Newsflash: Obama, Holder Made Deal With The CIA?

No charges against CIA officials for waterboarding

WASHINGTON —  The Obama administration on Thursday informed CIA officials who used waterboarding and other harsh interrogation tactics on terror suspects that they will not be prosecuted, senior administration officials told The Associated Press.

Even before President Barack Obama took office in January, aides signaled his administration was not likely to bring criminal charges against CIA employees for their roles in the secret, coercive terrorist interrogation program. It had been deemed legal at the time through opinions issued by the Justice Department under the Bush administration.

But the statement being issued Thursday by Attorney General Eric Holder, the nation’s chief law enforcement officer, is the first definitive assurance that those CIA officials are in the clear, as long as their actions were in line with the legal advice at the time.

The immediate implication is that this was a deal struck with the CIA in return for Obama’s decision to release the memos today.

Does this…

as long as their actions were in line with the legal advice at the time.

…mean that those who MADE torture “legal” and those who authorized the “legalizing” of illegal torture programs WILL be prosecuted?

If torture is illegal, and yet occurred, but the people who carried out that torture are immune, who performed the illegal actions that led to torture?

To put it another way…torture is illegal, so somebody performed illegal actions: torture. If it was not the legal fault of those who were “just following orders,” is it not the legal fault of those GAVE those illegal orders?

The crux: Will Holder go after Bush and Cheney for authorizing the illegal actions of the CIA? That, to me, is the logical implication.

Or does this mean that everyone is off the hook for these patently illegal acts?

Excerpts from Holder’s speech at the West Point Military Academy’s Center for the Rule of Law last night, which just makes this all more logically inconsistent… below the fold.

We will not sacrifice our values or trample on our Constitution under the false premise that it is the only way to protect our national security,” Holder said, speaking to a conference at West Point. “Discarding the very values that have made us the greatest nation on earth will not make us stronger-it will make us weaker and tear at the very fibers of who we are.”

“There simply is no tension between an effective fight against those sworn to do us harm and a respect for the most honored civil liberties that have made us who we are,” he said.

snip

“Even as we usher in a new period of openness and transparency, many national security decisions must by necessity be made in a manner that protects our ability to gather intelligence, investigate threats and execute wars,” Holder said, according to the prepared text of his remarks. “But a need to act behind closed doors does not grant a license to pursue policies, and to take actions, that cannot withstand the disinfecting power of sunlight. In fact, it is in those moments when no one is watching when we must be most vigilant in relying on the rule of law to govern our conduct.”

Please see…

[Holder Affirms Rule of Law, Won’t Say How He’ll Enforce It

Attorney General Address Dodged Key Legal Issues During Speech at West Point

By Daphne Eviatar http://washingtonindependent.c…

….for more.