Senator Seeks a U.S. "Truth Commission" on Bush Years

Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy, who is chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has recently urged a would-be "truth commission" to investigate various Bush administration policies surrounding the promotion of the Iraq war, treatment of detainees at Guantanamo Bay and warrantless wiretaps. Leahy compared such a commission to those that have been instigated in the past, including one that sought to uncover the buried truths underlying South Africa’s apartheid era. Said Leahy, We need to come to a shared understanding of the failures of the recent past. Rather than vengeance, we need a fair-minded pursuit of what actually happened. And we do that to make sure it never happens again."

Republicans were, not surprisingly, resistant to such a broad inquiry. Senator Arlen Specter, of Pennsylvania, noted, "If every administration started to re-examine what every prior administration did, there would be no end to it. This is not Latin America." President Obama, before his inauguration, noted that he did not favor deep inquiries or prosecution of members of the Bush administration who were likely involved in counterterrorism measures of questionable legality, instead simply noting that his administration would uphold "our traditions of rule of law and due process."

Obama has more recently responded to Leahy’s call for a broader investigation, noting "I will take a look at Senator Leahy’s proposal…but my general orientation is to say let’s get it right moving forward." In speaking of the need for further investigations, Leahy specifically noted that the Defense Department, which filmed Iraq war protestors, came "shockingly close" to the same actions taken by the FBI during the Vietnam War.