Dereliction of Duty = AG Eric Holder

[L. Coyote]

March 20, 9:42 AM, 2009
Dereliction of Duty by Scott Horton - http://harpers.org/archive/2009/03/hbc-90004587

Congressional Quarterly reports that Attorney General Eric Holder reads the news but feels no obligation to act on what he has learned:

The clamor for a Justice Department probe into allegations of detainee torture has intensified this week after the New York Review of Books published excerpts of a 2007 report by the International Committee of the Red Cross that contained interviews with detainees who claimed they had been tortured.

“We will let the law and the facts take us to wherever we go,” Holder said. But he added that the administration does not want to criminalize policy differences. Holder said the department is “mindful” of recent news accounts. But when asked whether there was a formal Justice Department investigation, Holder said, “I wouldn’t say that.” .....

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The offenses described by the Convention are criminalized under United States law by the Anti-Torture Statute, 18 U.S.C. sec. 2340 and sec. 2340A, which further criminalizes a joint criminal enterprise to violate the prohibition on torture, as obviously occurred.