Breaking Faith with Those Who Defended Us

Attorney General Holder has decided to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate supposed abuses by CIA operatives. A former high-level Bush official expressed shock to NewMajority at President Obama’s strange moral standards. The official said: President Obama “has given the Defense Department the legal authorization to assassinate fifty Afghan heroin traffickers.  I don’t understand it because interrogation has brought actionable intelligence while killing someone gets no intelligence.”

A former CIA operative told NM: “Anytime you are putting a human being under duress it is nasty.  How can Holder be disgusted by what we did? Even non-physical interrogation is not a pretty thing to watch.  You have to understand that he (the operative) is attempting to get someone to give up something he doesn’t want to give up to save American lives.” A former Bush official concurred and stated that the CIA is made up of “professionals who know what they are doing despite what this administration is saying.  They have been very successful at preventing future attacks.”

Does Holder have a basis for establishing a special prosecutor?  Everyone interviewed said absolutely not.  A former high ranking CIA official felt that “this reopening of the cases smacks of double jeopardy.”  NewMajority was able to view CIA Director Panetta’s message to the Agency’s employees in which he explained that these cases were already examined by the DOJ.  He explained that “the report was made available to the leadership of the Congressional intelligence committees in 2004 and to the full committees in 2006. All of the material in the document has been subject to Congressional oversight and reviewed for legal accountability… The CIA has a strong record in terms of following legal guidance and informing the Department of Justice of potentially illegal conduct.”

All the former CIA employees informed NewMajority that in any organization, there will be rogues — the CIA is no different.  However, a former senior intelligence official summed up everyone’s feelings when he stated that “Holder has a firm grasp of the rear view mirror and seems intent on slamming the engine of government into reverse.  No one is defending the actions and comments of a small group of Agency officers who were singled out in the IG report.  That is why the CIA told the IG about them and the CIA referred these cases to career prosecutors, not Bush administration people, at DOJ.” A former high ranking CIA official felt what is happening “is shameful really.  It’s unprecedented.  We were the ones who took the initiative to report misdeeds.”

All those interviewed are curious why this is all happening at this time.  Many of them speculated that they are being used by the administration not only to appease the left, but also as a deflection for all the other problems Obama is having.  In other words, they are scapegoats for the Obama administration.  They all attest to the fact that none of the information coming out is new.  They all believe that there is no need for a special prosecutor.  The only reason Holder is appointing one is for a fishing expedition.  One former operative felt that “they don’t have any specific cases against somebody so now they are going to play around in the dark to try to find something.”

In interviews with NM, Congressman Rooney (R-FL), a former JAG prosecutor, said it is unfair to go back and change the rules after the fact.”  Congressman Hoekstra (R-MI) stated that the fact that “the Obama administration apparently is planning to reopen these cases after thorough review by nonpartisan prosecutors raises serious questions.”  Minority Whip Cantor (R-VI) went even further, stating that “I find it very troubling that this administration is turning on the servants of this country who were trying to protect Americans… that is not how we settle political scores with successive administrations.”