The Justice Department again fails to address the torture of detainees under the Bush administration: On Tuesday, November 9, they decided against filing charges against CIA personnel who had destroyed videotapes of "harsh interrogations" of terrorism suspects.
According to Reuters, "The CIA has said it needed to destroy the tapes to guard against leaks that could endanger interrogators, but critics accused the agency of covering up illegal acts."
Couldn't they have guarded against leaks by locking the videos in a secure location instead of destroying the evidence? And didn't this all happen long before any of us ever heard of Wikileaks?
On a related note, Prosecutor John Durham, who led this "investigation", is also looking into "possible wrongdoing by CIA employees or contractors for harsh interrogations in Iraq and Afghanistan that went beyond approved limits," reports Reuters.
I'm amused by the use of the word "possible" here, since we've all seen pictures showing that prisoner abuse was more than just a possibility. On the other hand, Bush's justice department played semantic games to push the approved limits. Is "just following orders" a good enough excuse? We'll see.
Dixon Osburn of Human Rights First issued the following statement in response to Tuesday's Justice Department decision:
"Accountability is essential to restoring America's credibility as a nation of legal principle and a leader in human rights. We are disappointed that the Justice Department has chosen not to pursue charges in this case, but remain hopeful that the still pending Durham investigation into the actions of CIA interrogators and contractors involved in abusive interrogations will ultimately provide a full, fair, and objective review of allegations of illegal conduct."
I shall not hold my breath.
And, in the meantime, the U.S. dare not try to claim the moral high ground. We lost that even before Abu Ghraib.
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