In May Obama CIA Chief Leon Panetta told NBC News that Intelligence garnered from waterboarded detainees was used to track down al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and kill him.
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
But at that time the Obama Administration was still investigating CIA officials who had performed the advanced interrogation techniques on captured Al-Qaeda terrorists.
Today the Obama Administration finally announced that they would drop their investigations of CIA officials involved in torture.
It’s about time.
The National Journal reported:
The Justice Department will end a wide-ranging probe into the CIA’s past interrogation, rendition, and detention activities, but it will launch a formal criminal investigation into agency officials involved in the deaths of two detainees, Attorney General Eric Holder announced on Thursday…
…The probe has been hanging over the CIA, and Holder’s decision to end it was immediately welcomed by key officials.
Notably, Holder made his announcement only minutes before the Senate voted 94-0 to confirm Gen. David Petraeus as the next CIA director. The announcement was also made on the last day for current CIA Director Leon Panetta, who is heading to the Pentagon as the next Defense secretary.
“After extensive examination of more than 100 instances in which CIA had contact or was alleged to have had contact with terrorist detainees, [Durham] has determined that no further law enforcement action is appropriate in all but two discrete cases,” Panetta said in a message to CIA employees.
“No decision has been made to bring criminal charges,” added Panetta, who fiercely defended CIA agents during his tenure. “Both cases were previously reviewed by career federal prosecutors who subsequently declined prosecution. The agency will, of course, continue to cooperate fully in the remaining investigations.”
