From The LA Times:
Reporting from Washington -- U.S. Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. is poised to appoint a criminal prosecutor to investigate alleged CIA abuses committed during the interrogation of terrorism suspects, current and former U.S. government officials said.
A senior Justice Department official said that Holder envisioned an inquiry that would be narrow in scope, focusing on "whether people went beyond the techniques that were authorized" in Bush administration memos that liberally interpreted anti-torture laws.
Current and former CIA and Justice Department officials who have firsthand knowledge of the interrogation files contend that criminal convictions will be difficult to obtain because the quality of evidence is poor and the legal underpinnings have never been tested.
Some cases have not previously been disclosed, including an instance in which a CIA operative brought a gun into an interrogation booth to force a detainee to talk, officials said.
Other potentially criminal abuses have already come to light, including the waterboarding of prisoners in excess of Justice Department guidelines, and the deaths of detainees in CIA custody in Afghanistan and Iraq in 2002 and 2003.
Opening a criminal investigation is something Holder "has come reluctantly to consider," the Justice Department official said, emphasizing that Holder had not reached a final decision but noting that, "as attorney general, he has the obligation to follow the law."
Others familiar with Holder's thinking say that such an investigation seems all but certain, and that a prosecutor will probably be selected from a short list that Holder asked subordinates to assemble.
There is a lot to pick through here. Obviously it will be chickenshit if they just go after the CIA agents who carried out the torture and not the people who ordered it. But more disturbing to me is this sense of cowardice that I get from reading all of these trial balloons. I don't for the media to keep portraying Attorney General Holder as some kind of tortured soul or something. He is SUPPOSED to make tough decisions and he shouldn't be factoring in potential political cost. That is not why people supported him to be Attorney General and its not what his job is supposed to be all about. I keep hearing all this talk about "rule of law" from this administration and about how no man is above it. Well its time for them to put their money where their mouth is and investigate the whole thing from top to bottom.
Ill try to take it apart a little more later today or just link to Glenzilla or Marcy Wheeler should they offer their insights and opinions on it.
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Great, bring it on Mr Holder- you obsequious partisan toady.
ReplyDeleteObama really kicked an ant hill with his ill-advised and politically motivated release of Bush Administration memos regarding EITs. Surely he regrets it, but like when Pelosi is caught lying... he'll just double-down with an investigation of the CIA now.
But Obama, Pelosi, and Holder seem to have forgot something: the CIA KILLS people… it’s in their job description.
Did these two really think that these killers were going to just meekly take-one-for-the-team… when the team captain is a lying, incompetent, arrogant nebbish who has basically told them they need to kiss his ring? -please
So, let’s have a hearing and get it all out there, shall we? Then just watch the rats scatter who attacked George W Bush for protecting the country from terrorist attack… but who clearly knew what was going on five years before we heard a peep out of them-
http://reaganiterepublicanresistance.blogspot.com
It never ceases to amaze me how Republicans/Conservatives who SAY they are all about things like adherence to the constitution, personal freedom, rule of law, and an aversion to big government, are just fine with ALL of those things as long as its a Republican at the helm. George Bush could have whipped out his pecker and pissed in your face but as long as he said it was necessary for national security you would have just stood there and smiled and enjoyed your golden shower.
ReplyDeleteNevermindt that torture made us less safe, never mind that we wasted time torturing these idiots when people were plotting against us and got no information, nevermind that all of the real intel came from interrogation techniques from proven veteran interrogators, not CIA agents who had never conducted an interrogation until Bush and Cheney told them to.
ITS FUCKING ILLEGAL TO TORTURE.
No less than the Republican God, Ronald Reagan, signed into law the conventions against torture. A treaty that we have to follow under our constituion. But Bush took a dump all over the Constitution and you think thats just fine and dandy and will go so far as to willfully stick your head in the sand because you think that moron knew better than our founding fathers and Reagan what was best for this country.
George Bush who lied us into the Iraq war because he thought he was on a mission from God. George Bush who couldn't even stop the DC sniper. George Bush who claimed not to have seen 9-11 coming after being briefed a week prior that "Bin Ladin determined to strike inside the US"
You have got to be shitting me.
But you claim to be afraid of a nanny state. Funny because you and those like you LOVE sucking on GOP big gubmint pacifiers. Or maybe thats something else...