Members of the Bush administration who sanctioned wire-tapping and the use of extreme interrogation techniques may be held accountable for their actions, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday night in Dodd Hall.
Pelosi referred to Attorney General Eric Holder’s statement earlier Thursday that he would not take action against anyone who carried out interrogation methods sanctioned by the Justice Department. She said she agreed with that reasoning but asked if the same exoneration held going up the chain of command, to those who influenced those policies.
“I don’t think it does. Those above may have directed the use of torture, but they may also have shaped the legal opinion,” Pelosi said.
Pelosi’s comments came in response to an audience member’s question during a forum sponsored by the Williams Institute, a think tank for sexual orientation policy within the UCLA School of Law. Pelosi was on campus to promote her book, “Know Your Power: A Message to America’s Daughters,” and to discuss LGBT-related policy issues.
Though Pelosi occasionally strayed into partisan commentary, her discussion of the Bush administration came only after Brad Sears, executive director of the Williams Institute, read the question from an index card: “Will you support holding Bush and Cheney accountable for war crimes?”
After explaining her understanding of Holder’s opinion about the use of torture, Pelosi also mentioned alleged violations of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act during the previous administration’s counterterrorism campaign.
“We will have more reports soon,” Pelosi said about ongoing investigations into domestic wiretapping. “At that time, there will have to be some judgments made.”
The speaker distinguished between those following orders, who were acting within the bounds of what was considered legal, and those who created the policies, who she said should not necessarily be considered immune.
On Thursday afternoon, Holder released four Justice Department memos produced during the Bush administration that offer legal justification for the interrogation methods used by CIA investigators. The release of those documents came after a lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union.
Holder said in a statement that President Barack Obama has “halted the use of the interrogation techniques described in these opinions, and this administration has made clear from day one that it will not condone torture.”
In the statement, Holder also emphasized the administration’s commitment to the rule of law, though he said that CIA investigators who believed they were working to protect America would not be prosecuted.
CIA Director Leon Panetta wrote in an internal statement on April 9 that the agency had terminated contracts with private companies that provided security at secret overseas CIA prisons and would decommission those sites.
He also indicated that those who had used techniques that critics have condemned as illegal torture should not be prosecuted.
“Officers who act on guidance from the Department of Justice ““ or acted on such guidance previously ““ should not be investigated, let alone punished,” he wrote. “This is what fairness and wisdom require.”
After the event Thursday night, Pelosi confirmed her earlier statements about looking into charges against the Bush administration.
“We just have to take a look at that question about those who shaped the policy,” she said.
“I think if we say that people are immune because of the policy, then it raises the question of how that policy was shaped, and we have to look at that. But I think we have to handle it with care.”
Thursday night’s event was Pelosi’s only stop in Los Angeles during Congress’ two-week break for the Easter and Passover holidays.
Kelly Berens, special assistant to the speaker, said Pelosi had no other arrangements in Southern California and would spend the rest of the break in her San Francisco district.