C.I.A. to Avoid Charges in Most Prisoner Deaths

[DoYouEverWonder]

October 23, 2005

WASHINGTON, Oct. 22 - Despite indications of C.I.A. involvement in the deaths of at least four prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan, C.I.A. employees now appear likely to escape criminal charges in all but one of those incidents, according to current and former intelligence and law enforcement officials.

Federal prosecutors reviewing cases of possible misconduct by C.I.A. employees have recently notified lawyers that they do not intend to bring criminal charges in several cases involving the handling of terrorism suspects and Iraqi insurgents, the officials said.

Some of the cases are still technically under review by the Justice Department, but the intelligence and law enforcement officials said they had been told that the department was not preparing to bring charges against C.I.A. employees in those cases.

The Justice Department has charged only one person linked to the C.I.A. with wrongdoing in any of the cases: David A. Passaro, who was a contract worker, not a C.I.A. officer. The details of the C.I.A. cases remain classified, as do the Justice Department reviews.

But the prosecutors' decisions appear to reflect judgments that the C.I.A. was far less culpable in the mistreatment of prisoners than was the military, where dozens of soldiers have been convicted or accepted administrative punishment for their actions in cases in Iraq and Afghanistan.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/23/international/asia/23intel.html?ei=5094&en=a10731472bf48127&hp=&ex=1130040000&adxnnl=1&partner=homepage&adxnnlx=1130008096-MXN6Fnm973obzy01+Ecdvg

[ret5hd]

1. well, i'm glad the gov't found the gov't not culpable of the gov'ts...

actions. :sarcasm:

[Media_Lies_Daily]

2. I seem to recall that the CIA backed away from taking part in....

...any interrogations in Iraq based on their observations of U. S. Army methods in Afghanistan.

Additionally, at that time, Cheney and Rumsfeld were working very hard to push the CIA out of any intelligence-gathering activities in the Middle East.