CIA Report Calls Oversight of Early Interrogations Poor
By Peter Finn, Joby Warrick and Julie Tate
Washington Post Staff Writers
Monday, August 24, 2009
The Obama administration on Monday released additional portions of a long-classified CIA report on the agency's interrogation of high-level al-Qaeda detainees. The document contains new allegations of detainee abuse at secret prisons around the world and seems likely to prolong a debate about the legality and effectiveness of employing coercive methods to elicit intelligence from terrorist suspects.
Describing the interrogation program's evolution from its beginnings in early 2002, the report by the CIA's inspector general said the agency's efforts to provide "systematic, clear and timely guidance" to interrogators was "inadequate at first" but "improved considerably."
The report, presciently, noted that "the agency faces potentially serious long-term political and legal challenges as a result of the . . . program, particularly its use of [Enhanced Interrogation Techniques] and the inability of the U.S. Government to decide what it will ultimately do with terrorists detained by the agency."
The report also said that CIA personnel "are concerned that public revelation" of the program will "seriously damage" their reputations as well as "the reputation and effectiveness of the agency itself."
(Continued here. A related report:)
Holder to Appoint Prosecutor to Investigate CIA Terror Interrogations
By Carrie Johnson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, August 24, 2009
Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. has decided to appoint a prosecutor to examine nearly a dozen cases in which CIA interrogators and contractors may have violated anti-torture laws and other statutes when they allegedly threatened terrorism suspects, according to two sources familiar with the move.
Holder is poised to name John Durham, a career Justice Department prosecutor from Connecticut, to lead the inquiry, according to the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the process is not complete.
Durham's mandate, the sources added, will be relatively narrow: to look at whether there is enough evidence to launch a full-scale criminal investigation of current and former CIA personnel who may have broken the law in their dealings with detainees. Many of the harshest CIA interrogation techniques have not been employed against terrorism suspects for four years or more.
(Continued here.)
Washington Post Staff Writers
Monday, August 24, 2009
The Obama administration on Monday released additional portions of a long-classified CIA report on the agency's interrogation of high-level al-Qaeda detainees. The document contains new allegations of detainee abuse at secret prisons around the world and seems likely to prolong a debate about the legality and effectiveness of employing coercive methods to elicit intelligence from terrorist suspects.
Describing the interrogation program's evolution from its beginnings in early 2002, the report by the CIA's inspector general said the agency's efforts to provide "systematic, clear and timely guidance" to interrogators was "inadequate at first" but "improved considerably."
The report, presciently, noted that "the agency faces potentially serious long-term political and legal challenges as a result of the . . . program, particularly its use of [Enhanced Interrogation Techniques] and the inability of the U.S. Government to decide what it will ultimately do with terrorists detained by the agency."
The report also said that CIA personnel "are concerned that public revelation" of the program will "seriously damage" their reputations as well as "the reputation and effectiveness of the agency itself."
(Continued here. A related report:)
Holder to Appoint Prosecutor to Investigate CIA Terror Interrogations
By Carrie Johnson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, August 24, 2009
Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. has decided to appoint a prosecutor to examine nearly a dozen cases in which CIA interrogators and contractors may have violated anti-torture laws and other statutes when they allegedly threatened terrorism suspects, according to two sources familiar with the move.
Holder is poised to name John Durham, a career Justice Department prosecutor from Connecticut, to lead the inquiry, according to the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the process is not complete.
Durham's mandate, the sources added, will be relatively narrow: to look at whether there is enough evidence to launch a full-scale criminal investigation of current and former CIA personnel who may have broken the law in their dealings with detainees. Many of the harshest CIA interrogation techniques have not been employed against terrorism suspects for four years or more.
(Continued here.)
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