Administration Refuses to Answer Questions About Government Employees Working on Guantanamo Detainee Issues at the Justice Department

Press Release

Senator Chuck Grassley today said that the Department of Justice's inadequate response to his questions about the personnel charged with advising the Attorney General on Guantanamo detainee issues reeks of secrecy within the department.

Grassley asked questions about the apparent conflicts of interest at the Justice Department at a November 18 oversight hearing. During the hearing, Attorney General Eric Holder only committed to "consider" Grassley's request for a list of Justice Department attorneys who may have conflicts of interest with detainee issues being worked on at the department.

"I asked for names, cases and recusals and in return I received a 5 page letter of bureaucratic mumbo-jumbo that failed to sufficiently answer my simple questions," Grassley said. "I've held nearly 30 constituent listening posts in Iowa since the first of the year and they are upset about the direction our national security is headed. They want to know who is advising the President and the Attorney General, especially after it's become very clear to Americans across the country that misguided decisions on terrorism policy are being made. An answer like I received today doesn't live up to the transparency in government President Obama promised and doesn't sit well with me or Iowans."

Grassley said it's incomprehensible that the Department of Justice does not maintain comprehensive records on conflicts of interest information on such an important issue. He said it also raises questions how serious the department is about national security.

Following the hearing, Grassley led Senate Judiciary Committee members in a letter to urge the Attorney General to fully answer questions he asked about conflicts of interest in detainee policies at the Justice Department.

"…Public accounts of apparent conflicts of interest by those crafting terrorism and detainee policies raise serious concerns that need to be addressed," the Senators wrote.

Here is a copy of the press release with the letter to Holder from Senate Judiciary Committee Republicans, followed by an editorial from the November 22 issue of the Washington Times.

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