Despite the stunning news -- first unearthed by blogger Marcy Wheeler -- that CIA officials waterboarded two key Al Qaeda prisoners 266 times, President Obama has made his stance clear: The White House will not seek prosecution of either the CIA agents who tortured prisoners during interrogations or the Bush administration lawyers who wrote memos approving these tactics. Rep. Jan Schakowsky, on the other hand, isn't ready to let the issue die.

In an interview with the Huffington Post Friday, Schakowsky -- chairwoman of the House Intelligence Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations -- said she has instructed her staff to begin an investigation into the allegations enclosed in the four Office of Legal Counsel memos if the full committee decides to follow the President's lead. Specifically, she wants to focus on the architects of the torture regime, including federal judge Jay S. Bybee. She explained her position on MSNBC's Countdown last night:

While the names of CIA officers who tortured detainees were redacted from the released memos, Schakowsky is also questioning whether private contractors who conducted interrogations should be granted similar immunity. Deputy Attorney General David Ogden told her that it was still an issue "that is under consideration" by the Justice Department, but an agency spokesman didn't immediately return an e-mail from the Huffington Post late last week. The Illinois Democrat has consistently derided the excessive use of private security firms, authoring a bill in 2007 to phase out the use of private military contractors over the next five years. And earlier this month, CIA Director Leon Panetta told employees of the spy agency that private contractors will no longer be permitted to interrogate suspected terrorists.