Denis Bradley, a former secret envoy between the IRA and the UK government and ex-chair of a consultative group investigating Northern Ireland's past, has argued that putting the PSNI into the historic prosecutions from the Troubles is "polluting" policing in the region.
The prison population is ageing fast, due in part to longer sentences and increasing numbers of prosecutions for historic sexual offences.
If the committee decides it was torture, a wave of prosecutions of historic offences could follow: there is usually no time limit for bringing torture charges, as there generally is for sex crimes.
He said there had been a recent increase in prisoners which could be linked to prosecutions for historic sex offences.
Pursuing prosecutions for historic Troubles killings is only leading victims down a false path, a former NI secretary of state has said.
Apparently nervous about losing votes in Sunday's general elections, even political parties that had previously backed the president supported the move to strip him of immunity from prosecution in a historic session of Congress on Tuesday.
On the other side of the aisle, a handful of Republicans led by representative Mike McCaul, have vocally urged the opposite, saying that so many refugees raise "serious national security concerns" and that "the Syrian conflict is a special case" that should temper the US's historic hospitality toward people fleeing prosecution.
Lastly the chief crown prosecutor had been asked to look into historic cases involving the Crown Prosecution Service in considering whether charges should be brought, Mr Wright said.
A letter by deputy Labour leader Tom Watson to the UK's top prosecutor did not prompt police to interview Leon Brittan over a historic allegation of rape, the Crown Prosecution Service has said.
A couple were convicted of assaulting children last month in the final prosecution brought as a result of the historic abuse inquiry on the island.
