So far, the House Select Committee on Intelligence, which includes Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA,9), hasn’t been as critical of President Obama’s decision not to prosecute the CIA detainee interrogators as their Senate committee counterparts.
As I noted earlier, Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), and now Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI), have been clear: President Obama shouldn wait until Sen. Feinstein’s committee, which oversees the CIA, finishes investigating the tortured of suspected al-Qaeda detainees before he decides whether or not to prosecute CIA interrogators. In short: He shouldn’t be ruling it out yet.
But the House Intelligence leadership shares the burder of overseeing the intelligence organization, and the leadership there—namely, Committee Chairman Silvestre Reyes (D-TX,16)—has been resistent to denounce Obama’s decision. “To prosecute those on the frontlines might have had a chilling effect on the CIA’s ability to rely on any legal advice from the Department of Justice,” Rep. Reyes said in a statement.
Rep. Smith, who was appointed to the House Intelligence Committee in February, hasn’t made his own stance on the issue public yet, and his office told me yesterday they haven’t prepared a statement. However, Smith will be on the “Brian and The Judge” show on Fox News Radio tomorrow at 8:30 am (Pacific Time), and his office says he plans to discuss the issue on the show.
Staff for one member of Washington state’s delegation, Sen. Maria Cantwell, told PubliCola Cantwell didn’t approve of Obama’s decision.
