Reopening The Torture Case

The panel discussion on Fox News last night touched on Eric Holder's move to reopen of the case against CIA interrogators who may have become a bit overzealous when questioning the al Qaeda masterminds of the World Trade Center attack of September 11, 2001.  Juan Williams made a very interesting point.  I don't remember his exact words.  The gist I took from it though, was that a Justice Department investigation would effectively shut down any congressional probes.  Can't have congress interfering with an ongoing criminal investigation and all that.

In that scenario one might envision the Justice Department holding open a whitewash style operation that would take the heat off of the CIA.  Over time Holder's investigation would fade into the background.  Congress would have to find another topic on which to engage its usual hypocritical moral grandstanding.  Do I think it's a likely scenario?  No.

It's as likely as Barack Obama actually becoming the centrist, bi-partisan, post-racial president he had promised to be when he seduced the voters.  A more likely scenario is described by Andrew McCarthy.  

The abuse allegations said to have stunned the attorney general into acting are outlined in a stale CIA inspector general’s report. Though only released this week — a disclosure timed to divert attention from reports that showed the CIA’s efforts yielded life-saving intelligence — the IG report is actually five years old. Its allegations not only have been long known to the leaders of both parties in Congress, they were thoroughly investigated by professional prosecutors — not political appointees. Those prosecutors decided not to file charges, except in one case that ended in an acquittal.

Why reopen a case that's been closed for five years?

Obama and Holder were principal advocates for a “reckoning” against Bush officials during the 2008 campaign. They realize, though, that their administration would be mortally wounded if Justice were actually to file formal charges — this week’s announcement of an investigation against the CIA provoked howls, but that’s nothing compared to the public reaction indictments would cause. Nevertheless, Obama and Holder are under intense pressure from the hard Left, to which they made reckless promises, and from the international community they embrace.

The way out of this dilemma is clear. Though it won’t file indictments against the CIA agents and Bush officials it is probing, the Justice Department will continue conducting investigations and releasing reports containing new disclosures of information. The churn of new disclosures will be used by lawyers for the detainees to continue pressing the U.N. and the Europeans to file charges. The European nations and/or international tribunals will make formal requests to the Obama administration to have the Justice Department assist them in securing evidence. Holder will piously announce that the “rule of law” requires him to cooperate with these “lawful requests” from “appropriately created courts.” Finally, the international and/or foreign courts will file criminal charges against American officials.

I faced a startling discovery that came about when I went back to college and finally got my degree after all these years.  In a business law course I learned that treaties take precedence over the constitution.  I was stunned to hear it, but there it is.  It makes McCarthy's scenario is the more believable.  The left has always been hell bent on getting the U.S. into Kyoto and the International Criminal Court.  Treaties are another way for lefties to get around those inconvenient constitutional guarantees of individual liberty.  You know, the ones that thwart them in their quest for a more just and equitable distribution of your money.