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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings, Torture and Big Money |
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April 24th,
2008 - CIA Foresaw Interrogation Issues |
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CIA Foresaw Interrogation
Issues Agency Considered Investigations ‘Virtually Inevitable’ By Dan Eggen Washington Post April 24, 2008 The CIA concluded that
criminal, administrative or civil investigations stemming from harsh interrogation
tactics were "virtually inevitable," leading the agency to seek
legal support from the Justice Department, according to a CIA official's
statement in court documents filed yesterday. The CIA said it had
identified more than 7,000 pages of classified memos, e-mails and other
records relating to its secret prison and interrogation program, but
maintained that the materials cannot be released because they relate to, in
part, communications between CIA and Justice Department attorneys or discussions
with the White House. Nineteen of those documents
were withheld from disclosure specifically because the Bush administration
decided they are covered by a "presidential communications
privilege," according to the filings, made in federal court in Manhattan.
Some were "authored or solicited and received by the President's senior
advisors in connection with a decision, or potential decision, to be made by
the president." Although the precise content
of the documents is unknown, the agency's statements illustrate the extent to
which senior White House officials were involved in decision-making on CIA
detentions, interrogations, and renditions, a term for forced transfers of
prisoners. These topics were the targets of a Freedom of Information Act
lawsuit by liberal advocacy groups that compelled the CIA's disclosures. The flow of documents, by
itself, also suggests that the CIA's unorthodox interrogation program was the
focus of behind-the-scenes debate at the highest levels of the Bush
administration after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. The documents indicate that
lawyers at the CIA and elsewhere were aware that CIA personnel might be
subject to criminal prosecution or other legal sanctions. After the CIA's use of harsh
interrogation tactics, including a form of simulated drowning, became known,
the agency said they were authorized by a series of secret Justice Department
legal opinions. President Bush has strongly defended the legality and
efficacy of the program, and recently acknowledged that he approved of
high-level White House meetings on precise interrogation practices. The records submitted to the
court list and briefly describe dozens of communications between the CIA and
the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel, or OLC. At least 10 were in
2004, five were in 2005, and seven were in 2006; virtually all were
classified "top secret" or even more restricted. "The CIA's purpose in
requesting advice from OLC was the very likely prospect of criminal, civil,
or administrative litigation against the CIA and CIA personnel who
participate in the Program," said a declaration from Ralph S. DiMaio,
information review officer for the CIA's clandestine service. He added that
the CIA considered such proceedings "to be virtually inevitable." Asked for comment, CIA
spokesman George Little said, "Weighing relevant legal factors at the
start of any new program is not only logical but is the responsible thing to
do. Unfortunately, the fact that people and organizations follow the law does
not prevent them from becoming the subject of litigation later on." But Curt Goering, senior
deputy executive director of Amnesty International USA, which is involved in
the lawsuit, said the flow of documents shows that the Bush administration
"didn't go into this system blind and they didn't build this system
blind," adding: "It appears to be a calculated and calibrated
effort to justify the unjustifiable." Staff researcher Julie Tate
contributed to this report. External link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/23/AR2008042303249.html |