Obama's DOJ Recommends Prosecuting CIA Employees for Detainee Abuse

After suggesting that he wanted to "move forward" and not dwell on the past, it's not surprising that Obama's Department of Justice is reversing course on this. The President's support among his far Left base has waned as he adopted more and more Bush 43 policies of the War on Terrorism.

The President's refusal to go after the CIA and its contractors took the far Left pretty hard. They wanted a bloodletting, but he wasn't ready to set that precedent. And he didn't need to do it back in the "good old days"--the first months of his presidency--when he enjoyed overwhelming support.

When the C.I.A. first referred its inspector general’s findings to prosecutors, they decided that none of the cases merited prosecution. But Mr. Holder’s associates say that when he took office and saw the allegations, which included the deaths of people in custody and other cases of physical or mental torment, he began to reconsider.

With the release of the details on Monday and the formal advice that at least some cases be reopened, it now seems all but certain that the appointment of a prosecutor or other concrete steps will follow, posing significant new problems for the C.I.A. It is politically awkward, too, for Mr. Holder because President Obama has said that he would rather move forward than get bogged down in the issue at the expense of his own agenda.

The advice from the Office of Professional Responsibility strengthens Mr. Holder’s hand.

The recommendation to review the closed cases, in effect renewing the inquiries, centers mainly on allegations of detainee abuse in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Justice Department report is to be made public after classified information is deleted from it.

Now that the President needs to recapture some of his lost political capital, here come the prosecutions.

posted by Gabriel Malor at 12:38 AM

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