Judiciary Democrats Call for Special Counsel on Torture

(Washington) –  The chairmen of the House Judiciary and Foreign Affairs Committees, as well as two key subcommittee chairmen, have written to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton seeking a 2005 memorandum dissenting from the Justice Department’s approval of CIA interrogation practices.   The memorandum was authored by Philip Zelikow, former counselor to Secretary of State Rice and executive director of the 9/11 Commission.  The chairmen also wrote acting archivist of the United States Adrienne Thomas seeking copies of the memorandum as well as information about a reported effort to collect and destroy all copies of it, in what appears to be the first congressional oversight request to the archives for records of the administration of President George W. Bush.

The members making this request are John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich.), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Howard Berman (D-Calif.), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.), chairman of the Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties, and Bill Delahunt (D-Mass.), chairman of the Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on International Affairs, Human Rights, and Oversight.

Copies of both letters are linked below.

Letter to Hillary Clinton

Letter to Adrienne Thomas