By now, many who have been following the tortured torture debate are well aware of the existence of at least one memo provided to the Bush White House that served as an opposing viewpoint to the OLC memos written by John Yoo and Steven Bradbury.
That memo in question is "The Zelikow Memo".
Philip Zelikow, then Secretary of State Rice's deputy, apparently authored his own memo regarding torture techniques supposedly "legalized" by OLC authors. The gist of Zelikow's basis for writing the memo, as told by him, was that he believed that the legal opinions in the OLC memos were "wrong", "implausable", "deeply unsound" and that the White House should be notified that it was being ill-served by relying upon the OLC opinions. He wanted the White House to hear a competing viewpoint. And he also wanted the White House to know that many legal experts would find the OLC legal opinions to be "outliers".
And he did all of that.
And after he did that, the Bush White House began the task of collecting copies of his memo to have them destroyed.
[...]
On April 21, Philip Zelikow, who was counselor to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice during the Bush administration, revealed on Foreign Policy's "Shadow Government" blog that he wrote a memo in 2005 disputing the conclusions of Bush Justice Department lawyers that torture was legal. The existence of such a memo was a surprise. But Zelikow also disclosed that the "White House attempted to collect and destroy all copies of my memo."
[...]
Why?
One can only speculate, but many will argue that the Bush White House's actions were an effort to destroy what might be used as evidence to rebuff the administration's claims that they were acting "in good faith".
Seems a good enough guess.
Add "destruction of evidence" and "obstruction of justice" to the charges.
Anyway, there has been a bit of a dust-up regarding this memo... which some suspect no longer exists, while others are almost sure another "copy or two" remains at the State Department.
Enter the House Judiciary and Foreign Affairs Committees.
On April 30, 2009, members of the committees wrote a letter to Secretary of State Clinton requesting copies of "The Zelikow Memo" (Senator Whitehouse also requested copies in advance of hearings he has scheduled for May 13, 2009.).
[...]
We write seeking access to an important State Department memorandum necessary for the Judiciary Committee’s ongoing investigation of the role Justice Department lawyersin approving interrogation practices of the former Administration. This document may also shed significant light on the role played by State Department experts in the interagency process that led to the implementation of these practices, a matter of substantial interest to the Foreign Affairs Committee and its Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights and Oversight.
[...]
In that letter, the members requested this information by May 7, 2009.
Today is May 7, 2009.
I am unaware of whether or not the committees requesting the information have received it.
There have been no news reports indicating as much.
No press releases by either committee.
Assuming they have yet to receive it, a simple request:
"Show us the memo, Madame Secretary".