Patrick Leahy: “nearly 7 months after the world learned of the atrocities at Abu Ghraib, those of us in the Congress who strongly…”

“nearly 7 months after the world learned of the atrocities at Abu Ghraib, those of us in the Congress who strongly believe that oversight and accountability are paramount to restoring America's reputation as a human rights leader remain stymied in our efforts to learn the truth about how this administration's policies trickled down from offices in Washington to cellblocks in Abu Ghraib. The Bush administration circled the wagons long ago and has continually maintained that the abuses were the work of ``a few bad apples.'' I have long said that somewhere in the upper reaches of the Executive branch a process was set in motion that rolled forward until it produced this scandal. To put this matter behind us, first we need to understand what happened at all levels of government. It is the responsibility of the Senate to investigate the facts, from genesis to approval to implementation and abuse. However, this Senate, and in particular the Judiciary Committee, continues to fall short in its oversight responsibilities. Several of the investigations into U.S. detention policies are now complete. They provide additional insight into how the prison abuses occurred, but their narrow mandates prevented them from addressing critical issues. Overall, these investigations collectively suffered from a lack of scope and authority, leaving key inquiries into issues like contractor abuses and ``ghost detainees'' unexplored.”