Total impunity: CIA free to kill at will?

The New York Times' Tim Golden and Douglas Jehl, who have been following the detainee abuse issue on various fronts, published an interesting article on Saturday explaining how CIA agents implicted in more three Iraqi/Afghan detainee deaths will get off without facing criminal charges.

Quoting largely anonymous sources within the intelligence community, the article reveals that Federal prosecutors have notified the CIA that no charges will be brought against agents for their alleged involvement at Abu Ghraib, the "Salt Pit" interrogation center in Afghanistan (where a prisoner died of hypothermia), and the murder of a former Iraqi general by asphyxiation at American base Al Asad.

The article reveals that the CIA provided prosecutors with 8 dossiers related to the homicides, yet according to the Times' sources, prosecutors will only pursue cases involving defense contractros, such as the charges against David Passaro.

The Times article provided a synopsis of the alleged involvement of the CIA in each case, including the infamous Abu Ghraib killing of Manadel al-Jamadi:

Mr. Jamadi's death was among the most notorious of the incidents at Abu Ghraib that became public in the spring of 2004, in part because his body was photographed wrapped in plastic and packed in ice. He died after being beaten by commandos of the Navy Seals who struck him in the head with rifle butts and then turned him over to C.I.A. interrogators at Abu Ghraib.

A lieutenant in the Navy Seals was acquitted in May of striking Mr. Jamadi and failing to restrain his men from hitting Mr. Jamadi. The lieutenant, Andrew K. Ledford, remains the only person to have been prosecuted in that death.

Eight members of the Seals and a sailor who served under him, received administrative punishments for abusing Mr. Jamadi and other detainees.

Former intelligence officials have said that questions remain about the role of a C.I.A. officer and a contract interrogator who had taken custody of Mr. Jamadi and were questioning him in the shower room at Abu Ghraib when he died. Mr. Jamadi was found with his hands bound behind his back and shackled to a barred window. Mr. Jamadi had not been examined by a physician when he was brought to Abu Ghraib, because the C.I.A. officers had circumvented normal procedures of registering his presence as a prisoner.

An intelligence official briefed on the case said it was clear that the C.I.A. officers and members of the Navy Seals team bore some responsibility for the prisoner's death, but that the legal culpability of each was difficult to untangle. A government official who reviewed a coroner's report said evidence suggested that Mr. Jamadi's broken ribs - apparently sustained in beatings by the Navy Seals - contributed to his death.

"It may have been too hard a case to prove," said the intelligence official, referring to possible criminal charges against the C.I.A. employees. "He was in de facto agency custody, but he was in a military prison. They could see that he was injured, but they maybe didn't know he was so injured. If he had had a medical examination they would have known. But they didn't do one."