Bush Admin. Official Criticizes CIA Probe

(AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

Former Bush administration counselor and CBS News Analyst Dan Bartlett told The Early Show this morning that Attorney General Eric Holder's investigation into CIA interrogation practices will "pull the rug out from under" CIA agents currently in the field and that any criminal prosecution would have a "chilling effect" on CIA work.

The Justice Department investigation is in response to a recently declassified 2004 report on the treatment of terrorism suspects after September 11th. The report says that CIA interrogators threatened to kill September 11th suspect Khalid Sheik Mohammed's children if there were any other attacks on the United States, says CBS News Correspondent Bob Orr. Other detainees were threatened with a power drill and a gun and one detainee was beaten with a flashlight by a CIA contractor. The detainee later died in prison.

Bartlett says the CIA should be held accountable for its processes, but believes the 2004 investigation took care of that. He says an additional investigation five years after the fact will cause a "political firestorm" that President Obama will not want to deal with.

The document was made public yesterday following an American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit. Holder has appointed John Durham, a Justice Department prosecutor, to determine whether or not any laws were broken during the interrogations.

Read the full Inspector General's report>

"I don't think that the attorney general had much choice, politically anyway, but to take this step and launch this criminal investigation," writes CBS News Legal Analyst Andrew Cohen. "And even the CIA itself acknowledges that some of its agents, current and former, went beyond legal limits in interrogation. The question is whether crimes were committed and can be proven beyond a reasonable doubt."

"This is just an initial step," Cohen adds. "Just because there is now a prosecutor doesn't guarantee we'll see any CIA trials and certainly doesn't ensure any convictions. All of the problems that existed before - problems with classified information and inadmissible evidence - still remain."

Bartlett sees the investigation, which is narrow in scope now, as a "slippery slope" to a more widespread look at the CIA. President Obama has said that he does not want to prosecute the former Bush administration officials who created the interrogation policies. But Obama's press secretary, Robert Gibbs, has added that the Attorney General's investigation into the legality of the interrogations is independent of the administration.

Read more of CBSNews.com's coverage of the CIA report:

CIA Threatened to Kill Suspect's Children
Did CIA Violate Torture Law?
10 Things About the CIA's Bad Day
Holder Taps Prosecutor to Probe CIA Abuses
Unplugged: Uncovering CIA Interrogations
W.H.: CIA Not Out of Interrogation Biz
New Unit Will Question Key Terror Suspects
Panetta Defends CIA in E-Mail to Agency
Dems Laud, Republicans Slam CIA Interrogation News
Expert: CIA Techniques Were Torture

[jjreding-2009]

Oh, and as to your last comment about us 'speaking Arabic and act like the fools in Libya, who praises mass murderers as conquering heroes', that one leaves me speechless in English, French, German, Dutch, Spanish, Arabic, Icelandic, Japanese, Chinese, Polynesian and Eskimo!!!!!

There is NO WAY under ANY scenario that we would ever end up 'speaking Arabic'. And as for that bit about 'praising mass murderers as conquering heroes', well, we already have done that. Atrocities have been done in our name by our soldiers in Iraq whereby large numbers of innocent civilians were massacred (and only the grunts on the ground got in trouble for it, whilst the generals and upper level officers that ordered the attacks get away scott free - again. Or the killings of whole groups of civilians, including many women in children by our indiscriminate bombing of villages in the war in Afghanistan. And we claim them as heroes.

Jerk.

[jjreding-2009]

dmcar - you are a class a imbecile -

First of all 'Obama's losing war' is really Bush's LOST war. He's the jerk that decided that his vendetta against Saddam Hussein was more important than pursuing Osama bin Laden. The Taleban were routed for the most part, but Bush's 'troop surge' in Iraq allowed them to reinfest the regions in Afghanistan and Pakistan that they currently occupy.

Second of all - this IS a lost war. The Russians fought these people for ten years before pulling out because, with all their advanced weaponry, fighting guerilla style in the mountains was just not what they were prepared for - and guess what? Either is the US or NATO! We've been there for 8 years now and what? The Taleban ARE BACK - and were back LONG before Obama was elected.

Third: - Obama doesn't have anything to do with this investigation - it is strictly being done by the Justice Department, which is independent of the White House. It was the independent Justice Department that instigated and pursued the witch hunt against Clinton that resulted in nothing more than a personal (albeit stupid) indiscretion.

Fourth: As I've already said - the debt we have now is mostly because of 8 years of Republican mismanagement and catering to their 'base' (the rich white folks who are now completely incensed that we have a BLACK president - OMG!!!!), passing ridiculous tax breaks for the rich while doing nothing for the poor or middle class, and, the biggest boondoggle of all - a multi-multi-million dollar war of choice as a result of the aforementioned vendetta.

Fifth: the CIA is NOT the organisation that 'protects' us. Again, they are a SPY agency, not a judicial or law enforcement agency and they had no business interrogating those prisoners in the first place. Then, they broke the law by using extreme 'enhanced' interrogation methods way beyond what was (illegally) authorised in the first place.

[j_mcdonald-2009]

How many times does it need to be repeated? Many of the people tortured have been proven to be innocent: victims of being in the wrong place at the wrong time on their way to work, or falsely accused by someone with a grudge against them or someone who wanted their property, or a case of mistaken identity. It was as legal to torture them as it would be to pick YOU up and torture YOU. Do you see the problem here?

And the TORTURE DID NOT WORK. In fact, IT STOPPED US FROM GETTING RELIABLE INFORMATION. All the best information was obtained by trained interrogators BEFORE the morons selected by Bush/Cheney screwed things up by torturing the prisoners into giving us FALSE information. (Of course, much of this false information was exactly what Bush/Cheney needed to justify invading Iraq--no coincidence there.)

When people break our laws to torture innocent people and endanger our security in the process, HELL YES they should be sent to prison.

[jxknowles]

I don't like this kind of investigation because of the subject matter, but unfortunately it needs to be done. I trust the Justice Department will go to great lengths to protect past/present agents and keep Congress informed.

It's obvious to a rational thinking person that Nancy Pelosi was correct to infer the CIA lied. On this issue alone, the GOP Senators, Representatives and right-wing radio goons are looking like idiots. Honest Americans expect the CIA and FBI to abide by the law.

As the last remaining superpower, the rest of the world expects us to play by the rules, even when they don't. If they can't trust us, they should trust no one.

[jjreding-2009]

brad said:

'... If the majority of the people approve of what was done by the Bush Administration and the CIA, so be it...'

The majority of the people have already said that they don't approve of Bush's tactics. It's only the lunatic fringe that applauds.

[jjreding-2009]

Think I'll go watch some old episodes of 'Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea'. At least their fictitious antagonists are entertaining.

[bradkt1]

The "slippery slope" argument is a cop-out that is designed to allow everyone to escape possible criminal prosecution, no matter how egregious their conduct or the the fact that several of these interrogators exceeded the guidelines of what even the Bush Administration said was legal. More importantly, it permits the possibility of this happening again in the future. This matter should be investigated and the American people have a right to know what was done in their name. If the majority of the people approve of what was done by the Bush Administration and the CIA, so be it...but I don't think that they will...not once they find out the real facts. Until they do, the Bush Administration's apologists can try to spin this any way that they want. No one will be able to spin this once the truth finally comes out.

[jjreding-2009]

by jgg00000008 August 25, 2009 3:17 PM EDT
geez, I'll volunteer to do yours and you won't even have to complete your terrorist training course!
----------------------------------------------------
Yep, spoken like a real adult!!

[hologram5]

Hey McHineguy, you spell like bush and cheney led our once GREAT country, not worth a S%IT.

[jjreding-2009]

legacy:

Thanks.

'[R]easonable attitude demonstrates the importance of rational, objective, factual debate...'

The key words here are 'reasonable', 'rational', 'objective' and 'factual'. These are words the right wing seems to know nothing about, but would rather spout hatred, bigotry and fear.

They irrationally advocate lynching (oops, stretching the neck of) our president (could it be because he's not a white person?), torture, violence, assault weapons at presidential events - much of it because that's what they're being told by the Hannitys, Limbaughs, Coulters, and O'Reillys of the airwaves. They've forgotten how to think for themselves and to look at all sides of an issue. All they see is darkness.

One of the reasons Obama won the election is because of that word 'hope' that the right wing has no use for. All they hope is that Obama will fail so they can say 'I told you so', and will go to any length to try and ensure.

I for one am sick and tired of it (I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore!!!!!!). If I can add a rational and reasonable angle to this debate, I'll try my best.