<table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0" ><tr><td valign="top" style="font: inherit;">Note the expected scope of the investigation: "focusing on 'whether
people went beyond the techniques that were authorized' in
Bush administration memos that liberally interpreted anti-torture
laws." Check many articles on worldcantwait.org and excellent books
like "The Torture Team" by Phillipe Sands to appreciate the "liberal
interpretation" of the law under the Bush regime that unleashed a reign
of torture that has yet to stop. This report poses the question of
whether this proposed investigation will have any relationship to
seeking information about breaking the [actual] law, let alone determining the
truth!, or whether it will be a cover-up and whitewash. <br>
Jay<br>
<h3><a href="http://www.truthout.org/080909R">Criminal Investigation into CIA Treatment of Detainees Expected</a></h3>
<p class="article_date">Sunday 09 August 2009</p>
<p class="jgasm"><a target="_blank" href="http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-cia-interrogate9-2009aug09,0,34626.story">by: Greg Miller and Josh Meyer | Visit article original @ <b>The Los Angeles Times</b></a></p>
<br>
<b><i>Criminal investigation into CIA treatment of detainees
expected Insiders say Atty. Gen. Eric Holder is close to naming a
prosecutor to look into reports of excessive waterboarding and other
unauthorized methods. Convictions could be hard to get.</i></b>
<p> 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.
</p>
<p> A senior Justice Department official said that Holder
envisioned an inquiry that would be narrow in scope, <span style="font-weight: bold;">focusing on
"whether people went beyond the techniques that were authorized" in
Bush administration memos that liberally interpreted anti-torture laws.</span>
</p>
<p> 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.
</p>
<p> 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.
</p>
<p> 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.
</p>
<p> 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."
</p>
<p> 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.
</p>
<p> Such a prosecutor would examine cases that are generally at
least five years old, and probably some that were previously reviewed
by career prosecutors who concluded that they could not be pursued.
</p>
<p> "I don't blame them for wanting to look into it," said a
former high-ranking Justice Department official familiar with the
details of the program. "But if they appoint a special prosecutor, it
would ultimately be unsuccessful, and it would go on forever and cause
enormous collateral damage on the way to getting that unsuccessful
result."
</p>
<p> Bracing for the worst, a small number of CIA officials have
put off plans to retire or leave the agency so that they can maintain
their access to classified files and be in a better position to defend
against a Justice investigation.
</p>
<p> "Once you're out, it gets a lot harder," said a retired CIA
official who said he had spoken recently with former colleagues. The
inquiry would probably also target private contractors who worked for
the CIA during the interrogations.
</p>
<p> Current and former U.S. officials interviewed for this
article spoke on condition of anonymity because of the secrecy that
still surrounds Holder's deliberations and the details of the
interrogation files.
</p>
<p> President Obama has repeatedly expressed reluctance to
launch a criminal investigation of the interrogation program, but has
left room for the prosecution of individuals who may have broken the
law.
</p>
<p> Obama and Holder have both said that they believe
waterboarding constitutes torture. But an investigation would pose
thorny political problems for the administration, and probably draw
criticism over questions of fairness.
</p>
<p> <span style="font-weight: bold;">"An investigation that focuses only on low-ranking
operators would be, I think, worse than doing nothing at all,"</span> said Tom
Malinowski, Washington advocacy director for Human Rights Watch.
</p>
<p> An inquiry also would probably drive a new wedge between
the CIA and the Justice Department, agencies with a fractious history
that have struggled to work more closely together since the Sept. 11
attacks.
</p>
<p> <span style="font-weight: bold;">Holder's interest in appointing a prosecutor to mount an
investigation reportedly surged after he recently read a
still-classified 2004 report by the CIA's inspector general citing
extensive problems and abuses in the agency's interrogation program</span>.
The bulk of the report is expected to be released this month.
</p>
<p> Former CIA officials said the most disturbing section deals
with waterboarding, a technique in which prisoners are made to feel
they are drowning.
</p>
<p> The Justice Department authorized waterboarding in an
August 2002 memo that contained a caveat that could prove crucial to
any criminal investigation. Although it allowed the approved methods to
be "used more than once," the memo stipulated that "repetition will not
be substantial because the techniques generally lose their
effectiveness after several repetitions."
</p>
<p> One passage of the CIA report declassified this year said
that the method had been used "at least 83 times during August 2002" on
Abu Zubaydah, the first senior Al Qaeda figure captured by the agency.
Waterboarding was then employed "183 times during March 2003" on Khalid
Shaikh Mohammed, the self-proclaimed mastermind of the Sept. 11
attacks.
</p>
<p> The inspector general also voiced alarm over how much water
was being used. Rather than dripping liquid from a canteen, as the 2002
memo envisioned, CIA interrogators "applied large volumes of water,"
raising questions about whether the method "was either efficacious or
medically safe."
</p>
<p> Because of such documented discrepancies, Justice
Department officials and legal experts regard the waterboarding abuses
as cases that hold the most promise for prosecution.
</p>
<p> Even so, the cases are hampered by legal and logistical complications.
</p>
<p> The U.S. anti-torture statute requires proving that an
interrogator "specifically intended to inflict severe physical or
mental pain or suffering" -- a daunting legal threshold.
</p>
<p> Officials said it wasn't clear that any CIA interrogators
were ever informed of the limits laid out in the Justice Department
memo.
</p>
<p> "A number of people could say honestly, correctly, 'I
didn't know what was in it,' " said a former senior U.S. intelligence
official familiar with the inner workings of the interrogation program.
</p>
<p> The CIA report also cites cases in which interrogators
engaged in potentially illegal improvisations. One interrogator
brandished a gun, former CIA officials said. Other prisoners were
reportedly threatened with bodily harm, including being buried alive.
</p>
<p> Agency spokesman Paul Gimigliano said that the CIA
cooperated extensively in "referring actions for potential prosecution,
and in dealing with career prosecutors who decided if and when specific
cases would be pursued in court."
</p>
<p> To date, only one case has been. In 2007, a CIA
paramilitary contractor, David A. Passaro, was sentenced to eight years
in prison after being convicted of using a flashlight to beat an Afghan
detainee who later died.
</p>
<p> In addition to the sweeping 2004 document, former CIA
Inspector General John L. Helgerson, who recently retired, also
produced a dozen or more follow-up reports that could motivate the
Justice Department investigation.
</p>
<p> Among them are examinations of other cases that involved prisoners' deaths while in agency custody.
</p>
<p> In 2002, an Afghan prisoner died of hypothermia after being
stripped, doused with water and left overnight in a frigid CIA lockup
near Kabul, the Afghan capital.
</p>
<p> One CIA officer faced internal sanctions over the episode,
but the undercover operative in charge of the facility was later
promoted to chief of station in Baghdad, former CIA officials said.
</p>
<p> A year later, an Iraqi prisoner died of asphyxiation after
being captured in a raid by Navy SEALS and then having his arms chained
behind his back in a CIA interrogation cell at the notorious Abu Ghraib
prison outside Baghdad.
</p>
<p> The leader of the SEAL team was later acquitted of criminal
charges. The CIA interrogator, Mark Swanner, has not faced prosecution.
</p>
<p> The two cases are believed to have been among 19 examined
by a Justice Department task force set up in Alexandria, Va., in 2004
to investigate possible CIA abuses. The panel did not investigate the
use of waterboarding.
</p>
<p> Former Justice officials familiar with the effort said that
17 of the cases were rejected by mid-2006. It is not clear what became
of the other two. Official cited a host of problems, including
difficulty locating witnesses and identifying documents -- such as
clinical examinations or autopsies -- that could withstand scrutiny in
federal court.
</p>
<p> "We wanted to make these cases," said a former Justice
official familiar with the matter. "We looked at them as hard as we
could, and they just weren't there.
</p>
<p> "They weren't there because of the way they were
investigated, because of the facts, because of the lack of witnesses
and evidence." </p>
<br><br><div id="RTEContent"><div id="RTEContent"><div><strong> </strong><em></em><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Stop</span> thinking like an American, <br>Start thinking about humanity!<br></span>Read <span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Revolution</span> at www.revcom.us</span><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"></span><br></span></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 127, 64); font-weight: bold;"></span></div></div></div></td></tr></table><br>