Letters Reveal Holder Investigation Would Re-Open Cases

Source: The Washington Independent

Letters Reveal Holder Investigation Would Re-Open Cases
Bush DOJ Dismissed 20 Abuse Referrals

By Daphne Eviatar 7/28/09 12:22 AM

A series of letters between Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Illinois) and the Department of Justice sheds light on a reportedly impending Justice Department investigation that would mark the Obama administration’s first clear break from its predecessor’s policy refusing to prosecute the torture and abuse of terror suspects.

Newsweek and the New York Times have recently reported, based on anonymous sources, that Eric Holder is considering investigating cases of the most serious abuses of terror suspect detainees by CIA interrogators who went “well beyond” the extreme methods authorized by the Justice Department. Although some human rights advocates have criticized the idea of investigating low-level CIA functionaries rather than the policymakers who made the rules and set the stage for abuse, the investigation being contemplated would likely begin as a re-investigation of cases dropped by the Bush administration, and could well lead to prosecutions of those higher up the chain of command.

The cases Holder is reportedly considering would include, for example, the death of an Afghan detainee stripped naked, dragged and chained to a concrete floor by CIA operatives in a secret prison north of Kabul known as the “salt pit”; the prisoner was left there overnight and froze to death. Another concerns the death of Manadel al-Jamadi, an Iraqi insurgent who died just hours after being captured and beaten by Navy SEALS, then hung from his wrists at the Abu Ghraib prison. And then there’s the killing of Iraqi Maj. Gen. Abed Hamed Mowhoush, stuffed into a sleeping bag and clubbed to death.

Holder has reportedly indicated an interest in re-investigating these and other extreme cases of abuse, identified in a classified 2004 CIA Inspector General report. Although that report has not been made public (it’s the subject of litigation between the ACLU and the Justice Department), previous communications from the Justice Department to members of Congress indicate that the inspector general referred about two dozen abuse cases to the Justice Department between 2001 and 2007. The Justice Department “declined” to prosecute all but two under Bush. U.S. Attorney Paul McNulty, who headed many of these investigations in the Eastern District of Virginia, was subsequently promoted by President Bush to the position of deputy attorney general in 2005.

Read more: http://washingtonindependent.com/52831/letters-reveal-holder-investigation-would-re-open-cases

Why don't we have them testify while not being under oath while we're at it?

the "anonymous source".

I find myself distrusting this in the same way I distrust the Bush(III)whackers' rumors of Obama's plan to take no action.

I hope that Justice will be served in the end. May her wheels grind extremely fine. Amen?

with their heinous, wholesale, immoral, illegal, anti-Christian and torture perversion.

"Having read the inspector general report himself, Attorney General Eric Holder now appears to believe that his predecessors were not doing a very objective assessment, considering the brutality of the facts, like leaving a naked man to die in the cold or beating a man to death — which far exceeded even DOJ’s permissive guidelines."

Rape, electrocution of the genitals, constant beatings and naked men pyramids were specifically authorized to use by the bushes just don't kill them when you act out your sickest sexual fantasies with them. That seems to be Holder's new and improved position on torture.

I'll be a believer.

But if following the evidential chain from the bottom up creates a stronger case against those at the top. So be it. Better yet follow it both ways. That way you can truly say you have them coming and going.

Leonardo Da Vinci said that, although he did not know Holder personally of course, he knew the type very well.

Thank you Senator for all that you do.

I have no doubt ultimately Holder will do the right thing, but these things must be done carefully, thoroughly and lawfully. That, unfortunately means not as fast as some would like.

Now let the bashing begin.