Justice Dept advises pursuing CIA abuses

Justice Dept advises pursuing CIA abuses

By James Vicini and Jeremy Pelofsky


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Justice Department officials have urged President Barack Obama to reinvestigate CIA prisoner abuse cases, raising the prospect of a damaging political sideshow as Obama seeks to focus on healthcare and climate change.

The department's ethics watchdog has recommended considering prosecuting Central Intelligence Agency employees or contractors for harsh interrogations in Iraq and Afghanistan that went beyond approved limits, a government official said.

The development came as the Justice Department prepares to release a long-awaited CIA inspector general report that will offer new details of prisoner abuse, such as coercing terrorism suspects to confess after threats of bodily harm.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder is also expected to decide soon whether to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the allegations of abuse, including death threats.

All together, those looming decisions coupled with the gory details about interrogation practices -- which Obama ordered halted when he took office in January -- is likely to set off a firestorm at a crucial time in Washington.

more...

http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSTRE57N2X020090824

It will be within the purview of justice. Apparently, either a prosecutor will be appointed or an investigatory panel will be set up.

Obama Reopens Massacre Investigation Obstructed By Bush

First Posted: 08-24-09 10:41 AM | Updated: 08-24-09 11:05 AM


For eight years, the Bush administration obstructed investigations into a massacre carried out in the name of Americans in Dasht-e-Leili, Afghanistan.

Earlier this month, a representative from Physicians for Human Rights, the group that originally brought the incident to the attention of the Bush White House, met with officials from the new administration, which has reopened the investigation into the incident.

The massacre dates back to 2001. Two months after the September 11th attacks, in a rural corner of Northern Afghanistan, thousands of alleged Taliban and Al-Qaeda fighters surrendered to a coalition of United States Special Forces and Afghan forces led by the notoriously brutal warlord, General Abdul Rashid Dostum. They were told they would not be harmed. Soon after, they were stacked into metal shipping containers to be transported to a nearby prison. As numerous reports since 2002 have made clear, in increasingly gruesome detail, hundreds of prisoners never made it to the prison; they suffocated in the airless containers beneath the bodies of fellow prisoners -- and were interred in an unmarked mass grave.

The Bush White House thwarted inquiry into the incident on three separate occasions and terminated a Department of Justice investigation that involved survivors of the incident interned at Guantanamo Bay. By contrast, the inquiry President Obama has commissioned could result in war crimes charges.

more...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/24/obama-restarts-massacre-i_n_265455.html

We'll wait and see what happens after the report comes out later today.

when it's something that will piss off easily-led Dems.

Something wrong happens, it's OBAMA'S *fill in the blank*.

Something goes right, it's just *fill in the blank*.

I think lots of people just need a machine to rage against.

and therefore nothing to do with that sort of machine. Just MHO though.

And yeah... I hope Cesc returns to fitness soon.

Why would law enforcement be considered a "political" issue"?