Vindicating the CIA
July 3 | Posted by mrossol | Liberal Press, Obama, Party Politics, The LeftReview & Outlook: Vindicating the CIA – WSJ.com.
Well, again I wait for the moaning and bleating of the liberal press…
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The education of the Obama Administration on antiterror policy has been remarkable to behold, and the latest installment is Attorney General Eric Holder’s decision to pull the plug on the investigation into most CIA interrogations. The disgrace is that this probe was ever undertaken.
In 2009, Mr. Holder appointed prosecutor John Durham to look into the possible mistreatment of some 100 detainees by the CIA, with an eye toward possible prosecution. On Thursday, Justice said it would proceed with investigations in two cases where prisoners died in CIA custody, but that any more investigation of the others “is not warranted.”
The Administration might have concluded that from the start if it had listened when seven former CIA directors urged President Obama to stop the probe. Reopening investigations into cases that had already been reviewed by career prosecutors at Justice “creates an atmosphere of continuous jeopardy” for agents who were operating under the legal guidance of the Bush Administration, the former directors wrote. Then-CIA director Leon Panetta objected on similar grounds.
Mr. Holder originally said that “it would be unfair to prosecute dedicated men and women working to protect America for conduct that was sanctioned in advance by the Justice Department.” But he still couldn’t resist the opportunity to placate the anti-antiterror left that had invented a fantastic dark world of alleged Bush misdeeds. In the event, Mr. Durham has found nothing but two cases whose details are unknown to the public and so are impossible for us to judge.
The probe has still done considerable harm by creating a culture of second-guessing and political retribution that CIA operatives must now consider as they try to protect against terror threats. We’ll never know what actions in the future won’t be taken, because of this culture, that might have saved lives.
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