Thursday: “Obviously, were going to hear an awful lot more about this in the coming weeks.”