Prosecutor to probe CIA torture allegations

Published on Monday 24 August 2009 22:16

THE United States has appointed a special prosecutor to investigate allegations of CIA torture of prisoners after a new report painted a devastating picture of torture of al-Qaeda suspects.

The report, from the CIA Inspector General, includes claims that CIA officers told one prisoner his children would be murdered and his mother sexually assaulted if he failed to co-operate.

Elsewhere, it states a detainee was threatened with a power drill and a gun if he did not co-operate.

The decision to appoint a special prosecutor, with the likelihood of criminal prosecutions to follow, comes after growing pressure on the White House to investigate reports of abuses by the CIA both at Guantanamo Bay and at secret prisons across the world.

Attorney General Eric Holder said: "It is clear that this review is the only responsible course of action for me to take."

Special prosecutor John Durham, who is already investigating the disappearance of CIA tapes from interrogations, will have wide-ranging powers to dig into the torture allegations and probe the role of officials in the previous Bush administration.

The report revealed that the death threats were made to key terror suspect Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, blamed for helping to mastermind the September 11 terror attacks.

The report alleges agents told him "we're going to kill your children" if further attacks were launched on the United States, and his mother would be murdered unless he gave them information. It comes as the Obama administration announced the creation of a new interrogation unit, supervised by the White House, taking responsibility for terrorist interrogation from the CIA.

The report details how detainee Abd al Rahim al-Hashiri had the electric drill put to his head, and a gun waved in his face, because he was suspected of involvement in the bombing of the US Cole off Yemen in 2000, a bombing that left 17 sailors dead.

The report details abuses in secret prisons, the locations of which are yet to be identified, from September 11 until 2006, when the sites were closed and all detainees held at Guantanamo Bay. Yesterday's report states that of a dozen cases of clear misconduct, only one led to criminal charges with the rest being dealt with by the CIA Accountability Board.

In a letter to CIA staff, the agency's new director, Leon Panetta, appointed by President Obama, appeared set against prosecutions.

"This is in many ways an old story. The use of enhanced interrogation techniques, begun when our country was responding to the horrors of September 11th, ended in January. For the CIA now, the challenge is not the battles of yesterday, but those of today and tomorrow."

But with a second Inspector General report, covering abuses at Guantanamo, due for release after a separate court ruling on August 31, the ACLU says a wider investigation is now needed.

"President Obama made a commitment to transparency and accountability, and it's time for his administration to make good on that promise," said ACLU spokesman Amrit Singh.

Until now the Obama White House resisted calls for criminal prosecutions or any wide ranging inquiry into the torture allegations.

Political sources claim that while many Democrats would be happy to see the Bush administration investigated over allegations that it broke the Geneva Conventions, Mr Obama does not want the upheaval it is likely to cause while it seeks to push ahead with controversial health and banking reforms.

Former CIA officer Jack Rice said any investigation should target not just the torturers but those who gave the orders: "You've got to go after the architects," he said. "They were the people who were driving this thing."

The White House hoped to dampen such calls by announcing the creation of a new interrogation unit for terror suspects, but one that will observe the Geneva Conventions.