Holder Makes His Play

The Justice Department's ethics office is recommending a full investigation into Bush-era torture cases that the Bush DoJ closed out.

The recommendation by the Office of Professional Responsibility, presented to Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. in recent weeks, comes as the Justice Department is about to disclose on Monday voluminous details on prisoner abuse that were gathered in 2004 by the C.I.A.’s inspector general but have never been released.

When the C.I.A. first referred its inspector general’s findings to prosecutors, they decided that none of the cases merited prosecution. But Mr. Holder’s associates say that when he took office and saw the allegations, which included the deaths of people in custody and other cases of physical or mental torment, he began to reconsider.

With the release of the details on Monday and the formal advice that at least some cases be reopened, it now seems all but certain that the appointment of a prosecutor or other concrete steps will follow, posing significant new problems for the C.I.A. It is politically awkward, too, for Mr. Holder because President Obama has said that he would rather move forward than get bogged down in the issue at the expense of his own agenda.

The advice from the Office of Professional Responsibility strengthens Mr. Holder’s hand.

The recommendation to review the closed cases, in effect renewing the inquiries, centers mainly on allegations of detainee abuse in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Justice Department report is to be made public after classified information is deleted from it.

The cases represent about half of those that were initially investigated and referred to the Justice Department by the C.I.A.’s inspector general, but were later closed. It is not known which cases might be reopened.

Needless to say, the Republicans and certain Democrats in Congress are far more worried about this than Obamacare. The torture investigations are the main event in DC right now, not healthcare. Healthcare is in fact a secondary consideration.

There are an awful lot of people who are going to refuse to go along with Obama at all on anything until he gives and ironclad guarantee that Eric Holder is dropping this case. It appears that Holder will certainly proceed.

Obama's entire agenda just got a lot harder to deal with. On the other hand, America does need to get to the bottom of these cases. The cost to Obama politically however is going to be the death of his entire domestic agenda. I'm not sure if he's aware of that, but if you thought the Republicans were recalcitrant now, just wait.

[UPDATE 2:00 PM] Preisdent Obama has taken interrogations out of the hands of the CIA and has put the FBI in charge of them, which is a dramatic shift in power and scope.

The change is based on the recommendation of an interrogation task force established by Obama shortly after taking office in January.

The interagency High Value Detainee Interrogation Group will be overseen by the National Security Council and "draw on interrogators from defense, intelligence and law enforcement," a senior administration official said.

The group will be tasked in part with ensuring that future interrogations comply with restrictions outlined in the U.S. Army Field Manual.

The manual provides "adequate and effective means" of conducting interrogations, the administration officials said, though they left open the possibility of adding new methods based on the latest scientific research regarding "best practices" for interrogation.

"There will be full transparency" regarding any new techniques that might be allowed as a result of such research, one of the officials said.

If that's true, then there's officially a war on between the White House and the CIA, and it could get very, very ugly.