Mike Levin: “Kenneth Wainstein is President Bush's nominee to be Assistant Attorney General for National Security at the Department…”

“Kenneth Wainstein is President Bush's nominee to be Assistant Attorney General for National Security at the Department of Justice. From July 2002 to March 2003, Mr. Wainstein was the general counsel at the FBI and from March 2003 until May 2004 Mr. Wainstein was the FBI Director's chief of staff. FBI documents, released in response to a Freedom of Information Act request, show that during Mr. Wainstein's tenure at the Bureau, FBI agents at Guantanamo sent e-mails to FBI headquarters objecting to DOD interrogation techniques being used on detainees there. FBI agents described DOD's methods as ``torture'' techniques and expressed alarm over military interrogation plans. Over the past several months I have posed a number of questions to Mr. Wainstein and Mr. Marion Bowman, who was his former deputy at the FBI General Counsel's office, regarding their knowledge of those concerns and their actions in response to hearing about them. I also requested from the Department of Justice a number of documents relevant to Mr. Wainstein's nomination. Mr. Wainstein's June 19, 2006, answers confirm that he was aware and ``there was wide awareness within the FBI--that FBI personnel stationed at Guantanamo disagreed with the aggressive techniques that were authorized to be used there. . .…”