Interrogators got valued info, could face charges

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By Ben Conery

The Obama administration Monday appointed a special prosecutor to pursue criminal charges against CIA employees who interrogated some of al Qaeda's hardest core members, while releasing documents showing individuals subjected to the tactics provided life-saving intelligence that disrupted numerous terror plots ranging from an anthrax attack on Westerners to a massive bombing of U.S. troops in Africa.

Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. ordered the reopening of criminal investigations against CIA interrogators that the Justice Department had previously declined to prosecute under President Bush.

He made the decision over the opposition of CIA Director Leon E. Panetta and despite the often-stated wishes of President Obama to "look forward" and not become entangled in a debate over the past practices of the war on terror.

Mr. Holder ordered his special prosecutor to focus on cases in which interrogators used "inhumane" tactics outside those authorized by their superiors, and, to bolster its case, the administration released a previously classified CIA inspector general's report that detailed instances in which interrogators threatened one detainee with killing his children and suggested to another that they could force him to watch his mother be sexually assaulted.

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At the same time, the CIA declassified documents that former Vice President Dick Cheney had pleaded to be released publicly that detailed the extraordinary information the United States gained from its interrogations of high-value detainees about al Qaeda's leadership, its list of potential Westerners who could carry out attacks and about its operational plans that were subsequently thwarted.

Among the chilling details in the documents, titled "Khalid Sheikh Mohammad: Preeminent Source On Al-Qaeda" and "Detainee Reporting Pivotal for the War Against Al Qaeda":

• The identities of key participants in an al Qaeda program to develop the ability to mount anthrax attacks.

• The identities of about 70 people whom al Qaeda had "deemed suitable for Western attacks."