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Will CIA Tape Investigation Dig Deep Enough?
WASHINGTON - A U.S. probe into the CIA's destruction of interrogation videotapes is a chance to examine the legality of harsh techniques used on terrorism suspects, but investigators may not take the opportunity.
U.S. Justice Department officials say the inquiry is intended to focus on the tapes' destruction, but investigators can pursue any evidence of other illegal acts.
The probe could also reach into the White House, where senior aides reportedly debated whether the tapes should be destroyed.
Opponents and defenders of the CIA's interrogation techniques, including a form of simulated drowning known as waterboarding, say the investigation should give a full airing to what constitutes torture and whether the United States has engaged in it.
"This could be a springboard," said Jeffrey Addicott, a former U.S Army Special Forces legal adviser who heads the Center for Terrorism Law at St. Mary's University law school in Texas.
There is little U.S. court precedent on torture, he said. President George W. Bush has said the United States does not torture but has declined to be specific about interrogation methods.
"There are some questions that need to be answered, particularly these serious allegations about the United States engaging in torture. I think it's in our best interests to find out what occurred and to put this to rest as soon as possible," Addicott said.
The CIA last month disclosed that it had destroyed in 2005 hundreds of hours of tapes from the interrogations of two al Qaeda suspects, prompting an outcry from Democrats, human rights activists and some legal experts.
The CIA says it acted lawfully, but the probe will consider whether the agency broke the law by flouting court orders and investigators' requests that it provide evidence in various terrorism cases.
The interrogations took place in 2002 and were believed to have included waterboarding, condemned internationally as torture.
U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey, who ordered the probe, declined to say in his Senate confirmation hearings last year whether he considered waterboarding illegal torture.
'ON A LEASH'
American Civil Liberties Union legal counsel Christopher Anders said of the investigation, "It should not be enough to simply look at the tapes and whether they were destroyed properly or not, but to look at the content of the tapes and whether what was being depicted were criminal acts."
Mukasey, however, has limited the probe, and the federal prosecutor named to lead it, John Durham, must seek further authority to examine questions such as who ordered the harsh interrogations, Anders said.
"Mukasey has kept Durham on a leash," he said.
A U.S. Justice Department official said investigators "would have the authority to go wherever the evidence took them."
Mukasey said FBI agents would conduct the probe under Durham. The bureau's agents have raised concern over what they called abusive interrogations by the U.S. military at Guantanamo Bay prison and in Iraq.
Congress has launched its own investigations.
Bush, who has insisted he was unaware of the tapes until he was briefed last month, told Reuters last Thursday that he supported the Justice Department probe and "we will participate."
White House and Justice Department officials, including former White House counsel and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, played key roles in developing new policies on interrogation techniques.
CIA Director Gen. Michael Hayden has said the agency consulted with the Justice Department and "other elements of the executive branch" on the legality of its interrogation techniques.
Justice Department officials said it would not be unusual for White House officials to be questioned in any investigation.
© 2008 Reuters
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21 Comments so far
Show AllTired and obligatory finger-pointing too. A genuine investigation could only be accomplished in a nation under rule of law.
Is there any law that the CIA is not free to ignore?
If COMarc doesn't say it first, RichM does! I was about to type RichM's first sentence myself, practically verbatim.
I'm conflicted at experiencing the pleasure of dittoheadedness, but there it is. ;)
It wasn't only impeachment, and defunding the illegal and reprehensible imperialist war of aggression of Iraq, that were taken off the table by the victorious Democrats in 2006.
The concept of "where there's a will, there's a way" never made it to the table in the first place. So of course there will be no rigorous investigation of the Bush Crime Family maladministration's criminal activities.
And whether the Nexus 6 Hillary model rockets through the glass ceiling into the Oval Office, or Obama continues to successfully convince voters that "Hussein" is just Arabic for "Elvis", any substantive investigation will be eased to the back burner and ultimately the Memory Hole in the next maladministration.
The "let bygones be bygones" canard, a cheap and hollow ripoff and travesty of Abraham Lincoln's magnanimous statesmanship, still fools most of the people most of the time.
How do you spell Independent Prosecutor, How do you spell
Wexlerwantshearnings.com
How do you spell Rico Laws, and Financial accountability for criminal empires, Halliburton, The Carlyle Group, BlackWater, CACI, do we have enough prosecutors, that are not RNC members, to handle this? I think Not.
Immediate Investigation of Criminal Actions, is called for!
Special Prosecutor. Failure to support the investigation =
Obstruction of Justice! This goes for you to Scalia, who hid the Energy Summit, and allowed the Rape of all Americans by your Duck Shooting Buddy DeadEye Dick Cheney. Remember your little Duck Club Adventure Scalia? While there are lots of eye witness's who do.
The only thing the the American People have to fear, is the Massive Hyped up LIE LIE LIE FEAR FEAR FEAR montra of the Illegal Bush Regeim . Its time for them to be investigated for the Criminal Racketeering activities they are all guilty of.
go to Wexlerwantshearings.com
and sign on to support an investigation. These people are corrupt, as John Edwards says, You cant negotiate with Criminal! Investigate them first, then if the evidence is there, Charge them under the RICO Laws, and Take all the assets, of GE< FOX < NBC <CBS< CNN< New York Times< RNC< Halliburton, CACI,<At&T <Verizon< all of these companies, assets should be held accountable and financially responsible for their crimes against all Americans.
They are all the War Profiteers. They must be held financially responsible for their evil deeds. Its time to start immediate criminal investigations against them all.
If your a politician and you are not for your an open and honest independent investigation, your guilty of obstruction of justice in time of Cheney War, this is Treason, and should be deal with accordingly.
Its time to start a formal impeachment investigation, for info
go too:
wexlerwantshearings.com
This investigation will be just another subplot in the current soap opera called "The Decline and Fall of the American Empire." Some fall-guy will be identified. Bush will retire comfortably to his "ranch" and spend the rest of his days playing his video games and riding his bike. Cheney will expire quietly surrounded by his loving children and grandchildren.
Q. Will CIA Tape Investigation Dig Deep Enough?
A. No.
Q. Why?
A. It's called a self-interest conflict-of-interest.
Q. Explain.
A. The Justice Department is: hired by, paid by, and, reports to, the Executive. If you ran the Justice Department, would you, on your first assignment, bring potential havoc on the Executive enough to have him, possibly, put in jail? The Justice Department has a conflict-of-interest in investigating itself, in this case investigating the Executive -- the person who hires the Justice Department and pays the Justice Department.
Q. But, has not the Justice Department hired an "outside/independent" prosecutor to avoid this so-called conflict-of-interest?
A. Superficially, yes. But, remember who it is that this so-called "independent" prosecutor reports to, and, is paid by. He reports to and is paid by the Justice Department, who, then, reports to the Executive, who, then, pays them both. The Justice Department will determine both the scope and depth of the investigation, not the "independent" prosecutor.
Q. Ahhh... So, what should be done?
A. A truly "independent" prosecutor should be hired by a truly "independent entity" -- not the "Executive" -- to investigate the Executive.
Q. Any suggestions on who this important, so-called, truly independent entity might be?
A. Yes. The "United States Congress" is the independent entity and it should hire an "independent prosecutor" to investigate any "CIA Tape ...", or, other possible U.S. Constitutional wrong-doings and then report back to the United States Congress, from whom he will be independently paid.
Q. This sounds a little like that "checks & balance" theory we studied in American History in the 7th grade. Correct?
A. Correct.
Meanwhile, as these murderous ninnies prance and posture, good people die everyday.
Harold: That was GREAT! Thanks.
The answer to the initial question is country simple - NO.
Hell NO!!!
This guy looks like a crook, why would any sane person believe him? He's a partisan hack.
BTW can you limit your replies to xxx amount of words?
Some of your posters are so long winded and self important that they need to start a blob, er blog, execpt NO ONE WOULD READ THEM!!!
I don't read long posts on any website, ok, I just skip to the next one who I hope has some sense and can condense their thoughts. Those who are not in a mental wheelchair.
If Mukasey falters in his responsibility, the next president of the United States will be under public pressure to fire him, if not to also investigate him for improperly conducting the investigation.
Stand between two mirrors. Look into one and see the reflection of the other. With good eyesight you can see into infinity and see nothing at all, and see nothing around you.
Durham will likely find lots of dirt, if he is allowed to dig deep enough. My question is this: will Durham have the power to speak publicly about what he finds (and about what he is forced to ignore), or will the government neuter his inquiry,, and squelch his effctiveness by declaring it all to be "state secrets" which cannot be disclosed to the public? I am tired of hearing, sometimes years after the fact, that Congressional "leaders" knew about illegal wiretapping, destruction of evidence, secret CIA torture sites, etc., but that they could not/would not disclose any of the illegal activity to the greater Congressional membership because they were "sworn to secrecy" before they could view the substance of the crimes. Enough is enough, it is time to have a proper inquiry, run by a proper prosecutor, and with proper consequences to follow.
"My country has been hijacked by the War Pigs."
A tax revolt won't work if they take the taxes out front from our paychecks.
I'm tired of this story.
First, as if we did not know the CIA destroyed tapes, files or whatever and whoever got in their way. The management there feels they can do this whenever it seems necessary to protect their image.
Hello,. . . readers, we are talking about the CIA-think for a moment. Oh, now you remember, they are the folks for whom the term, 'dirty tricks' was invented. So this story is not really news-it's propaganda.
Second, I feel quite certain there is a power circle in DC who use stories about the CIA to polish or burnish the tarnished image that Americans have gathered about DC politics in general. Americans know that their government is built on marbled over tide pools (swamps) along the Potomac river. That swampy ground is in dire need of draining of all and any political power. I think that the government offices should be moved to the vicinity of St. Louis, MO. But until then certain folks, most likely beltway management types associated with the the Congressional folks and the Democratic party, are using stories about the CIA to deliver a message; "We, the people's elected officials still control things".
Remember the lovely Valerie Plame and her earnest hubby Joe Wilson? What was the efficacy of that bit of trivial pursuit other than to use the information to beat up the Bush Administration? As if, again, hello, . . . . George Bush is a crook? Well dog-gone, ya had me fooled. Oh yes, we discovered that the Bush folks manufactured bits of information about world sources of uranium, but again, dog-gone ya all, that was trivial pursuit. So is any future story of scandal regarding Bush shenanigans; we know the folks in DC are out of control and new talent is in dire shortage, and I don't believe Barack is any different than those wealthy, self seeking, power brokers who set him up on the campaign trail. Again, until the marbled offices around the swamps of the Potomac are drained of their sycophantic, money grubbbing, plutocratic, lying, cheating, lying and otherwise inept occupants, we are all playing trivial pursuit about whose dirty tricks smell worse.
My country has been hijacked by the War Pigs.
The plunderers who direct foreign policy in such a way that the hard-earned monies of the Citizens are transferred to the pockets of the War Pigs, with the side effect of Millions of People Dead.
The television networks and their crappy news shows are complicit in the War Crimes of the Bush / Cheney Regime.
At least with Fitz they pretended we weren't getting a partisan hack who would bumble through an investigation and come up with next to nothing (i.e. one scapegoat to lend his investigation a figleaf of credibility).
But this time we're getting in Durham a partisan hack.
Wake me when it's over.
I'm just waiting for someone to reveal that not ALL the tapes were destroyed.
I'm quite certain, given the professional paranoia that characterizes a good Spy, that more than one person at the CIA squirreled away copies of these tapes.
Just In Case.
CYA is the name of the game.
The only question is when one of them will decide that the time has come to hand copies over to various news media.
And, if the person is really smart, the first copies will go to the British Press because the British press Enjoys bringing politicians down.
I'm still holding my breath for the investigation of Bush, Sr., lying about being "out of the loop" on Iran/Contra.
What we really need now is some Israeli justice …
Ooopps, got that