U.S. Law Enforcement Officials Support Judge Sotomayor’s Nomination

By Mariko Lamb, Talk Radio News Service

Leading law enforcement and criminal justice officials joined Senate
Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) in a press
conference Tuesday to endorse the confirmation of Judge Sonia
Sotomayor to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Sotomayor will “prosecute the guilty” and “protect the innocent,” said
Joseph Cassilly, President of the National District Attorneys
Association (NDAA).

“We’re not looking for any reassurance that she will be pro law
enforcement in all her decisions,” assured John Adler, President of
the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association. “We only ask and
fully expect that she remain loyal to the Rule of Law,” and not
succumb to the “self-righteous bullying of special interest groups,”
he explained.

Despite the controversy surrounding Sotomayor’s overturned rulings in
New York’s Second District Court of Appeals and questions about her
allegedly biased judgments, Sen. Leahy urged his fellow legislators,
and the public at large, to “show respect for [the] third branch of
government” and its nominee.

FBI Agent: Bush Lied On Torture

By Celia Canon- Talk Radio News service

Ali Soufan, a former FBI supervisory agent, confirms that the George W. Bush administration lied on its use of torture in its interrogation
processes.

In 2005, President Bush said that “America does not condone torture”,
a statement that has been put into question following the recent
decision by President Barack Obama to publish four memos which detail
the legal justification used by the Bush administration to justify the
methods employed in the interrogation process led by the CIA.

Chairman of the Subcommittee on Administrative Oversight and the
Courts Sheldon Whitehouse said “John Yoo (former official in the Department of Justice) told Esquire Magazine that waterboarding was only done ‘three times’ when public reports now indicate that two detainees were waterboarded 83 and 183 times”.

This revelation has hindered the American reputation abroad, resulting
in a struggle between institutions of the government such as the
intelligence agencies and the Department of Justice on who is to blame
the most for having carried out these seances.

Philip Zelikow, former counselor of the State Department, said that “
Attorney General John Ashcroft and his Department of Justice, along
with the White House Counsel, Alberto Gonzalez, assured the
government’s leaders that the proposed program was lawful.”

Whitehouse said that “We were told that waterboarding was
determined to be legal, but were not told how badly the law was
ignored, bastardized and manipulated by the Department of Justice’s
Office of Legal Counsel, nor were we told how furiously government and military lawyers rejected the defective OLC opinions-but we ignored.”

In parallel, Soufan said that “The interrogation team was a
combination between the FBI and the CIA. All of us had the same
opinion that contradicted with the contractor.”

Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) said “I’m also proud of the fact that
the United states of America, when its made mistakes, has not been
afraid to admit these mistakes and learn from them and pledge not to
make the same mistakes again.”