One Possible Reason For A Special Prosecutor: The Jack Bauer Rogue
The Department of Justice has announced today that Attorney General Eric Holder will assign a prosecutor to investigate whether crimes were committed in the CIA interrogation of detainees during the Bush Administration. White House aides say that President Obama did not sign off on the decision. Press Secretary Robert Gibbs released this statement today:
The President has said repeatedly that he wants to look forward, not back, and the President agrees with the Attorney General that those who acted in good faith and within the scope of legal guidance should not be prosecuted. Ultimately, determinations about whether someone broke the law are made independently by the Attorney General.
Also today, the Justice Department released the 2004 CIA Inspector General report, which is deeply critical of than handling of high-value detainees by the CIA, as well as the legal reasoning of the Justice Department that led to harsh interrogation practices between 2002 and 2003. The report also gives examples of the sort of abuses--above and beyond even what had been permitted by Bush Administration lawyers--that are now likely to be investigated (for a second time) by prosecutors.
On page 41 of the IG report, a turning point in the interrogation of Abd Al-Rahim Al Nashiri is described. He had been interrogated using harsh techniques for two weeks in December of 2002, when the interrogation team "assessed him to be 'compliant.'" Not trusting the judgment of those in the field, CIA headquarters sent a "senior operations officer" out to "debrief and assess Al-Nashiri." This new "debriefer" was not a trained interrogator, nor was the person authorized to use enhanced interrogation techniques. The Inspector General report describes what this person did [ellipses are used to signal redacted information]:
The debriefer assessed Al-Nashiri as withholding information, at which point . . . reinstated . . hooding, and handcuffing. Sometime between 28 December 2002 and 1 January 2003, the debriefer used an unloaded semi-automatic handgun as a prop to frighten Al-Nashiri into disclosing information. After discussing this plan with . . . the debriefer entered the cell where Al-Nashiri sat shackled and racked the handgun once or twice close to Al-Nashiri's head. On what was probably the same day, the debriefer used a power drill to frighten Al-Nashiri. With . . . consent, the debriefer entered the detainee's cell and revved the drill while the detainee stood naken and hooded. The debriefer did not touch Al-Nashiri with the power drill.
The . . . and debriefer did not request authorization or report the use of these unauthorized techniques to Headquarters. However in January 2003, newly arrived TDY officers . . . who had learned of these incidents reported them to Headquarters. OIG [Inspector General] investigated and referred its findings to the Criminal Division of DoJ. On 11 September 2003, DoJ declined to prosecute and turned these matters over to CIA for disposition.These incidents are the subject of a separate OIG Report of Investigation.
During another incident . . . the same Headquarters debriefer, according to . . . who was present, threatened Al-Nashiri by saying that if he did not talk, "We could get your mother in here," and "We can bring your family in here." The debriefer reportedly wanted Al-Nashiri to infer, for psychological reasons, that the debriefer might be . . . intelligence officer based on his Arabic dialect, and that Al-Nashiri was in . . . custody because it was widely believed in Middle East circles that . . . interrogation techniques involves sexually abusing female relatives in front of the detainee.
There is much more in the Inspector General report that reflects this sort of behavior by interrogators that fell outside the lines of even the harsh techniques that had been approved by the Bush Administration. One other historical note, which may or may not be germane: The Fox television show 24 first aired on November 6, 2001. The second season of 24 debuted on October 28, 2002 and concluded on May 20, 2003. As previously mentioned, these unauthorized techniques were being employed during that time, in late December and early January.
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1
No wonder it seemed like Cheney was writing the scripts for "24."
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1.1
Holder's retro-active prosecution of Bush CIA field ops bodes ill for FDR, Truman, Ike, JFK, LBJ, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Clinton, BHO...
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1.2
I can't believe I'm feeding the trolls (looking at hula), but I do have to take a moment to laugh at the term "retro-active prosecution." How else does that work? Should AG Holder study Minority Report and begin prosecuting pre-crime?
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2
Meanwhile, back at ACORN HQ...
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/25/us/politics/25rendition.html
Obama's Justice Department creates new Triple Jeopardy legal beaver standard out of thin air, DNC hopes for criminalizing all patriots by 2010.
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3
In Obamaland, violence and torture and mayhem are the rightful tools of the UAW and SEIU and Teamsters and ACORN and Black Panthers only.
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4
Lockerbie Week continues, Obama to honor troops and their families by prosecuting CIA field ops that worked with Army, Marines if not libs.
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5
Flailing in polls, despercraps to prosecute CIA patriots for bothering busy Al Quedans with pesky peace questions, Obama assures PLO, Hugo that he remains on left track.
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6
Meanwhile, back at Ayersheads International...
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/25/us/politics/25rendition.html
Holder orders witch hunt of CIA field ops previously cleared by Bush DOJ, retro-active political prosecution reeks of first black Putin.
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7
Nobody at CIA, Justice, DOD, NSC has the GUTS to resign in protest over this Soviet-style public lynching of CIA field ops by the spastic Obamites?
Frank Church and Cyrus Vance must be smiling in their crypts.
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8
hula, for the defense, at the Nuremberg trials:
"Awww, c'mon, can't we just let bygones be bygones?"
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9
hula, for the defense, at Timothy McVeigh's trial:
"He was just doing what he thought was his patriotic duty. Besides, wasn't it like a year ago?"
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10
hula, for the defense, at the Japanese War Crimes Trials:
"Hey, they did it too, amirite?"
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11
Wow, Hula's on a roll with this one. I wonder if he knows what all those acronyms stand for...
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12
I still can't get my head around a crucial fact. Everyone is now agreeing that threatening a prisoner with a gun and a power drill is an illegal threat on the prisoner's life. Simulated drowning on the other hand.....
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12.1
I'm still trying to wrap my head around the fact that we prosecuted the Japanese in WWII for the same acts we're defending now. Its like someone lowered the morality bar and didn't tell anyone.
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12.2
Nobody lowered the bar. it's just that it's never wrong when an R does it.
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12.3
what I find disgusting is how Scherer continues to carry Bushco's water by presenting the story of US torture as if it were primarily a problem of rogues. Under Bush, the United States Government institutionalized torture -- and as a result over 100 detainees died.
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Its crucial to note that detainees don't die because they've been threatened with a gun, or a drill. They die because they've been subjected to extreme physical abuse.
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But Scherer wants us to think its all about some guy brandishing a gun.... PEOPLE DIED IN US CUSTODY, MICHAEL... -
12.4
Considering the subject, and the repeated attempts by the Beltway elite to cloud the issues, let's not beat around the bush (so to speak). US military and CIA personnel, as well as private US-hired contractors, brutally tortured and murdered innocent civilians on orders from George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, as authorized by John Yoo and David Addington. Period.
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13
How will the MSM cover this story? They will focus on how this investigation hurts Obama and the Democrats. I fear for my country if the American people believe it is somehow justified to have the CIA kidnap a 12 year old boy and do god knows what to him in order to get information from his father. This was not a problem of rougues and Scherer knows it.
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14
I'm surprised there aren't more lawyers using the Obama defense, "look forward not back." If I ever get in trouble with the law I think I'll try it, but with my luck the law probably still applies to mere mortals.
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15
...Army Maj. General Antonio Taguba (Ret.) writes that "there is no longer any doubt as to whether the current administration has committed war crimes. The only question that remains to be answered is whether those who ordered the use of torture will be held to account."
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Taguba, who led the Army's official investigation into the Abu Ghraib scandal, says that the report from the doctors' human rights group based in Cambridge, Mass., "tells the largely untold human story of what happened to detainees in our custody when the Commander-in-Chief and those under him authorized a systematic regime of torture. This story is not only written in words: It is scrawled for the rest of these individuals' lives on their bodies and minds. Our national honor is stained by the indignity and inhumane treatment these men received from their captors."
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The report -- titled "Broken Laws, Broken Lives: Medical Evidence of Torture by US Personnel and Its Impact" -- details medical evaluations of 11 former detainees held by the US military in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantanamo Bay. None were ever charged with any crime; all have since been released. The report describes how the 11 detainees suffered alleged beatings, sodomy, electric shock, involuntary medication, threats to their lives and families, shacklings, sleep deprivation, and other forms of abuse..
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/06/retired-gen-tag.html -
16
If the investigation is going to be carried out in full force, the revelation will further badly tarnished if not absolutely damaged the US image in the eyes of the rest of the world.
One would wonder if it is opportune or convenient for the present administration to wash the dirty linens of its predecessor in public, for the ensuing repercussion or ramification can get out of control and turn real ugly. Surely, Washington does not want to hurt the CIA to the extent of inviting an unnecessary backlash from its most coveted secret intelligence, however less-than-severe it may be.
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16.1
It is very necessary to "wash the dirty linens" of the previous Administration especially when your poll numbers are tanking faster than the Titanic!
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Add to that the current public disapproval of the HealthCare Agenda Obama and his merry band of thieves are conceiving at this time. Isn't it timely that we are now seeing the current Administration focusing on "Torture" by the previous Administration? Isn't it typical of Washington politics? I for one am still waiting for the "Change we can believe in" to start.
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What better way than to fully cloud over or put up a smoke screen for when the Legislature returns to session? How else will ObamaCare be enacted into law?
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17
For some reason I imagine that these debreifing sessions were secretly filmed and are on a continuous loop video that Cheney watches in a darkened, sweaty, smoke filled room while sexually gratifying himself.
- michaelscherer Speaking of Mars, these may be the best lyrics of any non-Dylan song: http://bit.ly/4nfnz5 - 1 hour ago
- michaelscherer Mars is super cool. http://bit.ly/4b0IBH - 1 hour ago
- michaelscherer My favorite newish piece of political rhetoric in Obama's speech today: "waxing political." Sort of like waxing lyrical, except not. - 6 hours ago
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