Skip to: Content
Skip to: Site Navigation
Skip to: Search
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 2009
| Subscribe to Newser's RSS feeds RSS | Follow Newser on Twitter Twitter


19

Holder Launches Probe Into CIA Torture Allegations

Share

(Newser) – AG Eric Holder today named a special prosecutor to investigate allegations of torture against CIA operatives who interrogated terror suspects during the Bush administration, the Washington Post reports. John Durham, who is currently probing the destruction of interrogation tapes, will look into fewer than 12 cases detailed in a CIA report released today and determine if a full-scale investigation is warranted. The Bush-era Justice Department investigated and dismissed the cases.

Though President Obama has urged a policy of “looking forward, not backward,” he is staying clear of the current action, the New York Times reports. “The president thinks that the decision of who to investigate and to prosecute is in” Holder’s hands, a spokesman said today. Meanwhile, the CIA bristled at the focus. “The CIA has a strong record in terms of following legal guidance,” director Leon Panetta told his staff in a memo released today.

CIA Director Leon Panetta.
CIA Director Leon Panetta.   (AP Photo)
John Durham.
John Durham.   (AP Photo)
Attorney General Eric Holder.
Attorney General Eric Holder.   (AP Photo)
« Prev« Prev | Next »Next » Slideshow
OFF THE GRID
11.23.09
Books Are Bad for You
11.20.09
The Health-Care Wars Have Just Begun
19 comments
VIEWING:
 
Wraith
Aug 24, 09 3:42 PM CDT
It is long overdue and they need to go all the way to the top to Bush and Cheney as well. Don't just punish a couple of soldiers who were dumb enough to get caught up in the crap go to the very top Reply
Vote up! Vote down!
+8
IN RESPONSE:
godawgs
Aug 24, 09 5:34 PM CDT
Well if they are investigating the bush admin, do you think that they should also investigate the current administration because we all know that renditions and the same tactics are being used today?
Vote up! Vote down!
0
IN RESPONSE:
JonmarkP
Aug 24, 09 6:45 PM CDT
"John Durham...will look into fewer than 12 cases detailed in a CIA report released today." So it's a whitewash, and will never come near Bush, Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld or any of the other sociopaths who planned and carried out this barbarity. Maybe the relatives of those who were actually tortured to death will pick them off one by one. An eye for an aye, so to speak.
Vote up! Vote down!
+1
Timinator2K
Aug 24, 09 3:45 PM CDT
He should be investigating the overt torture of the US Taxpayer with all these invisible, do-nothing, stimulus projects (that we can't afford) and the Apollo Alliance's writing of Big Brother Kare (which we will NEVER be able to afford). Reply
Vote up! Vote down!
-7
IN RESPONSE:
dontlikenobody
Aug 24, 09 4:05 PM CDT
Why Timmie, what a good little Beckie Boy you are! The Apollo Alliance no less! Glad to see the Repugs have already taken a position on this dastardly threat to Americanism and our poor dear tortured taxpayers. Hope you cleared your "thoughts" with the Rushinator, the O'reilyator, the Hannitator and all the other Dick-tators before piping up. "Overt torture," my God - no sense of proportion at all.
Vote up! Vote down!
+2

View all 19 comments »

LEAVE A
COMMENT Comment Policy
Facebook ConnectPost this comment to Facebook?

After connecting you will have the option to post your comment on your Facebook profile.

 

Related Newser Stories

62 Stories

Cheney on Plame Leak:
I Can't Recall

VP comes up blank on specifics in newly released interview

Oct 30, 09 6:02 PM CDT
(Newser) - After years of effort by the Bush and Obama administrations to keep documents related to the CIA leak case secret, redacted portions of the special prosecutor’s 2004 interview with Dick Cheney released today show plenty of nothing. The then-VP apparently suffered acute memory loss: Cheney told Patrick Fitzgerald he... More »

MORE ABOUT:
Bush administration • Dick Cheney • CIA • Department of Justice • Valerie Plame • Patrick Fitzgerald • Joseph Wilson • CIA leak investigation • Lewis Scooter Libby • Obama administration • Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics • Central Intelligence Agency

ANALYSIS

No Clear Way for US to Prosecute Gitmo Prisoners

Experts split on whether to use federal courts or military commissions

Oct 29, 09 11:11 PM CDT
(Newser) - President Obama is edging closer to his goal of closing the Guantanamo Bay prison: Congress has approved detainee trials on US soil and the National Defense Authorization Act, passed yesterday, attempts to repair the damaged legality of President Bush’s military-commissions system. But hurdles remain, with legal scholars split on... More »

MORE ABOUT:
Bush administration • terrorism • military tribunal • Guantanamo Bay • detainee • Human Rights Watch • Guantanamo prisoners • Obama administration • President Obama • National Defense Authorization Act


 CIA Knew of 
 'Secret' Iran 
 Facility: 
 Panetta  

Once agency was certain this spring, Obama kept info as leverage for talks

Oct 8, 09 11:20 AM CDT
(Newser) - The CIA knew about Iran's recently revealed uranium-enrichment facility and had been collecting intelligence on it since 2006. The US, the UK, and France had been on the lookout for a new secret plant since the 2002 revelation of the Natanz facility. When intelligence and covert operations uncovered a new... More »

MORE ABOUT:
Iran • Bush administration • CIA • nuclear program • uranium enrichment • Leon Panetta • Obama administration • President Obama • Qom • Central Intelligence Agency • Qum • secret facility

62 Stories


Politics  •  Crime & Courts  •  US 
TwitterFollow @NewserPolitics on Twitter

 
Bush administration • CIA • torture • Department of Justice • Attorney General • Guantanamo Bay • John Durham • Leon Panetta • Eric Holder • Obama administration • President Obama • enhanced interrogation techniques • special prosecutor

from our news partners