Torture Report: Thank Heavens for the ACLU

If humanity gets any justice out of us at all, it will be due the ACLU. Again.

The Washington Post is reporting that Eric Holder has decided to name a special prosecutor to probe -- though only up to a point -- instances of torture under the Bush administration.

According to the paper's sources, Holder will name John Durham, a career prosecutor with a reputation for independence and impartiality, who led the investigation into the destruction of CIA interrogation tapes.

It looks like the probe will be somewhat limited in scope.

  TPM

What a surprise that is.

Attorney General Eric Holder has named a federal prosecutor to examine alleged CIA interrogation abuses — a move that could lead to the criminal prosecution of CIA officers and contractors.

  Politico

Leaving torture memo writers, and torture memo instigators untouched. Another great sweeping under the Oval Office rug. We have to have those periodically to make room for more abuses.

Aides said Holder himself was so troubled by some of the reports that he felt a prosecutor might be needed — even though the move is likely to be viewed by the White House as an unwelcome distraction.

Distraction.

The news of the inquiry into past interrogations came as the Justice Department released a CIA Inspector General report from 2004 that details some of the most extreme interrogation techniques used under the Bush Administration.

[...]

In a written statement about the inquiry, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs immediately invoked President Barack Obama’s mantra about focusing on the future, not the past, when it comes to questions how the Bush administration carried out its war on terror.

And I think we are well into implicating the Obama administration, which may be the real reason they don’t welcome this “distraction”.

Holder said “the information known to me” warrants opening a preliminary investigation. But he stressed 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.”

Oh, of course not. Totally understood, sir.

The White House also chose Monday, the first full day of Obama’s vacation on Martha’s Vineyard, to announce that he has decided to set up a new, elite terrorist interrogation team.

And he is also having a review into whether or not there are additional practices that should be allowed.

The new report calls for scientific studies which could augment the list of acceptable techniques, but an official said there would be “full transparency” if new techniques were adopted in the future.

Yes, I believe we are quite familiar with Mr. Obama’s adherence to promises of transparency.

The new interrogation group will be run by the FBI and include CIA personnel.

Given the longstanding animosity between the two agencies, I can only imagine how well that will work.

“The White House will not be involved in any type of operation of this group.”

Deniability up front.

And Mr. Obama has gone on vacation, so let’s get all our squabbling done before he gets back. He won’t appreciate having to be “distracted” from his health care plan fiasco when he returns.

Some top Democrats are expressing disappointment with Eric Holder's announcement of a probe into Bush-era torture, and specifically with Holder's apparent decision to ensure the probe doesn't look at the Bush officials who authorized the policy.

  TPM

”Some top Democrats” would be John Conyers, Russ Feingold, Patrick Leahy and Jerry Nadler. Where is everybody else?

As a practical matter, Holder is consciously establishing as the legal baseline -- he's vesting with sterling legal authority -- those warped, torture-justifying DOJ memos. Worse, his pledge of immunity today for those who complied with those memos went beyond mere interrogators and includes everyone, policymakers and lawyers alike: "the Department of Justice will not prosecute anyone who acted in good faith and within the scope of the legal guidance given by the Office of Legal Counsel regarding the interrogation of detainees." Thus, as long as, say, a White House official shows that (a) the only torture methods they ordered were approved by the OLC and (b) they did not know those methods were criminal, then they would be entitled to full-scale immunity under the standard Holder announced today.

This quite likely sets up, at most, a process where a few low-level sacrificial lambs -- some extra-sadistic intelligence versions of Lynndie Englands -- might be investigated and prosecuted where they tortured people the wrong way. Those who tortured "the right way" -- meaning the way the OLC directed -- will receive full-scale immunity.

  Glenn Greenwald

[It] should be emphasized that yet again, it is not the Congress or the establishment media which is uncovering these abuses and forcing disclosure of government misconduct. Rather, it is the ACLU (with which I consult) that, along with other human rights organizations, has had to fill the void left by those failed institutions, using their own funds to pursue litigation to compel disclosure. Without their efforts, we would know vastly less than we know now about the crimes our government committed.

  Glenn Greenwald

The Inspector General report describes the interrogations as “unauthorized, improvised, inhumane, and undocumented detention and interrogation techniques” and says that many of the detainees were held and interrogated from "assessments that were unsupported by credible intelligence." Innocent of any involvement in the “War on Terror”.

Manifestly, none of this happened by accident. As the IG Report continuously notes, all of these methods were severe departures from long-standing CIA guidelines (if not practices). This all occurred because the officials at the highest levels of the U.S. Government pronounced that this was permissible, the protections of the Geneva Conventions were "quaint," obsolete and inapplicable, and the U.S. was justified in doing anything and everything in the name of fighting Terrorists. As stomach-turning as these individual acts of sadism are, it is far worse to consider that only low-level interrogators will suffer consequences while those who were truly responsible -- the criminally depraved leaders and lawyers who ordered and authorized it -- will be protected.

[...]

In addition to the release of the IG Report today, Eric Holder announced the limited scope of the torture investigations he would conduct, and the Obama administration announced it would continue the Bush policy of "renditions."

Only expanding it to include people accused of bribing contractors.

Now what does that make Mr. Obama? Worse than Bush? And I thought only John McCain would take us there. With our current method of “electing” presidents, it doesn’t seem likely that we’ll get another Democrat next time. So, I can’t imagine we’ll change course. There is a river called The River of No Return.