Holder's Decision To Probe CIA Hints At a New Dynamic - Official Winning Many Battles

Source: Washington Post

Holder's Decision To Probe CIA Hints At a New Dynamic
Official Winning Many Battles

By Walter Pincus
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, August 28, 2009

CIA Director Leon Panetta decided Thursday that the agency will ensure legal representation for case officers who become caught up in investigations of alleged interrogation abuses of detainees at overseas locations, a senior intelligence official said.

Holder notified the White House that he was reluctantly leaning toward naming a prosecutor to review whether laws had been broken during interrogations -- the very thing Obama had said he wanted to avoid. And the word Holder got back, according to people familiar with the conversations, was that the decision was up to him.

The back story to Monday's appointment of a career prosecutor to review CIA interrogation methods illustrates Holder's influence in the new administration and sheds light on the emerging and delicate relationship between the White House and the Justice Department. In this and other big battles, including the decision to release memos this year by Bush administration officials giving the green light to harsh interrogation tactics, Holder and his Justice Department have prevailed over strong objections from the CIA and the intelligence community. Holder hasn't won every one of those battles, but he has won many.
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In this case, on a matter of civil liberties and national security, the victory signals a dynamic that could play out on a range of sensitive issues that will come to define the Obama administration and its differences from the Bush era, including the detention of terrorism suspects and the protection of state secrets.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/27/AR2009082704071_pf.html

it's not easy to walk back from the brink, but that is the real job #1 of this administration. i hope the o'haters are watching.

is the lame assed excuse these agents were just following orders. So were the Nazi soldiers and that crap didn't fly

They hung 'em.

Rove - What do you have to say to that ?

As the first defense of anyone questioned will be, "I was just following orders". Even those who might be accused of exceeding established guidelines will attempt to establish fault with higher authorities.

Which will lead up the food chain in the Bush Administration. It's unavoidable.