It could potentially require a full-scale legal investigation, complicate prosecutions of individuals suspected of committing terrorism and mire the new administration in just the kind of backward look that Mr. Obama has said he would like to avoid.
But the truth of the Killing Fields may be too big for just one court case, even if it is, as the British co-prosecutor claims, "the largest and most complicated prosecution since Nuremberg in 1945".
Case 002, the trial of the Khmer Rouge's four most senior-living leaders and referred to as "the largest and most complicated prosecution since Nuremberg," began in earnest in late 2011 and will likely last for the next few years.
Current and former intelligence officials said that the agency's senior lawyer, John A. Rizzo, had not been notified about the decision and was angered to learn about the destruction of the tapes, which could complicate the prosecution of Abu Zubaydah and others.
The Pentagon's efforts to gather intelligence from more valuable prisoners were also deeply flawed, military intelligence officers said, complicating the prosecution of some detainees and nearly paralyzing efforts to release others.
His appearance at the gun lobby's annual gathering also came at a moment when its powerful grip on gun legislation is under renewed scrutiny because of permissive self-defense laws it has promoted, like the one in Florida that may complicate the prosecution of George Zimmerman, who killed an unarmed teenager, Trayvon Martin, six weeks ago.
Hunt also noted that student involvement in the act complicated the possibility of prosecution.
Its chief prosecutor, US Attorney Preet Bharara, has become famous for his vigorous prosecution of extremely complicated white-collar crime.
In the Pistorius case, the police again emerged poorly, having, as it seemed, bungled aspects of the forensic investigation in ways that could complicate the prosecution's case that Ms. Steenkamp's death was a case of premeditated murder — and having assigned the case to an officer who turned out to be under investigation in a case of attempted murder himself.
"Kolesnikov, with his act, complicated the goal of the prosecution," Lapshov said.
