Release of Memos Fuels Push for Inquiry Into Bush’s Terror-Fighting Policies - NYTimes.com

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Release of Memos Fuels Push for Inquiry Into Bush’s Terror-Fighting Policies

WASHINGTON — A day after releasing a set of Bush administration opinions that claimed sweeping presidential powers in fighting terrorism, the Obama administration faced new pressure on Tuesday to support a broad inquiry into interrogation, detention, surveillance and other practices under President George W. Bush

Justice Department officials said they might soon release additional opinions on those subjects. But the disclosure of the nine formerly secret documents fueled calls by lawmakers for an independent commission to investigate and make public what the Bush administration did in the global campaign against terrorism.

The chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Representative John Conyers Jr. , Democrat of Michigan, said the revelations, together with the release of new information about the Central Intelligence Agency ’s destruction of 92 interrogation videotapes , had underscored the need for a commission that would have the power to subpoena documents and testimony.

Officials who discussed the process spoke on the condition of anonymity because memorandums still under review might involve classified information. Among those that have not been disclosed but are believed to exist are a memorandum from the fall of 2001 justifying the National Security Agency ’s program of domestic surveillance without warrants and one from the summer of 2002 that listed specific harsh interrogation techniques, including waterboarding , that the C.I.A. was authorized to use.

The Justice Department officials said the decision to release the nine memorandums on Monday came after some of the opinions were sought in a civil lawsuit in California. They said department lawyers had determined that the opinions did not contain classified information.

The lawsuit was filed by Jose Padilla , a United States citizen who was arrested in Chicago in 2002 and detained for years as an enemy combatant ...

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http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/04/washington/04legal.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/04/washington/04legal.html