"Mistakes
have to be acknowledged and redressed. If not, then America runs the risk that
the morality of the torture memos will seep into other agencies. Why shouldn’t
a military or police officer do what an agent of the intelligence services is
permitted to do with impunity?"
In the hot seat: Mild-mannered CIA chief Leon Panetta must rebuild the agency's badly damaged morale while simultaneously cooperating with a probe that could lead to the prosecution of some of his rank and file for torture.
The job CIA
Director Leon Panetta must complete is probably the second toughest difficult in
America. He must overhaul an agency discredited by the war on terror while
ensuring that his reforms don’t sink the
agency any further. That is a hellish task, with Attorney General Holder having
designated a special prosecutor to investigate whether CIA employees are guilty
of torture and other offenses.
After the Justice
department released a long-secret
CIA report, Holder had no choice. In the 2004 repot, the CIA inspector general
[John L. Helgerson] cautiously concluded that although the interrogation techniques
introduced after September 11had yielded some useful information, he
could not determine whether normal questioning would have failed to do so.
An [independent] prosecutor
at Justice [John H.
Durham], who has already begun his investigation,
must determine whether the prosecution of CIA employees or contractors is
justified. The only question to address is whether they exceeded the directives
of President Bush. The 2002 “torture memos” are not subject to potential
prosecution. Thus Bush and Cheney are now, protected.
Holder’s decision
in not only a blow to Panetta. President Obama, too, is in a difficult position.
Up to now he has opposed a legal approach to intelligence. He wanted to clean
house himself. In terms of strictly tactical reasoning, this is understandable.
By reforming the organization himself, Obama had hoped to avoid further politicizing
the past. It's been hard enough keeping his political agenda on track.
But Obama’s half
measures offer no any solace for the U.S. The torture memos and the subsequently exposed
interrogation practices have undermined the CIA far more deeply than initially thought.
In recent weeks, The New York Times has published several
articles that reveal a far seedier picture. In developing the program, the
CIA enlisted unlicensed psychologists who gleaned their knowledge from
books about the Korean War. The CIA also wanted to leave the "liquidation"
of the terrorists to private security firms since the agency no longer has a license
to kill.
These practices
seem to have corrupted the CIA not only formally but morally. The old esprit
de corps will not be restored with half measures.
Mistakes
have to be acknowledged and redressed. If not, then America runs the risk that
the morality of the torture memos will seep into other agencies. Why shouldn’t
a military or police officer do what an agent of the intelligence services is
permitted to do with impunity?
Of course, Mr. Holder
has taken a great political risk with his decision to bring in a special
prosecutor. But if he hadn’t taken that step, he would have been taking greater
social risk.These are considerations
that Obama must weigh as well.
