FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:
At long last, we may start getting some answers. The Obama administration may be getting ready to launch a criminal investigation into the CIA's treatment of detainees during the Bush years.
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The Los Angeles Times reports that Attorney General Eric Holder is "poised to appoint a criminal prosecutor" to look into the alleged abuses of terror suspects.
One Justice Department official says it would be a narrow investigation focusing on whether people went beyond the techniques that were authorized in Bush era memos. Some say that criminal convictions would be hard to come by because the quality of the evidence is poor and this stuff has never been tested legally.
A prosecutor could potentially investigate waterboarding. 9-11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed was reportedly waterboarded 183 times in one month, and al Qaeda leader Abu Zubaydah at least 83 times in one month. Also, there are reports of prisoners being threatened with bodily harm, buried alive and threatened with a gun during interrogations.
Pres. Obama has left the door open for prosecution of those who broke the law. Both the president and Holder say they believe waterboarding is torture.
The real question is whether the administration will go after top Bush officials who may have authorized this behavior or just set out to prosecute those who carried out the orders.
Here’s my question to you: Should the Obama administration launch a criminal investigation of CIA treatment of detainees?
Interested to know which ones made it on air?
Patricia from Korea says:
The CIA was carrying out orders, and while that is not an excuse, it might be a mitigating circumstance. I think we need to prosecute the authors of the memos that allowed this to happen in the first place.
Kelly from Atlanta says:
Don't we have more important things to be doing?
Susan says:
The hatred for the perpetrators of 9/11 is understandable, but that is not an excuse to behave as if there is no mercy in this world.
Maria says:
Absolutely. If we can impeach a president when he lied to Congress about having sex, why on earth would we refuse to investigate Gitmo, secret terror prisons, transferring prisoners to be tortured in other countries? Cheney, Rumsfeld, Bush, Condi Rice and all the others who knew we were breaking international laws should be investigated together, apart, whatever. The soon the better.
Nathan from Columbus, Ohio says:
I think Obama should focus more on domestic issues instead of appeasing the rest of the world by investigating those responsible for our national security. I think this issue is a distraction on the issues we are dealing with today by looking backwards at Bush's years.
Pat from New York says:
Please give it a rest, Jack and the rest of you leftists. You won't be satisfied until Bush, Cheney, Rove, Rumsfeld and co. get frog-marched into the penitentiary. Personally – I think Bush's guys and the military were too soft on these criminal lowlifes. They should have water-boarded more of them.
Rolando says:
Waste of time.
Jon says:
It will never happen. Just like James Bond, they have a license to kill, and torture, and assassinate, and wage secret wars. The list goes on and on and on.