Holder names prosecutor for CIA abuses

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Holder names prosecutor for CIA abuses

by Josh Meyer

Att'y Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. today opened a preliminary investigation into whether some CIA operatives broke the law in their coercive interrogations of suspected terrorists in the years after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks -- prompting sharp criticism from both the right and the left.

Holder said that he decided to establish what he called a ``preliminary review'' after he conducted a thorough examination of past reviews of the interrogations, including an internal CIA investigation completed in 2004 by the agency's inspector general and separate reviews by Justice Department internal affairs watchdogs and line prosecutors.

``As a result of my analysis of all of this material, I have concluded that the information known to me warrants opening a preliminary review into whether federal laws were violated in connection with the interrogation of specific detainees at overseas locations,'' Holder said in a just-released statement.

``The department regularly uses preliminary reviews to gather information to determine whether there is sufficient predication to warrant a full investigation of a matter. I want to emphasize that neither the opening of a preliminary review nor, if evidence warrants it, the commencement of a full investigation, means that charges will necessarily follow.''

Holder tapped Assistant U.S. Att'y John Durham to lead the review, saying Durham is best positioned to do so because he has already investigating the CIA. Last year, the Bush administration's final attorney general, Michael Mukasey, appointed the Connecticut-based Durham to investigate the destruction of CIA videotapes of detainee interrogations.

``During the course of that investigation, Mr. Durham has gained great familiarity with much of the information that is relevant to the matter at hand. Accordingly, I have decided to expand his mandate to encompass this related review,'' Holder said.

Durham, an experienced and well-regarded career prosecutor, already has assembled a team of investigators, who will recommend to Holder ``whether there is sufficient predication for a full investigation into whether the law was violated in connection with the interrogation of certain detainees,'' the attorney general said.

"There are those who will use my decision to open a preliminary review as a means of broadly criticizing the work of our nation's intelligence community. I could not disagree more with that view,'' Holder said.

"I fully realize that my decision to commence this preliminary review will be controversial. As attorney general, my duty is to examine the facts and to follow the law. In this case, given all of the information currently available, it is clear to me that this review is the only responsible course of action for me to take."

Congressional Republicans continued their sharp criticism of the attorney general for launching such an investigation, no matter how narrowly focused, saying it endangered national security. And human rights organizations condemned the nation's top law enforcement official for not going far enough in trying to hold Bush administration officials legally accountable for using at least one coercive interrogation technique--water-boarding--which Holder himself has described as torture.

``Responsibility for the torture program cannot be laid at the feet of a few low-level operatives. Some agents in the field may have gone further than the limits so ghoulishly laid out by the lawyers who twisted the law to create legal cover for the program, but it is the lawyers and the officials who oversaw and approved the program who must be investigated,'' said the Center for Constitutional Rights.

"The attorney general must appoint an independent special prosecutor with a full mandate to investigate those responsible for torture and war crimes, especially the high ranking officials who designed, justified and orchestrated the torture program,'' the center said in a statement.

"We call on the Obama administration not to tie a prosecutor's hands but to let the investigation go as far up the chain of command as the facts lead. We must send a clear message to the rest of the world, to future officials, and to the victims of torture that justice will be served and that the rule of law has been restored."