ACLU: DOJ’s Dismissal Of CIA Death Cases ‘Nothing Short Of A Scandal’

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The American Civil Liberties Union isn’t happy with the Justice Department’s decision to end investigations into the deaths of two detainees who had been in CIA custody overseas.

“That the Justice Department will hold no one accountable for the killing of prisoners in CIA custody is nothing short of a scandal,” Jameel Jaffer, the ACLU’s deputy legal director, said in a statement. “The Justice Department has declined to bring charges against the officials who authorized torture, the lawyers who sought to legitimate it, and the interrogators who used it. It has successfully shut down every legal suit meant to hold officials civilly liable.

“Continuing impunity threatens to undermine the universally recognized prohibition on torture and other abusive treatment and sends the dangerous signal to government officials that there will be no consequences for their use of torture and other cruelty,” Jaffer continued. “Today’s decision not to file charges against individuals who tortured prisoners to death is yet another entry in what is already a shameful record.”

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