Various ex-Bush administration sources have been “leaking” to the mainstream media all weekend that the 2004 CIA Inspector General’s report on torture, suppressed for 5 years, is somehow not that bad. It is officially scheduled to be released today. When it comes out and we read the highlights tonight, ask yourself, had it been released in 2004 would George W. Bush have still been the President from 2005 – 2008?
UPDATE: The special prosecutor has been named.
Emptywheel, whose knowledge of who’s who in the DOJ I defer to, is not impressed. It appears to me that this prosecutor will simply work to “clean up” the obvious unprosecuted felonies that are about to be “hung out” in the release of the report. I predict that the report will show multiple felonies that were actively covered up prior to now, and Durham will do the dead minimum, which is to clear up the discrepancy highlighted by the report’s release.
UPDATE 2:
92. REDACTED The debriefer assessed Al-Nashiri as withholding information, at which point REDACTED reinstated REDACTED hooding, and handcuffing. Sometime between 28 December 2002 and 1 January 2003, the debriefer used an unloaded semi-automatic handgun as a prop to frighten Al-Nashiri into disclosing information. After discussing this plan with REDACTED the debriefer entered the cell where Al-Nashiri sat shackled and racked the handgun once or twice close to Al-Nashiri’s head. On what was probably the same day, the debriefer used a power drill to frighten Al-Nashiri. With REDACTED consent, the debriefer entered the detainee’s cell and revved the drill while the detainee stood naked and hooded. The debriefer did not touch Al-Nashiri with the power drill
93. The REDACTED and debriefer did not request authorization or report the use of these unauthorized techniques to Headquarters. However, in January 2003, newly arrived TDY officers REDACTED who had learned of these incidents reported them to Headquarters. OIG investigated and referred its findings to the Criminal Division of DoJ. On 11 September 2003, DoJ declined to prosecute and turned these matters over to CIA for disposition. These incidents are the subject of a separate OIG Report of Investigation.
Threats
94. REDACTED During another incident REDACTED the same Headquarters debriefer, according to a REDACTED who was present, threatened Al-Nashiri by saying that if he did not talk, “We could get your mother in here,” and, “We can bring your family in here.” The REDACTED debriefer reportedly wanted Al-Nashiri to infer, for psychological reasons, that the debriefer might be REDACTED intelligence officer based on his Arabic dialect, and that Al-Nashiri was in REDACTED custody because it was widely believed in Middle East circles that REDACTED interrogation technique involves sexually abusing female relatives in front of the detainee. The debriefer denied threatening Al-Nashiri through his family. The debriefer also said he did not explain who he was or where he was from when talking with Al-Nashiri. The debriefer said he never said he was REDACTED intelligence officer but let Al-Nashiri draw his own conclusions.
95. REDACTED An experienced Agency interrogator reported that the REDACTED interrogators threatened Khalid Shaykh Muhammad REDACTED. According to this interrogator, the REDACTED interrogators said to Khalid Shaykh Muhammad that if anything else happens in the United States, “We’re going to kill your children.” According to the interrogator, one of the REDACTED interrogators said REDACTED. With respect to the report provided to him of the threats REDACTED that report did not indicate that the law had been violated.
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