Despite indications of C.I.A. involvement in the deaths of at least four prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan, C.I.A. employees now appear likely to escape criminal charges in all but one of those incidents, according to current and former intelligence and law enforcement officials.
Federal prosecutors reviewing cases of possible misconduct by C.I.A. employees have recently notified lawyers that they do not intend to bring criminal charges in several cases involving the handling of terrorism suspects and Iraqi insurgents, the officials said.
Some of the cases are still technically under review by the Justice Department, but the intelligence and law enforcement officials said they had been told that the department was not preparing to bring charges against C.I.A. employees in those cases.
The Justice Department has charged only one person linked to the C.I.A. with wrongdoing in any of the cases: David A. Passaro, who was a contract worker, not a C.I.A. officer. The details of the C.I.A. cases remain classified, as do the Justice Department reviews.
But the prosecutors' decisions appear to reflect judgments that the C.I.A. was far less culpable in the mistreatment of prisoners than was the military, where dozens of soldiers have been convicted or accepted administrative punishment for their actions in cases in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The above is from Douglas Jehl & Tim Golden's "C.I.A. to Avoid Charges in Most Prisoner Deaths" in this morning's New York Times or, as I read it, "Two Sets of Rules, Two Sets of Justice." The administration that gave us the laughable "No one could have known . . ." seems determined to top itself with the continued reliance upon "a few bad apples." Who was running things? According to most reports, intel. Not the "few bad apples" who keep being used as the fall guys for what appears to be an organized pattern beginning in Guantanmo that "floated" over to Iraq.
We sure do have a ton of rotten apples in the enlisted, thinking these things up. Or that's what you have to believe if you buy the "few bad apples" spin. It's interesting that no mention is made in the article of the fact that reportedly the CIA is immune from prosecution due to an executive order Bully Boy signed. Might that be why they "avoid charges"? Possibly.
We're still working on The Third Estate Sunday Review. Lost posts when posting (Seth had the same problems this weekend). Fortunately, most of it was saved and what wasn't, we can recreate but we're way behind. Per the UK Computer Gurus, the entries are posting in full their instead of parital that require you to click "read more." That may or may not be fixed later in the week. Their news review will go up here right after this and then we have two The World Today Just Nuts comics from Isaiah.
The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com. And Eddie, the first item of this is chiefly for your enjoyment.
the new york times
tim golden
douglas jehl
