The Australian: Agents 'shielded' from torture charges [November 07, 2005]

The Australian: Agents 'shielded' from torture charges [November 07, 2005]: "November 07, 2005

THE US government's policies on interrogating terrorist suspects may preclude the prosecution of CIA agents who commit abuses or even kill detainees, a US magazine reported overnight.

The Central Intelligence Agency has been implicated in the death of at least four detainees but the US government has so far brought charges against only one low-level contract employee, possibly because modified policies under President George W. Bush grant interrogators wide latitude, the New Yorker magazine wrote.

In the case of one Iraqi terrorist suspect, Manadel al-Jamadi, who died shortly after being taken into custody two years ago, the US Justice Department has yet to file charges against anyone even though the death was classified as a homicide.

Photos of grinning US soldiers crouching over Jamadi's corpse were among the disturbing images that emerged from the Abu Ghraib prison scandal in 2004, prompting international outrage and internal US military investigations.

Jamadi, whose head had been covered by a plastic bag and was shackled in a crucifixion-like pose, died of asphyxiation, according to previous media reports.

The CIA agent who interrogated Jamadi has not been charged with a crime and continues to work for the agency, the New Yorker reported.

The magazine identified the CIA employee, who is not a covert agent, as Mark Swanner and said he and his lawyer declined to comment for the article."