Bush Officials Declined To File Charges Against CIA Officer Who Allegedly Used Gun In Interrogation

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CIA Officer Disciplined for Alleged Gun Use in Interrogation
Bush Officials Filed No Charges Over Tactics in Terror Case

By Joby Warrick and R. Jeffrey Smith
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, August 23, 2009


A CIA officer who allegedly used a gun to intimidate a captured al-Qaeda suspect was formally disciplined for violating the agency's rules for conducting interrogations, but Bush administration Justice Department officials ultimately declined to file charges against him, according to two former intelligence officials familiar with the case.

The officer, who has not been identified, was immediately called back to CIA headquarters to face an internal accountability board and was "reprimanded and reassigned" for committing acts outside the CIA's legal guidelines for interrogating terrorism suspects. At the time of the 2002 incident, the guidelines permitted the use of sleep deprivation and waterboarding -- simulated drowning -- on some suspects, according to a former senior intelligence official who closely followed the events.

The CIA officer eventually resigned, two former agency officials confirmed Saturday.

In a separate incident, interrogators reportedly used an electric drill to intimidate the same detainee, al-Qaeda commander Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, the group's former chief in the Persian Gulf and the alleged mastermind of the deadly USS Cole suicide bombing in 2000.

"The agency, where appropriate, took its own disciplinary action when the Department of Justice declined prosecution," CIA spokesman George Little said Saturday.

A spokesman for the agency declined to comment on details of the episodes, but current and former government officials said the use of the gun is described in a classified CIA inspector general's report, which is slated to be released in declassified form on Monday.

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/22/AR2009082202287.html