Report: US panel backs reopening CIA abuse cases

The Justice Department's ethics office has recommended that the attorney general reopen and pursue nearly a dozen CIA prisoner-abuse cases, The New York Times reported Monday.

The move would reverse the policy of the Bush administration, which had closed the cases, and could expose CIA employees and agency contractors to criminal prosecution for the alleged mistreatment of terror suspects in the years after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

The recommendation by the Office of Professional Responsibility was recently presented to Attorney General Eric Holder, an unidentified person briefed on the matter told the Times. The ethics recommendation comes as the …