Justice Dept. Sets Criminal Inquiry Into C.I.A. Tapes
By MARK MAZZETTI and DAVID JOHNSTON
Published: January 2, 2008

WASHINGTON — Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey said Wednesday that the Justice Department had elevated its inquiry into the destruction of Central Intelligence Agency interrogation videotapes into a formal criminal investigation to be headed by an outside prosecutor.

The announcement is the first sign that investigators believe C.I.A. officers, possibly along with other government officials, may have committed criminal acts in their handling of the tapes, which depicted the interrogations in 2002 of two Al Qaeda operatives and were destroyed in 2005.

The tapes were never provided to the Sept. 11 commission or to the courts, and the question of whether to destroy them was for nearly three years the subject of deliberations at the highest levels of the Bush administration.

Mr. Mukasey assigned an outside investigator, a federal prosecutor from Connecticut, to lead the criminal inquiry in tandem with the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The prosecutor, John H. Durham, is likely empanel a grand jury to hear testimony to determine whether there is enough evidence to bring criminal charges, which could include obstruction of justice.

As an outside prosecutor, Mr. Durham oversaw an investigation into the F.B.I.’s use of mob informants in Boston. He has been lead prosecutor in several successful corruption cases in Connecticut...[Open in new window]

&

A little something about Mr. Durham:

JOHN H. DURHAM TO INVESTIGATE MISSING TORTURE TAPES; BUSH SAID TO PEE
Posted by Archer

Wednesday, January 02, 2008

All I know is, if I were being investigated by John H. Durham, I'd probably save him the trouble and commit suicide.

Durham is the First Assistant United States Attorney in the United States Attorney's Office for the District of Connecticut. Durham shaves with a .45 and brushes his teeth with a wire grille brush. He is so incorruptible that when Angelina Jolie propositioned him he immediately jumped out of the window and deliberately fractured both his knees so he couldn't do anything. Then he called his wife and made her drive him to confession.

Okay, I made that up. But it's true that when the city of Boston got caught discovered that its FBI office was in bed with the mob and had been murdering people and framing other people for the murders, they called in John H. Durham. Within five minutes all the bad guys were in maximum security.

This pissed off the mob and they tried to kill Durham, but the cops loved Durham so much they volunteered by the dozen to stake out his house. Cops generally love Durham. Hell, even defense lawyers love Durham. He's Dudley Do-Right but somehow he manages not to be a jerk about it. Nobody can figure out how.

I hope when he is finished with this investigation the Capo goes to jail. Durham has never lost a case.

Of course he never had one in which the Capo could pardon himself, either...[Open in new window]