That led Obama to call lawmakers to the White House for a closed-door meeting in late April to talk them out of moving forward with independent investigations. The president even discouraged oversight hearings into the Bush administration's use of torture.
Underscoring Obama's position on the issue, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters at the time, "The president determined the concept didn't seem altogether workable in this case."
"The last few days might be evidence of why something like this might just become a political back and forth, Gibbs said.
While Republicans criticized the idea, Democrats weren't eager to get behind the plan either, and it was scrapped as lawmakers said they were forced to deal with more pressing issues like the economy and health care.
Upcoming Hearings on Torture?
However, according to Christopher Anders, the ACLU's senior legislative counsel, Leahy and Conyers have both said they intend to hold hearings next year once a long-awaited report by the Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) is released that delves into Yoo, Bybee and Bradbury's legal work surrounding torture.
Leahy and Conyers "said a number of times that they would have hearings when the OPR report comes out," Anders said in an interview. "It would be a big surprise if they didn't conduct hearings. We fully expect them to hold hearings."
Anders added that while there is a time and place for independent commissions, the issue of torture is really a matter for Congress to probe.
"These are the hard issues that Congress should really be tackling" Anders said. "It's squarely under their jurisdiction."
Spokespeople for Conyers and Leahy did not return calls or respond to e-mails seeking comment.
Additional Revelations
Much of what the public knows thus far about the Bush administration's torture policies is due to the ACLU Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the government. Since 2004, the organization has obtained more than 100,000 pages of documents that show the Bush White House signed off on and authorized torture against detainees at Guantanamo Bay and at prisons in Iraq.
Several weeks ago, the organization obtained hundreds of new documents, one of which was a one-page questionnaire, apparently from the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel, that asked (presumably inquiring of the CIA), "How close is each technique to the 'rack and screw?'"
The rack and screw is a medieval torture device. As Alex Abdo, a legal fellow with the ACLU, pointed out in an interview, "Anytime you need to ask a question like that it is deeply disturbing and shows you've strayed from constitutional norms.
"You're asking a question as to whether the conduct you're about to authorize relates to rack and screw, and that in and of itself should be evidence enough that you're going too far. It never should get to that point."
But the release of these explosive documents, as well as others that showed the Bush White House was deeply involved in discussions surrounding the destruction of 92 torture tapes, was met with absolute silence by Congress and the White House.
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