Sen. Bond Pulls GOP Staff Off Torture Investigation

By GottaLaff

The justice system just isn't what it used to be. That's what happens when Republicans try to cover up and/or ignore major crimes:

A major Senate probe of the CIA's interrogation and detention practices was seriously derailed Friday when Sen. Kit Bond, the ranking GOP senator of the Senate Intelligence Committee revealed in a statement that he had pulled the entire GOP staff out of the investigation. [...] The move appears to be part of a broader campaign by congressional Republicans and the U.S. intelligence community to pressure Holder to rescind his recent appointment of a special counsel to investigate allegations of torture during the Bush administration.

Bond contends that the Intelligence Committee investigation had effectively become pointless and the panel was "spinning our wheels" because current and former agency officials will now refuse to cooperate with any congressional probe when they face potential prosecution by the Justice Department. [...]

But Sen. Diane Feinstein, the committee's Democratic chairman, insisted the probe will continue regardless. Saying "I very much regret" the GOP's decision, Feinstein said her probe "is being pursued, additional staff are being hired, and the Committee is continuing the work with all due diligence."

I never thought I'd say this, but: Go, Feinstein!

The flare up is significant because, whatever the results of Holder's criminal probe, the Senate panel's investigation offered perhaps the only opportunity for a full public accounting of the U.S. intelligence community's conduct in the aftermath of Sept. 11 attacks. [...]

[...] But the withdrawal of the Republican staff is likely, at a minimum, to set the panel's timetable back and embolden resistance to cooperating with the probe among lawyers representing CIA officers. That resistance was already an obstacle-and is now likely to intensify. [...]

Egged on by former Vice President Dick Cheney, Bond and other congressional Republicans have repeatedly attacked Holder for suggesting that anybody in the Bush administration or the U.S. intelligence community might have engaged in illegal conduct when, as they see it, they had simply been protecting the country.

Obstruction of justice? Look no further than Dickless McHeartStent.

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All my previous posts on this subject matter can be found here; That link includes one specific to only Fayiz al-Kandari's story here. Here are audio and video interviews with Lt. Col. Wingard, one by David Shuster, one by Ana Marie Cox, and more. My guest commentary at BuzzFlash is here.

If you are inclined to help rectify these injustices: Twitterers, use the hashtag #FreeFayiz. We have organized a team to get these stories out. If you are interested in helping Fayiz out, e-mail me at The Political Carnival, address in sidebar to the right; or tweet me at @GottaLaff.

If you'd like to see other ways you can take action, go here and scroll down to the end of the article.

Then read Jane Mayer's book The Dark Side. You'll have a much greater understanding of why I post endlessly about this, and why I'm all over the CIA deception issues, too.

More of Fayiz's story here, at Answers.com.