Double Jeopardy for CIA Interrogators?

WASHINGTON, July 13, 2009 -- Some of the Central Intelligence Agency's interrogators now facing potential criminal prosecution for how they interrogated alleged terrorists have already been disciplined by the CIA, according to officials familiar with the matter.

The CIA's disciplinary actions were taken in the 2004-05 time frame, after the Justice Department reviewed a still-classified CIA inspector general report on the agency's interrogation program.

At the time, career Department of Justice prosecutors in the eastern district of Virginia decided not to prosecute the CIA interrogators, referring their cases back to the agency for possible non-legal disciplinary action.

Among the cases that the Justice Department decided not to prosecute include:

After the Justice Department decided against prosecuting these cases in 2004, the CIA accountability board reviewed the inspector general report and decided to slap an administrative punishment on some of the interrogators. Officials would not say what the punishments were, nor how many individuals were punished.

Now, Attorney General Eric Holder is considering appointing a special prosecutor to conduct a criminal investigation into whether CIA interrogators broke the law and tortured captured terrorists, going beyond the so-called enhanced interrogation techniques, like waterboarding, that were approved by the Bush administration.