WASHINGTON -- The Justice Department's ethics office has recommended that the attorney general reopen and pursue nearly a dozen CIA prisoner-abuse cases, The New York Times reported Monday.
The move would reverse the policy of the Bush administration, which had closed the cases, and could expose CIA employees and agency contractors to criminal prosecution for the alleged mistreatment of terror suspects in the years after the Sept. 11 attacks.
| Hey guys, you thought the CIA was trying to undermine the Bush administration? Wait til you re-open these cases and see what they do to you ... |
The recommendation by the Office of Professional Responsibility was recently presented to Attorney General Eric Holder, an unidentified person officially briefed on the matter told the Times. The ethics recommendation comes as the Justice Department is to disclose a 2004 report by the CIA's inspector general detailing prisoner-abuse allegations.
Holder is considering whether to appoint a special criminal prosecutor to investigate the Bush administration's interrogation practices, a controversial move that would run counter to President Barack Obama's wishes to leave the issue in the past. But Holder reportedly reacted with disgust when he first read accounts of prisoner abuse earlier this year in a classified version of the IG report.
The report is said to reveal how interrogators conducted mock executions and threatened at least one man with a gun and a power drill. Threatening a prisoner with death violates U.S. anti-torture laws.
| I can see how actually killing Mahmoud would violate anti-torture laws, but reminding Mahmoud that he's mortal? |
A federal judge has ordered the IG report made public Monday, in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union.
The Times quoted a CIA spokesman, Paul Gimigliano, as saying that the Justice Department recommendation to open the closed cases had not been sent to the intelligence agency. "Decisions on whether or not to pursue action in court were made after careful consideration by career prosecutors at the Justice Department. The CIA itself brought these matters -- facts and allegations alike -- to the department's attention," he was quoted as saying.
"There has never been any public explanation of why the Justice Department under President George W. Bush decided not to bring charges in nearly two dozen abuse cases known to be referred to a team of federal prosecutors ... and in some instances not even details of the cases have been made public," the Times said.
It was only a matter of time. This has been Holder's primary mission from day one. The only unknown was the timing of the announcement. Nothing new here, move along if you will please. |