Conyers to hold hearings on ‘torture’ memos

House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-Mich.) on Tuesday announced that he will soon hold hearings on the Bush administration’s legal memos justifying the use of numerous enhanced interrogation techniques.

Conyers and other Democrats have labeled as torture the techniques explained in the memos, which provide a legal framework for the use of controversial interrogation practices such as waterboarding.

{mosads}President Obama recently declassified the memos written by Bush administration lawyers, which also detail for the first time a number of additional interrogation techniques approved for use by the Central Intelligence Agency.

“Recently disclosed legal memoranda from the former Bush Administration raise grave legal, ethical, and constitutional questions,” Conyers said in a statement. “The use of tactics described in these memos runs counter not only to basic notions of decency, but places our own prisoners of war at risk and weakens our national security. And the fact that these memos were authored and approved by senior lawyers of the Department of Justice challenges the very notion that we adhere to the Rule of Law in this country.”

Conyers said he might hold hearings before the White House Office of Professional Responsibility completes its report from concerning the former Justice Department lawyers who wrote the memos.

“Critical questions remain concerning how these memos came into existence and were approved, which our committee is uniquely situated to consider,” Conyers said.

Obama on Tuesday said he was open to an investigation and possible criminal prosecution for Bush administration officials who drafted the legal basis for the harsh interrogation techniques.

“With respect to those who formulated those legal decisions, I would say that is going to be more a decision for the attorney general within the parameter of various laws, and I don’t want to prejudge that,” Obama said during a meeting with Jordan’s King Abdullah II. “I think that there are a host of very complicated issues involved there.”

Obama, though, said he preferred for an outside commission, rather than Congress, to lead any investigation.

“I do worry about this getting so politicized that we cannot function effectively and it hampers our ability to carry out critical national security operations,” the president continued, adding that “to the extent that there are independent participants who are above reproach and have credibility, that would probably be a more sensible approach to take.”

After releasing the memos last week, the White House initially indicated that it would not seek prosecution for any CIA agents or others who carried out such interrogation methods

Even while calling for his own Congressional hearings, Conyers called the president’s commission comments “exactly right.”

“The President’s comments today on possible approaches to a fuller accounting of these matters are exactly right – further comprehensive review of the Bush Administration anti-terror policies will be most valuable and successful if done in a truly apolitical and bipartisan manner,” the Judiciary Chairman said.

Judiciary’s ranking Republican Rep. Lamar Smith (Texas) criticized Conyers and Obama for engaging in a “continuous political campaign to unfairly savage Bush administration officials.”

“Investigating lawyers who did their best to give advice on how the executive branch could protect innocent Americans in the wake of 9-11 will significantly undermine our ability to prevent future terrorist attacks,” Smith said. “Threats of prosecution will have a chilling effect on government lawyers, who will hesitate to give any legal advice for fear of being investigated for doing their jobs.”