DoJ limits CIA torture inquiry

As the World waits and watches!

The LWOT: DoJ limits CIA torture inquiry

JULY 1, 2011 - In separate statements June 30, CIA director Leon Panetta and U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced that the Justice Department, after a two-year independent investigation, would be opening full criminal inquiries into the deaths of two CIA detainees at Abu Ghraib in Iraq in 2003 and a prison known as the "Salt Pit" in Afghanistan in 2002 (National Journal, NYT, Post, WSJ, CNN, AFP, AP). While the investigations will focus attention on interrogation tactics used against the detainees, believed to be Manadel al-Jamadi and Gul Rahman, the Justice Department closed investigations on nearly 100 other instances of alleged abuse, including the waterboarding of three "high-value" detainees and the destruction of tapes documenting harsh interrogations (ABC, WSJ, BBC, LAT, Miami Herald).

In Senate testimony this week, former Joint Special Operations Command chief Vice Admiral William McRaven said that the United States has no set plan for detaining terrorism suspects, and that "no two cases seem to be alike" (Post, WSJ, AP, National Journal). McRaven also said in response to a question that detainees would likely not be transferred to Guantánamo Bay or prisons in Afghanistan. {read more}