
DEVELOPING ...
Attorney General Eric Holder plans to appoint a special prosecutor to look into a number of alleged CIA prisoner-abuse cases.
ORIGINAL STORY ...
The Justice Department's ethics office has recommended to Attorney General Eric Holder that a number of alleged CIA prisoner-abuse cases that were closed under the Bush administration be reopened, FOX News confirms.
Holder is considering the guidance as his department is set to make public a 2004 report by the CIA's inspector general detailing allegations of prisoner abuse.
Several details in the review have already been reported. FOX News confirmed over the weekend that the report includes claims that interrogators threatened at least one prisoner with a power drill and also conducted mock executions to scare detainees.
In a memo to the agency Monday morning, CIA Director Leon Panetta urged his staff to stay focused in the face of the "politicized" debate the report is expected to stir up, and defended the way the agency has handled allegations of abuse over the past several years.
"This is in many ways an old story," Panetta wrote, saying many of the techniques have already been made public. He wrote that the CIA obtained intelligence from high-value detainees "when inside information on Al Qaeda was in short supply," and that his role now is to "stand up" for officers who followed the legal guidance given to them.
But a source with knowledge of the Office of Professional Responsibility's recommendations suggested that as many as 10 cases could be reopened.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/08/24/justice-dept-advises-pursuing-cia-abuses/