Sen. Graham: White House Coerced Lawyers on Torture Letter

http://www.truthdig.com/avbooth/item/20060914_graham_torture_letter/

Posted on Sep 14, 2006

GOP Sen. Lindsay Graham is telling reporters that White House officials effectively forced military lawyers to sign a letter supporting President Bush’s new legislation on harsh interrogation tactics—after the lawyers previously testified publicly against those measures.

Watch the video.

Andrew Sullivan called the move “breathtaking and shameless.”

This article gives needed background to this complicated issue.

Watch Tony Snow respond to reporters’ questions about Sen. Graham’s accusation:

TPM Muckraker:

... [T]his morning, the White House released a terse, two-paragraph letter from the JAG Corps leaders stating qualified support for the White House’s legislation. But now some are suggesting that joint statement was coerced.

During Tony Snow’s press conference today, Bret Baier of Fox News, referring to an earlier statement by Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-SC), asked Snow whether the White House, over the course of a five hour closed door meeting, tried to force officers from the Judge Advocate General Corps to sign a prepared statement supporting the White House’s legislation.

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