Administration creates new interrogation unit

The Census Bureau will be run by a White House Czar. Dozens of other Czars have been named for other quasi-official positions. Now the White House is practicing their dungeon techniques without the CIA.

How about doing something about home-grown terrorism like this, Mr. Holder? Or are they part of the new interrogation unit?

Administration creates new interrogation unit

Meantime, Attorney General Holder weighs reopening prisoner abuse cases

NBC News and news services

updated 52 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama has moved more forcefully than ever to abandon Bush administration interrogation policies, approving creation of a special unit supervised by the White House for questioning terrorism suspects, as Attorney General Eric Holder weighs whether to reopen and pursue prisoner abuse cases.

Deputy White House press secretary Bill Burton confirmed reports Monday that Obama had approved establishment of the new unit, which The Associated Press reported would be known as the High-Value Detainee Interrogation Group.

Burton told reporters covering the vacationing Obama family in Martha's Vineyard, Mass., that the new unit would be situated in the Washington headquarters of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, but that did not mean the Central Intelligence Agency would no longer be involved in interrogations.

A U.S. official told NBC News' Andrea Mitchell that the CIA welcomed the change. "The CIA didn't want to house this initiative. They're glad to be out of the long-term detention business," the official said.

Obama campaigned vigorously against President George W. Bush's interrogation policies in his successful run for the presidency. He has said more recently he didn't particularly favor prosecuting Bush administration officials in connection with instances of prisoner abuse. But the issue now before Holder for consideration would have the new administration do precisely that: reopen several such cases with an eye toward possible criminal prosecution.

A government official confirmed to The AP that the Justice Department's ethics office had recommended reopening nearly a dozen prisoner abuse cases. The official spoke on grounds of anonymity, citing the internal legal deliberations and indicating they remain ongoing.

Obama created task forces to study U.S. policy and practices on handling terrorism captives shortly after taking office. Obama has vowed to close the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, military prison by next year, hoping to free those prisoners against whom there is no case, to transfer others to the custody of other countries and to put still others on trial, ending their condition of limbo in the U.S. brig.

'Cheney memos?'
While further information on the new interrogation unit, known by the acronym HIG, will be made public later Monday, the task force working on questions about Guantanamo and prisoners still held there has not completed its work.

The new group and new directives to rely solely on the Army Field Manual when interrogating prisoners is an attempt by the administration to separate itself from allegations that the Bush administration tortured some prisoners. While the practice of waterboarding — simulated drowning — already has been banned, the directive to stick only to procedures in the field manual means other harsh tactics, such as subjecting prisoners to loud music for long periods and sleep deprivation, are also now a thing of the past.

The administration announced the new interrogation unit on the same day that the CIA inspector general was to unveil a report on Bush administration handling of suspects. Details were expected to show that highly questionable tactics were used.

The CIA also expects to post the so-called "Cheney memos," which former Vice President Dick Cheney has claimed would prove that past interrogation tactics had achieved results, to the public soon, NBC reported.

The release is expected around 2 p.m. ET on Monday.

Subjecting prisoner abuse cases to a new review and possible prosecution could expose CIA employees and agency contractors to criminal prosecution for the alleged mistreatment of terror suspects in the years after the Sept. 11 attacks.

Holder reportedly reacted with disgust when he first read accounts of prisoner abuse earlier this year in a classified version of the IG report.

Mock executions and other threats
Newsweek reported on Friday that the Justice report reveals how interrogators conducted mock executions and threatened at least one man with a gun and a power drill. Threatening a prisoner with death violates U.S. anti-torture laws.

A federal judge has ordered the IG report made public Monday, in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union.

A CIA spokesman, Paul Gimigliano, told The New York Times that the recommendation to reopen the cases had not been sent to the agency.

The accounts of the White House-supervised interrogation unit and the ethics recommendation to Holder were first reported, respectively, by The Washington Post and The New York Times.

The recommendation by the Office of Professional Responsibility was recently presented to Holder, an official, speaking on grounds of anonymity, told The AP.

The structure of the new unit the White House is creating would depart significantly from such work under the previous administration, when the CIA had the lead and sometimes exclusive role in questioning al-Qaida suspects.