AG Reportedly Close to Appointment of Prosecutor for Interrogation Probe
Attorney General Eric Holder is reportedly close to appointing a criminal prosecutor to probe allegations that the CIA committed abuses in the interrogation of terrorism suspects.
Unnamed government officials told the Los Angeles Times that the probe would focus on whether officials went beyond techniques authorized in Justice Department memos.
Some of the cases likely to be probed involve use of waterboarding that went beyond guidelines, a CIA operative who brought a gun into an interrogation, and the deaths of detainees in CIA custody, according to the story.
A Justice Department memo said waterboarding generally loses its effectiveness after repeated use, yet it was used 183 times on Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, according to a CIA report released this year. Large amount of water were used, rather than a small amount dripped from a canteen, the amount envisioned in a Justice Department memo.
