![\"afc.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/impeachforpeace.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/04\/afc.jpg\")
\ndemocrats.com
\nSubmitted by Bob Fertik
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\nOur friends at the American Freedom Campaign think it’s long past time for Conyers to subpoena Ashcroft and Yoo over torture – and if they refuse to appear, begin impeachment hearings. We couldn’t agree more.<\/p>\n
American Freedom Campaign Urges Chairman Conyers to Subpoena John Ashcroft and John Yoo
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\nCall for action follows FBI Director Mueller’s testimony that Justice Department prevented investigation of CIA torture
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\nContact: Steve Fox, American Freedom Campaign, 202-822-5200
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\nWASHINGTON “\u201c Today, the American Freedom Campaign (AFC) is calling on House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers to issue subpoenas to former Attorney General John Ashcroft and former Justice Department official John Yoo, compelling them to testify about their role in facilitating torture by agents of the United States. AFC supporters are sending thousands of emails to Chairman Conyers echoing this request.
\n[Note: On April 22, ABC News reported that John Yoo has declined an invitation to testify before the Judiciary Committee at a hearing scheduled for May 6. Ironically, Yoo’s lawyers said that Yoo was told by the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel that he was not “authorized”\u009d to testify. This is the same office in which Yoo worked when he wrote that CIA agents were authorized to torture.]
\nOver the past few weeks, the extent to which the Bush administration was systematically involved in torture has become clear. The evidence is now overwhelming that the administration, with the Department of Justice playing a leading role, conspired to violate domestic law and international treaty obligations. In shocking testimony before the House Judiciary Committee on April 23, FBI director Robert Mueller described in stark terms the state of the law in the Bush administration. Despite acknowledging that the interrogation techniques of the CIA were so egregious that in 2002 he ordered his own agents not to participate, he testified that he did not have a legal basis to investigate the apparently illegal torture. This is he reason he provided before the committee:
\n“There has to be a legal basis for us to investigate, and generally that legal basis is given to us by the Department of Justice. Any interpretation of law is given to us by the Department of Justice, generally the OLC,”\u009d Mueller testified.
\nSo in 2002, the head of the FBI believed the CIA was conducting illegal activity, based on his understanding of the law. This illegal activity, as we have learned recently, was coordinated by a group of top officials in the White House, including Attorney General John Ashcroft. At the same time, Ashcroft’s own Office of Legal Counsel produced an “opinion”\u009d “\u201c later repudiated “\u201c saying torture is legal. This opinion prevented the FBI “\u201c another agency within the Department of Justice “\u201c from investigating the clearly illegal behavior.
\n“When we talk about having a government of laws and not of men, this is exactly the kind of activity such a government is designed to prevent,”\u009d declared Steve Fox, campaign director of the American Freedom Campaign. “In order to ensure that no future administration ever repeats this behavior, we must explore fully the process that resulted in the Department of Justice blocking the FBI from investigating clear violations of the law. Every possible action must be taken by Congress. If subpoenas do not result in full and open testimony, the only option left will be impeachment hearings.”\u009d
\nThe American Freedom Campaign is an online and offline effort to build grassroots support to restore checks and balances and reverse abuses of power by the executive branch. The Campaign was founded in July 2007 by MoveOn.org co-founder Wes Boyd, scientist and social entrepreneur William Haseltine, Fenton Communications CEO David Fenton, and Naomi Wolf, author of “The End of America.” In less than nine months, AFC has built an online membership of more than 40,000 supporters around the country.
\nFor more information, visit the American Freedom Campaign Web site “\u201c American Freedom Campaign<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
democrats.com Submitted by Bob Fertik Our friends at the American Freedom Campaign think it’s long past time for Conyers to subpoena Ashcroft and Yoo over torture – and if they refuse to appear, begin impeachment hearings. We couldn’t agree more. American Freedom Campaign Urges Chairman Conyers to Subpoena John Ashcroft and John Yoo Call for…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":5197,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[122,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5196","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bush_era","category-impeachment-evidence"],"yoast_head":"\n