We're right back where we've really always been, aren't we?

"I share the President’s conviction that as a nation, we must, to the extent possible, look forward and not backward when it comes to issues such as these. While this Department will follow its obligation to take this preliminary step to examine possible violations of law, we will not allow our important work of keeping the American people safe to be sidetracked.

"I fully realize that my decision to commence this preliminary review will be controversial. As Attorney General, my duty is to examine the facts and to follow the law. In this case, given all of the information currently available, it is clear to me that this review is the only responsible course of action for me to take."

Except, maybe, this time something will come of the investigation of the CIA.

_{Michael McAndrews/Hartford Courant
John H. Durham, a veteran Connecticut prosecutor, has been investigating the C.I.A.}
I'm so old I remember when this wasn't about George Tenet and torturing POWs, but about William Casey and selling arms to terrorists in Iran.

In response to the findings, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. chose John H. Durham, a veteran prosecutor from Connecticut who has been investigating the C.I.A.’s destruction of interrogation videotapes, to determine whether a full criminal investigation of the conduct of agency employees or contractors was warranted. The review will be the most politically explosive inquiry since Mr. Holder took over the Justice Department in February.

The decision was a significant blow to the C.I.A, and Mr. Holder said he would be criticized for undercutting the intelligence agency’s work. He said that he agreed with President Obama’s oft-expressed desire not to get mired in disputes over the policies of former President George W. Bush, but that his review of reports on the C.I.A. interrogation program had left him no choice.

“As attorney general, my duty is to examine the facts and to follow the law,” Mr. Holder said in a statement. “Given all of the information currently available, it is clear to me that this review is the only responsible course of action for me to take.”

The C.I.A. inspector general’s 2004 report was released on Monday under court order in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union.