CIA Inspector General releases report on interrogations; AG Holder names prosecutor to investigate the abuses

The CIA Inspector General released a report on the abuse of prisoners held overseas. This report details the beating of detainees, mock executions, threats to rape suspects female family members, and threatening a detainee with a drill. Mock executions are explicitly prohibited by the Geneva conventions.

CIA Inspector General's report.

Select excerpts from the report

Select scanned pages from the report

New York Times article on the announcements.

The Justice Department recommends re-opening more than a dozen prisoner abuse cases.

In Salon, Glenn Greenwald dissects the IG's report. And Alex Koppelmann discusses why most of what remains in the report (much remained censored or classified) was already public knowledge.

In response, Attorney General Eric Holder announces the appointment of a special prosecutor, though it appears that the scope of this investigation will be limited and will not look at the command chain.

New York Times article on the special prosecutor

Greenwald's analysis of Holder's approach.

In Harper's Magazine, Scott Holden unravels the decision to look only at interrogators while avoiding questioning the legal reasoning behind the interrogations.

The President announced that his administration will continue to send suspects to third countries for interrogation, a practice known as extraordinary rendition, but create safeguards to ensure that they are not tortured. Human rights groups objected, on the grounds that diplomatic assurance were no safeguard against abuse.

The Obama administration is also setting up a new administrative interrogation unit, to be housed within the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which will oversee the interrogations of top terror suspects using largely non-coercive techniques approved by the administration earlier this year. The new unit will comply fully with the rules found in the Army Field Manual. However, human rights groups have correctly pointed out that the Field Manual is in need of revision.

New York Times article on continuing rendition.

The Washington Post on the new unit.