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DOJ Document Day on Detainee Abuse

By Jeralyn, Section Terror Detainees
Posted on Mon Aug 24, 2009 at 10:16:42 AM EST
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Update: CIA Director Leon Pannetta issued this statement to CIA employees today on the release of the documents.

Three documents are scheduled to be released today by the Department of Justice on detainee abuse.

  • The 2004 inspector general’s report on abuses that took place at the Central Intelligence Agency’s secret prisons. Here are some tidbits already leaked.
  • "A 2007 Justice Department memo reauthorizing the C.I.A.’s “enhanced” interrogation techniques, which former Vice President Dick Cheney has said provide evidence that the interrogation methods produced valuable information about Al Qaeda"
  • "Justice Department memos from 2006 concerning conditions of confinement in C.I.A. jails."

Among the leaks are that the inspector general's report will recommend the reopening of some detainee abuse cases.

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    DOJ Document Day on Detainee Abuse | 10 comments (10 topical)

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    All we're going to hear about is (5.00 / 1) (#1)
    by scribe on Mon Aug 24, 2009 at 10:34:54 AM EST
    the atrocities, and not the policies or policy-makers who made them happen.

    If - big if - anyone gets prosecuted, t'll be all the Lyndie Englands, and the Rumsfelds, Cheneys, Addingtons, Hayneses and Yoos will continue to slide.

    I did read this weekend (none / 0) (#2)
    by Capt Howdy on Mon Aug 24, 2009 at 11:16:57 AM EST
    that some previously closed cases will be reopened.


    Parent
    another distraction from health care (none / 0) (#3)
    by diogenes on Mon Aug 24, 2009 at 11:44:08 AM EST
    Obama is fighting for his life on health care and now Holder is going to charge some people about detainees?  I thought that Obama was trying to get away from the "naive liberal" label.
    This only reduces our standing in the world in that other countries who do this have the sense to not publically self-flaggelate themselves.  Somehow I don't think that the Taliban or North Korea will respect or fear us for all publicity.

    Of course our enemies pay attention (none / 0) (#5)
    by jimakaPPJ on Mon Aug 24, 2009 at 11:55:26 AM EST
    The Vietnam war taught us that.

    Parent
    Yeah we totally would have won Nam (5.00 / 0) (#11)
    by Socraticsilence on Mon Aug 24, 2009 at 02:40:56 PM EST
    if not for those damn dirty hippies- seriously you do realize that this is verging on Parody right, that you're basically voice the ur-grievance of the Modern American right?

    Parent
    What it is (none / 0) (#12)
    by jimakaPPJ on Mon Aug 24, 2009 at 06:06:47 PM EST
    is factual.

    And I won't go further in this thread even though the subject connects.

    See the open thread.

    Parent

    it's called multi-tasking (none / 0) (#6)
    by CST on Mon Aug 24, 2009 at 11:59:04 AM EST
    and somehow I doubt the DOJ is that involved in the healthcare debate.

    Reduce our standing?  People already assume the worst.  At least now we are trying to make amends for it.

    Parent

    This poor woman (none / 0) (#7)
    by DaveOinSF on Mon Aug 24, 2009 at 12:05:01 PM EST
    She is so stupid that she refuses to succomb to victimhood.  The left must destroy her.

    Here's the part that bothers me: (none / 0) (#9)
    by Anne on Mon Aug 24, 2009 at 12:10:37 PM EST
    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 bold is mine and the quoted part is from the WaPo link cited in the post.

    What this tells me is that the Obama administration and the DOJ have accepted the Bush OLC opinions as the benchmark for what is legal and what is not.  I suppose that if they are committed to not pursuing anyone at the upper levels of the Bush administration, this is what they have to do, but the ultimate fallout is not from the Bushies getting away unscathed, but from the precedents available for the current and future presidents/administrations until someone with more principles and a greater commitment to the nation puts an end to it.

    I really thought we could do better than this, but apparently not.

    Apparently (none / 0) (#10)
    by jbindc on Mon Aug 24, 2009 at 01:57:06 PM EST
    There was a knock-down, profanity-laced screaming match at the WH, with a threat by Pannetta to quit. And although the WH denies Panetta is quitting, it sure is pretty interesting!

    A "profanity-laced screaming match" at the White House involving CIA Director Leon Panetta, and the expected release today of another damning internal investigation, has administration officials worrying about the direction of its newly-appoint intelligence team, current and former senior intelligence officials tell ABC News.com.

    Amid reports that Panetta had threatened to quit just seven months after taking over at the spy agency, other insiders tell ABCNews.com that senior White House staff members are already discussing a possible shake-up of top national security officials.

    "You can expect a larger than normal turnover in the next year," a senior adviser to Obama on intelligence matters told ABCNews.com.
    DOJ Document Day on Detainee Abuse | 10 comments (10 topical)

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