Source: ABCNews
ABC News’ Jason Ryan reports: Attorney General Eric Holder is set to name a veteran federal prosecutor to investigate CIA terror interrogations, sources tell ABC News.John Durham, who has been investigating the destruction of the CIA waterboarding tapes, will be charged with reviewing and investigating whether CIA interrogators and contractors violated U.S. torture statutes.
The decision comes as the Obama administration releases a 2004 report by the CIA’s then-inspector general into harsh interrogation tactics employed under the Bush administration.
Durham is a long time federal prosecutor who is counsel to the U.S. Attorney for the District of Connecticut.
Holder said this will be a preliminary investigation and acknowledged in a written statement that it is likely to cause a good deal of controversy.
You better believe it will cause a good deal of controversy!
Source: National Review Online
Obama and Holder were principal advocates for a “reckoning” against Bush officials during the 2008 campaign. They realize, though, that their administration would be mortally wounded if Justice were actually to file formal charges — this week’s announcement of an investigation against the CIA provoked howls, but that’s nothing compared to the public reaction indictments would cause. Nevertheless, Obama and Holder are under intense pressure from the hard Left, to which they made reckless promises, and from the international community they embrace.
The way out of this dilemma is clear. Though it won’t file indictments against the CIA agents and Bush officials it is probing, the Justice Department will continue conducting investigations and releasing reports containing new disclosures of information. The churn of new disclosures will be used by lawyers for the detainees to continue pressing the U.N. and the Europeans to file charges. The European nations and/or international tribunals will make formal requests to the Obama administration to have the Justice Department assist them in securing evidence. Holder will piously announce that the “rule of law” requires him to cooperate with these “lawful requests” from “appropriately created courts.” Finally, the international and/or foreign courts will file criminal charges against American officials.
Foreign charges would result in the issuance of international arrest warrants. They won’t be executed in the United States — even this administration is probably not brazen enough to try that. But the warrants will go out to police agencies all over the world. If the indicted American officials want to travel outside the U.S., they will need to worry about the possibility of arrest, detention, and transfer to third countries for prosecution. Have a look at this 2007 interview of CCR president Michael Ratner. See how he brags that his European gambit is “making the world smaller” for Rumsfeld — creating a hostile legal climate in which a former U.S. defense secretary may have to avoid, for instance, attending conferences in NATO countries.
