Holder To Appoint Prosecutor

1. On Friday, just before going on vacation, Obama released his adjusted projection for the federal deficit over the next 10 years, TWO TRILLION dollars higher than he's been saying up to now

2. Almost TEN TRILLION dollars of debt, ACCORDING TO THE WHITE HOUSE itself

3. Health care reform, already prohibitively expensive, is clearly outta the picture now

4. So the president takes Tom Daschle's advice and gets himself (finally) off the TV screen for a couple days of NO CHIN TV for the cleft-exhausted American people

5. Still, the administration feels it must control the subject (from Martha's Vineyard) somehow, so it changes the subject

6. Attorney General Holder, the man who more than anyone (except Bill Clinton) was responsible for the opprobrious pardon of Marc Rich, as well as the freeing of 16 FALN terrorists who had killed at least 5 Americans and injured more than 50 others, is reportedly ready to appoint a special prosecutor to look into possible crimes committed by low level CIA agents while questioning terror suspects in US custody, trying to keep Americans safe by learning in advance the plans of Al Qaeda and other killers so as to head off acts of bloodshed

7. Pure politics at its cheapest

8. Certain to send a CHILL thru the intelligence community, why should they stick their necks out for this administration?

9. Panetta reportedly threw a profanity-filled tantrum over Langley's treatment by the White House, threatening to resign

10. Politically, Obama could not be more on the wrong side

11. Americans have NO sympathy for the CIVIL RIGHTS of Khalid Sheikh Muhammed and his hairy-backed friends who are so intent on the murder of little girls and their grammas

12. Only the most PARTISAN of apparatchiks holds dear this issue of enhanced interrogation

13. But far more to the point---Americans are laser focused, obsessed, even, on the economy

14. To see their president, for petty political purpose, attempting to prosecute only the peons of the previous administration---in TIMES like THESE---is outright offensive

15. Talk about taking your eye off the ball

16. Talk about not getting it

17. Obtuse Obama believes it behooves him to change the headlines away from LOSER Obamacare to obscure occurrences that may have happened in interrogation rooms almost a decade ago and half a planet removed from HERE and NOW

18. Yet another exhibit of the most INEPT politician at the national level America has ever seen

19. Dick Cheney LOUDLY says---BRING IT ON!

20. Unfortunately, AG Holder contemplates only investigations into the lowest level of Langley ops

21. Holder's a COWARD

22. The administration, meanwhile, has proven nothing but totally INCOMPETENT on every facet of the handling of detainees

23. From the release of confidential memo's which eventually entangled poor Ms Pelosi in the most embarrassing accusations against Mr Panetta's agency, to the NON release of photos of supposed detainee abuse, presumably more naked pyramids

24. And don't forget the president's humiliating attempt to close Gitmo, slapped down by his OWN senate, 90 to 6, because he was unable to answer a single, simple who, where or when

25. The White House and the media are trying to paint this development as a potential breach between the president and his Justice Dept, so independent is the AG

26. LOL!

27. When it comes to whether he would or wouldn't investigate or prosecute President Bush's interrogators, Obama has said he would, he wouldn't, he would, he wouldn't, faster and more frequently than the proverbial little girl pulling petals off that poor posey

28. The prosecutor's fishing expedition is bound to come up empty, he will never get the proof he needs to press a single charge

29. Which leaves simply the plain politics, also a certain loser

30. Fix this economy, Mr President, or you're dead

31. And hurry up

32. Meanwhile, the White House goes forward with its first RENDITION, sending detainees overseas to allow governments less scrupulous than ours to employ their own native versions of "enhanced interrogation"

Holder Hires Prosecutor to Look Into Alleged CIA Interrogation Abuses

Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. has decided to appoint a prosecutor to examine nearly a dozen cases in which CIA interrogators and contractors may have violated anti-torture laws and other statutes when they allegedly threatened terrorism suspects, according to two sources familiar with the move.

Holder is poised to name John Durham, a career Justice Department prosecutor from Connecticut, to lead the inquiry, according to the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the process is not complete.

Durham's mandate, the sources added, will be relatively narrow: to look at whether there is enough evidence to launch a full-scale criminal investigation of current and former CIA personnel who may have broken the law in their dealings with detainees. Many of the harshest CIA interrogation techniques have not been employed against terrorism suspects for four years or more.

Leaders at the Justice Department and the intelligence community have clashed this year over the release of sensitive interrogation memos, military photographs of detainee abuse and how to handle the cases of more than 200 detainees at the prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Holder's decision could complicate the Justice Department's relationship with the White House, where President Obama has repeatedly expressed a desire to move forward from the national security controversies of the Bush administration. Deputy White House press secretary Bill Burton told reporters Monday that the president had complete faith in Holder and that the decision whether to launch an investigation was the attorney general's sole prerogative.

Holder acknowledges the possible fallout from his decision, but has concluded in recent days that he has no other choice than to probe whether laws were broken in connection with the Bush administration's interrogation program, the two sources said. Fewer than a dozen cases will be examined, most from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Any criminal investigation into the CIA conduct faces serious hurdles, according to current and former government lawyers, including such challenges as missing evidence, nonexistent or unreliable witnesses, no access to some bodies of detainees who died, and the passage of up to seven years since the questionable activity occurred far from American soil.

In a message distributed to employees Monday morning, CIA Director Leon Panetta noted that the agency repeatedly had sought legal advice from the Justice Department, receiving "multiple written assurances that its methods were lawful. The CIA has a strong record in terms of following legal guidance and informing the Department of Justice of potentially illegal conduct."

The Justice Department investigation has roiled activists from across the political spectrum for weeks even before it became a reality Monday. The left-leaning ACLU and Alliance for Justice, as well as groups that represent torture victims, exhorted Holder to undertake a wide-ranging probe of Bush lawyers and administration officials who helped develop the interrogation policy.

With Monday's looming public announcement, however, the attorney general and his national security team appear to be staking out a middle ground -- rejecting a broad inquiry that could result in possible prosecutions of Justice Department lawyers in the Bush years as well as cabinet officers who developed counterterrorism policy; but giving civil liberties advocates at least part of what they wanted without supporting a full, independent truth commission to examine a host of Bush national security practices.

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The Prof