With CIA on the chopping block, insider talks

[joeblow]

With CIA on the chopping block, insider talks
Tue, 14 Jul 2009 09:33:50 GMT

http://www.presstv.com/detail.aspx?id=1 ... id=3510203


A man walks across the seal of the Central Intelligence Agency in the lobby of the CIA headquarters in Virginia where former counter-terrorism agent John Kiriakou said he monitored communications with a secret prison in which Abu Zubaydah was tortured.

Just one day after the likelihood of a criminal investigation into interrogation practices involving the CIA was raised, a man who served in counter-terrorism adds fuel to the fire.

Lawyers, who were added to the payroll of the former US administration following the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center, were tasked by the inner circle of the Bush White House to find a legal basis for harsh interrogation techniques.

In August 2002, the centuries-old practice of waterboarding was finally endorsed by the Bush administration as a means to coerce people who the US government labeled as "high value" terror suspects.

A source close to US Attorney General Eric Holder told Reuters on Sunday that the top prosecutor may open a criminal investigation that could possibly determine whether CIA conduct was in line with the written government memos that gave backing to the practice.

The official, who was speaking on condition of anonymity, explained that any probe would focus only on personnel who are suspected of going beyond the legal advice provided to them.

A new revelation by former CIA agent John Kiriakou who led a team that captured a man named Abu Zubaydah in Pakistan in March 2002, however, has cast doubt on whether the spy agency had even relied on the government advice in the first place.

"[To] the best of my recollection that would have been at the very end of May or the very beginning of June 2002," he told the BBC on Monday.

The CIA insists that it did not conduct waterboarding before the August 2002 memos were issued.

Asked how he followed the interrogation, Kiriakou said he monitored the internal communications that came in the form of cable traffic and therefore read about the case as it happened.

The former agent added that he had moved on to another job before August 2002 and that he is thus in a position to confirm that waterboarding, without a shadow of a doubt, occurred prior to the release of the memos.

While former US president George W. Bush personally gave written approval for the practice, the incumbent chief executive banned its practice on his second day in office and has since ordered several related documents to be released to the public.

The controversial issue has sparked heated debates in recent months with former officials raking President Barack Obama over the coals for raising the issue of criminal prosecution.

The White House, according to the president, will not use anti-torture laws to prosecute CIA agents who relied in good faith on Bush administration legal opinions.

For those who provided the controversial legal advice, however, the door to prosecution remains open.

Chris Anders of the American Civil Liberties Union has touched on the issue of legally pursuing Bush officials. He said the revelation by Kiriakou must be brought into focus in a timely fashion.

"If waterboarding was being used then, there's no one who would be able to say that they were relying on a legal opinion because there was no legal opinion at that point to rely upon," Anders said.

The government may have given the legal go-ahead prior to August but that may not carry much weight in court, he explained.

AA/CS