Discussion Paper No. 28 / Mai 2008
Obstruction of Justice or Confirmation of the System? Presidential Commissions in the USA: the Tower Commission and the Schlesinger Commission

Mandana Biegi

Abstract

Comparing the two presidential commissions that investigated the Iran Contra affair and the Abu Ghraib torture scandal, the author comes to the conclusion that presential commissions do not help to obstruct justice but they confirm the defect constitutional design of the foreign policy decision making system in the United States.