DOJ won’t reopen torture probe after CIA report

The Justice Department is not reopening an investigation into the CIA’s treatment of suspected terrorist detainees despite a Senate panel’s damning report on their practices.

Investigators have reviewed the Intelligence Committee’s report and “did not find any new information that they had not previously considered in reaching their determination” to dismiss the previous investigations, the Justice Department said.

{mosads}The decision not to pursue additional legal action will upset some civil liberties advocates who have called for new “accountability” measures to pursue officials involved with the program and prevent the CIA from ever conducting similar acts again.

The Justice Department had previously launched investigations into the treatment of detainees, which the Senate panel on Tuesday said sometimes amounted to torture.

A 2009 review under the authority of Attorney General Eric Holder led to two criminal investigations but no prosecutions because “the admissible evidence would not be sufficient to obtain and sustain convictions beyond a reasonable doubt,” the department said.

The 500-page Senate Intelligence Committee’s report was years in the making and concludes that the CIA misled its overseers in Congress, the Justice Department and the White House in carrying out brutal interrogations that did not help to combat terrorism. 

Many Republicans and former spy agency officials have vigorously denounced the conclusions as a partisan analysis that ignores key facts and tries to twist the truth.