Attorney General Holder appoints prosecutor to investigate C.I.A. torture

Yesterday, Attorney General Eric Holder, in reading the C.I.A. inspector general's report of 2004 and the agency's abuse of detainees(held since 9/11), announced the appointment of John H. Durham to examine abuses by C.I.A. interrogators. Holder said..."it is my duty to examine the facts and follow the law... Given all the information currently available, it is clear to me that this review is the only responsible course of action to take."

It is noteworthy that the I.G.'s report, released under a court order brought by the A.C.L.U. in a freedom of information lawsuit, was released the very day that Holder announced his decision to appoint an investigator. Not exactly some idle coincidence. Despite the obvious pressure of the report becoming public,(and the need to acknowledge and respond to it's findings), at least someone in the Obama administration finally recognized that the torture abuses authorized by the Bush administration and carried out by C.I.A. interrogators needed to be investigated further, and not just "move on" as the president had wanted.

One caveat was when Holder said he agreed with the President Obama ..." not to get mired in disputes over the policies of former President George W. Bush." However, Senator Ron Wyden, (D. Oregon), a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, put it succinctly saying any investigation that focused only on interrogators, while ignoring the Bush administration lawyers and officials that authorized the torture, would resemble the Abu Ghraib scandal where "lower ranking troops who committed abuses and were hung out to dry"( and solely held accountable).

It is long past the time that the stain inflicted upon us by the Bush administration's authorization and resort to torture be thoroughly exposed and investigated. The officials who authorized the torture are the primary perpetrators of our descent into "dark territory"; that nether world of the despicable and ruthless we supposedly oppose and fight against.

Any narrow investigation of torture that gives a pass to officials who authorized and sanctioned its use, while only holding to account lower level operatives, is not justice. Such injustice will haunt us if the rule of law applies only to the grunts, while giving immunity to the powerful. This should not be what we are about.

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