CIA Hopeful Panetta Retracts Torture Remarks

(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. More»

'Someone appears not to be telling the truth' about waterboarding

(NEWSER) - Karl Rove indulges in a bit of revenge on Nancy Pelosi in his Wall Street Journal column today, writing that "the political persecution of Bush administration officials she has been pushing may now ensnare her." As evidence mounts that the CIA told her as early as 2002 about waterboarding—which "Democrats are calling" torture—Rove wonders whether Pelosi should be considered "an accessory to a crime." More»

Emails indicate Porter Goss agreed with the decision

(NEWSER) - Former CIA head Porter Goss agreed with the decision to destroy tapes of terror suspect Abu Zubaydah being waterboarded, email records obtained by the ACLU show. In one, the agency's top officer wrote that he "felt it was extremely important to destroy the tapes"—then added "PG, however, agreed with the decision." The emails also suggest Bush's top legal counsel, Harriet Miers, didn't know about the tapes and was "livid" when she heard, days later, that they'd been destroyed. More»

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

(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 project “built into a mountain,” CIA director Leon Panetta tells Time, “obviously that raised question marks.” More»

(NEWSER) - Leon Panetta couldn't stop the Justice Department's widening inquiry into the CIA's interrogation policies, but the agency's director can make sure his employees don't go broke paying legal fees. The agency will see to it that case officers caught up in the investigation have representation, the Washington Post reports. Most "don't have much money and could go into debt to hire a good lawyer," says one attorney. More»