US appoints prosecutor to investigate detainee abuses

Aug 24, 2009, 19:34 GMT

Washington - US Attorney General Eric Holder said Monday he will appoint a special prosecutor to re-examine nearly a dozen cases in which CIA interrogators allegedly abused terrorism detainees.

John Durham, a career prosecutor from the Justice Department, will head the inquiry. Durham will investigate whether current or former CIA personnel and private contractors broke the law as they dealt with terrorism suspects being held overseas.

President Barack Obama has said he prefers to look forward rather than prosecute abuses of the past. Holder stressed that it was a preliminary inquiry.

'I fully realize that my decision to commence this preliminary review will be controversial,' Holder said in a statement. 'Given all of the information currently available, it is clear to me that this review is the only responsible course of action for me to take.'

Holder said his decision was based on information from a 2004 report by the Central Intelligence Agency's (CIA) inspector general, which documents a series of prisoner abuses by interrogators. The report was to be released later Monday.

The CIA report prompted the Justice Department's own ethics office to recommend reopening some cases of prisoner abuse to criminal prosecution.

Former president George W Bush's administration has come under fire for authorizing harsh interrogation practices that human rights groups called torture. But many interrogators reportedly went beyond even the Bush sanctioned practices.

Obama ordered an end to the harsh interrogation practices just days after taking office in January.

Earlier Monday he authorized the formation of an elite interrogation team to handle top terrorism suspects, shifting that responsibility away from the CIA and bringing it under the direct oversight of the White House.

The White House has said any final decision on whether to reopen cases of abuse will be left to Holder.

'Ultimately the decisions on who is investigated and who is prosecuted are up to the attorney general,' White House spokesman Bill Burton told reporters.