Reid, Rockefeller want interrogation decisions delayed

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and senior Senate Intelligence Committee member Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) have joined the call for the Obama administration to delay decisions on prosecuting Bush administration officials until after the Senate finishes investigating the interrogation methods endorsed by the administration.

Reid and Rockefeller join Intelligence Committee chairwoman Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and member Russ Feingold (D-Wis.), who have already publicly called on the administration to delay such decisions until the committee finishes its probe into the treatment of detainees by the CIA.

{mosads}Reid answered simply “Yes” when asked if he agreed with Feinstein and Feingold. Rockefeller, a former chairman of the committee, told The Hill he also agreed, although he distinguished between CIA employees who conducted the torture and the senior officials who approved it.

“I do not believe that front-line counter-terror professionals who relied in good faith on Department of Justice legal opinions should face prosecution,” Rockefeller said. “But I am not prepared to say the same for the senior Bush administration officials who authorized or directed these policies in the first place. The focus for right now should be on finding the facts.”

Feingold released a letter to President Obama earlier Wednesday in which he said he applauded the president’s decision last week to release memos concerning possible torture, and said he was “convinced that the program was illegal as designed and as implemented.”

“The details of this program were authorized at the highest levels, which is where the need for accountability is most acute,” Feingold wrote. “While I understand your motivation to protect those who may have relied in good faith on OLC [Office of Legal Counsel] guidance, I believe that blanket assurances are premature. I urge your administration to wait to consider the findings of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence’s review of the program, and the Department of Justice’s investigation, before making any decisions related to prosecutions of any persons involved in these interrogations.”

Feingold also threw his support behind a so-called truth commission that has been long proposed by Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.). Obama appeared to endorse that possibility in comments on Tuesday, suggesting that any investigation would gain credibility if it’s handled in a bipartisan fashion.

But Senate Democrats remain divided over whether to create such a commission or to allow Feinstein’s committee to handle the work.

This story was updated at 4:50 p.m.