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Reuters: High Hurdles to Prosecute CIA Interrogators | ||||
2009-08-30 | ||||
(Reuters) - A decision by the U.S. attorney general to probe deeper into alleged CIA abuse of captured terrorism suspects may not land anyone in jail, and it could just produce more headaches for President Barack Obama. A report issued by the Central Intelligence Agency's inspector general this week offered a possible road map for building cases. It gave graphic details about interrogations going beyond approved techniques, recounting threats to kill prisoners' families, a fake execution, a use of a power drill to scare a prisoner and the fact that accused September 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was "waterboarded" 183 times.
Another legal complication in the prisoner abuse cases is that some of the interrogations were done outside the United States, and many were done years ago which raises questions of whether they can still be prosecuted. Glen Donath, a former federal prosecutor and now a partner at the law firm Sonnenschein Nath and Rosenthal, said that the prisoners would also have a motive to complain after being held for so long under such conditions.
One of the biggest hurdles Durham likely faces is that Bush Justice Department lawyers wrote lengthy memos authorizing the CIA to use coercive techniques. Interrogators could use those memos as a defense. The ACLU has also called for prosecuting the attorneys who offered extensive legal backing for the techniques, Steven Bradbury, Jay Bybee and John Yoo.
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Posted by:trailing wife |
#3 Just because the law in force at the time doesn't make it illegal, doesn't mean the CIA employees can't be prosecuted and convicted. If necessary, Obama could issue an Executive Order to make it illegal, or Congress could pass a law making it illegal retroactively. Yes, I know that there is that pesky thing in the Constitution about ex-post-facto laws, but so what? What these people did was MEAN. So we should prosecute them. /liberal "logic" |
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia 2009-08-30 18:38 |
#2 could just produce more headaches for President Barack Obama Sure would hate to see that. |
Posted by: Besoeker 2009-08-30 15:29 |
#1 I got an ideal Obama can use to extract himself from the political quagmire of trying to prosecute patriots for protecting America> Give them Presidential Medals of Freedom and then tell them to get back to work. America wins, the CIA, wins, the White House wins and the left whines. Win win! |
Posted by: badanov 2009-08-30 13:54 |