rssFrom Out of the Memory Hole: CIA Referrals for Torture Prosecutions
Monday, July 20, 2009 at 11:03 am
- 2 Comments
Something else from Attorney General Eric Holder’s apparent decision to seek prosecutions for low-level CIA interrogators (Argh!) over torture: Newsweek reports that the prospect of those prosecutions may suffer from lack of evidence. Here’s a retired career Justice official:
But task-force prosecutors say they ran into a host of problems, including a lack of witnesses and forensic evidence, and declined to prosecute in all but one case. “We wanted to make these cases, but they just weren’t there,” says Rob Spencer, the former career Justice prosecutor who headed the task force until 2006. Ken Melson, who oversaw Spencer’s work and was appointed by Holder as acting Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives director, says the cases were “looked at aggressively” and without political pressure. “I think we made the right decision on these cases,” he says.
Maybe. It’s not crazy to think there were problems with preserving evidence at these locations. After all, CIA officials destroyed nearly 100 videotapes of interrogations.
Meanwhile, Marcy Wheeler catches some fast-and-loose references to the number of “specific referrals” from the CIA inspector general’s office to the Justice Department:
Of course, all three claims are likely true: CIA made no “specific referrals” … “when the report was finished,” but did make five referrals over the course of the investigation. And, once it took a look at the report (and probably once it looked at a bunch of military referrals), DOJ reviewed 20 cases. It’s funny, though, how zero can become five can become twenty as the need for different spin arises.
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2 Comments
Pingback posted July 20, 2009 @ 1:21 pm
[...] Daily life, Government, Law, Obama administration, Torture at 10:21 am by LeisureGuy Spencer Ackerman in the Washington Independent: Something else from Attorney General Eric Holder’s apparent decision to seek prosecutions for [...]
Comment posted July 29, 2009 @ 4:17 pm
“Holder Probe Would Be Big Break From Bush Torture Policy”
Oh Please, IT IS NOT !
This trial balloon is designed to try to get away with a very narrowly focused, very limited
investigation of only a few criminals who tortured using methods worse than the
ALREADY ILLEGAL Torture Methods Approved In The Torture Memos.
Unless we voters get a complete investigation of all the abuses of power and violations of Federal Laws, Holder's tightly focused, limited investigation of torture that violated the “Bush Cheney Torture Memos” means little or nothing.
The problem here is that Attorney General Holder seems to be leaning toward a very narrow investigation about the “wrong” Torture violations.
SEE our Federal Anti-Torture Law http://tinyurl.com/besdd3
Holder appears to be saying that the Bush “Torture Memos” have the force of law, that the memos became new torture law and that he only has to prosecute violations which were outside of the Torture allowed by the memos. That is false.
The “Torture Memos” themselves are a criminal conspiracy to evade our Federal Anti-Torture Laws and to render our Federal Torture Law moot.
The Torture Momos were “used to con normally law abiding, patriotic CIA agents and
US Soldiers” into violating our existing Federal Torture Laws.
A presidentially appointed lawyer can't make or change Federal Laws no matter who appoints them. Bush and Cheney attempted to ignore the law and put all who tortured or conspired to torture, even if they meant well (chuckle), at serious risk of prosecution.
We the people have to bring these creeps to justice or this will happen again even when the Democrats are in power (perhaps especially, remember President Johnson and Vietnam and Operation Phoenix, thousands assassinated? The CIA again).
Prosecute all those that tortured in our name, then go after all the other Federal Crimes and violations of our Constitution committed by Bush and Cheney.
If House Judiciary Chairman Rep. John Conyers
does not soon start hearings in his Committee
on the crimes of the Bush Administration
WE Must ALL Call For His Resignation.
SIGN THE PETITIONS
Demanding
both a Commission of Inquiry
and a Special Prosecutor
For All Their Crimes
at ANGRYVOTERS.ORG
We must hang in there…
or our own children or grandchildren may in future decades
be tortured and imprisoned without cause because of our failure
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