That wordy headline says it all. Beneath the summary, these details:
1. The CIA officer is the guy who is accused of revving an electric drill and brandishing a handgun "near the head of an imprisoned terror suspect."
2. The location is a "secret CIA prison in Poland in late 2002 and early 2003, according to several former intelligence officials and a review by the CIA's inspector general."
3. The investigation is the seemingly endless one being performed by DOJ special prosecutor John Durham, many of whose torture investigations seem endless. Scott Horton (my emphasis):
So what has become of those whose involvement in torture was so troubling that even a government inspector general recommended a criminal investigation? While investigations proceed apace overseas, Special Prosecutor John Durham is apparently still considering whether the facts warrant a real one in the United States. Durham has now spent more than a year trying to make this “threshold” determination, something that prosecutors frequently do in an afternoon. In the meantime, the Obama Administration’s position seems to be that the accused should be rewarded for their dubious services with lucrative training contracts.While the reward aspect is interesting (and has the effect of strengthening the ties to the "reservation" should the ex-officer ever be tempted to go off it), Horton advises us that the real action is the ties to Poland:
The desire to conceal the identities of the CIA agents has more to do with the fact that they face prosecution–not in the United States, but in Poland, on whose soil the crimes were committed. Indeed, the Polish National Prosecutor’s office would very much like to know the exact identity and whereabouts of “Albert,” his supervisor “Mike,” and other CIA personnel involved. The CIA black site where the torture incidents occurred is located at Stare Kiejkuty, in northeastern Poland[.]Click for more to this interesting story. The embedded link to the Warsaw Business Journal is worth a look as well.
Drip, drip, drip. At some point, one of these cracks in the torture wall becomes a full-on break. Obama's DOJ seems now fully involved in the cover-up, even as likelihood of foreign prosecution increases.
We've now seen several cases — this one in Poland, the successful prosecution of U.S agents for kidnapping in Italy, the case against "torture lawyers" like John Yoo brought in Spain, and others.
I have a feeling that the first break will bring down the whole dam. Or to switch metaphors, this could go from zero to 60 in a nanosecond. Stay tuned; I sure will.
GP
