I urge my colleagues to support the Intelligence Authorization conference report which includes a requirement that all government agencies, including the CIA, comply with the Army Field Manual on Interrogations in the treatment and interrogation of detainees. (more…)
Mr. President, last year Congress passed a temporary bill with a six month time limit that would give us the opportunity to carry out a thorough, thoughtful examination of how to utilize complicated new technologies in the surveillance of suspected terrorists without invading the privacy of innocent Americans. In the months since we passed that temporary act, we have worked in a bipartisan manner to consider the best course forward for permanent changes to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Despite the enormous complexity of these issues, we reached a bipartisan consensus on the key provisions contained in Title I of the bill we are considering today. (more…)
By Hope Yen
Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urged the Democratic-controlled Congress not to interfere in the conduct of the Iraq war and suggested President Bush would defy troop withdrawal legislation.
But Sen. Carl Levin, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said lawmakers would step up efforts to force Bush to change course. “The president needs a check and a balance,” said Levin, D-Mich. (more…)
NBC News and news services
Committee chairman says Democrats do not have enough votes yet
WASHINGTON - A top U.S. Senate Democrat said Sunday his party aims to limit the role of the nearly 140,000 American troops in Iraq and withdraw most of them from the war-torn country within a year.
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By Gordon Trowbridge
Detroit News
WASHINGTON — Michigan’s senior U.S. senator, Democrat Carl Levin, said Friday he plans to delve more deeply into the story of how the United States went to war in Iraq, sending staffers to interview key White House and Pentagon officials about how dubious intelligence linking Saddam Hussein to the September 11 terrorist attacks became part of the justification for the 2003 invasion.
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By Gordon Trowbridge
Detroit News
WASHINGTON — An investigation by the Pentagon’s internal watchdog of the run-up to the Iraq war shows top Defense Department officials manipulated intelligence on Iraq’s relationship with al-Qaida, Sen. Carl Levin said today. (more…)
By Jonathan Allen
CQ Today
The sight of Sen. Carl Levin behind a committee dais might not scare government and corporate witnesses, but it should.
The Michigan Democrat lacks the witness-bashing bombast of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., or the central-casting courtliness of Sen. John W. Warner, R-Va. But few lawmakers use their question time as judiciously or as effectively as Levin, whose tenacious yet civil interrogating routinely elicits closely guarded information from even the most hostile witnesses. (more…)
All Things Considered
National Public Radio
Robert Siegel talks with Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI), who has agreed to sign on to a bill along with Sen. John Warner (R-VA) expressing disapproval of President Bush’s “surge strategy” in Iraq. But some Democrats say the bill could inhibit more critical legislation that could come later. (more…)
By Anne Flaherty
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Two senators leading separate efforts to put Congress on record against President Bush’s troop buildup in Iraq joined forces today, agreeing on a nonbinding resolution that would criticize the plan.
Sens. John Warner, R-Va., and Carl Levin, D-Mich., had been sponsoring competing measures opposing Bush’s strategy of sending 21,500 more U.S. troops to the war zone, with Warner’s less harshly worded version attracting more Republican interest. The new resolution would vow to protect funding for troops while keeping Warner’s original language expressing the Senate’s opposition to the troop buildup. (more…)
By Gordon Trowbridge
Detroit News
U.S. Sen. Carl Levin said Thursday he is “very concerned” that President Bush is considering plans to add U.S. troops to Iraq, a move seen as the likely centerpiece of a new war strategy the president is expected to outline in the coming weeks. (more…)
By Gordon Trowbridge
Detroit News Washington Bureau
Hearings will be his first chance to use Dems’ control of Congress to help shape Iraq policy.
WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. Carl Levin’s first hearings as chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee will question administration officials and outside experts about possible new strategies in Iraq — and not about possible mistakes in conduct of the war. (more…)
CAPITOL HILL - President Bush’s choice to head the Pentagon goes back up to Capitol Hill today.
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