Michelle Breaks it Down

Obama Refuses to Stop CIA Investigation

September 21, 2009 on 4:42 am | In Freedom, Fundamental Transformation, National Security | 3 Comments

In an interview on CBS’ Face the Nation, Sunday, September 20, 2009, President Obama said he would not ask U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to stop the re-investigation of CIA Interrogators. Prior to his inauguration, the president said, “We need to look forward, as opposed to looking backwards. At the CIA you’ve got extraordinarily talented people who are working very hard to keep Americans safe. I don’t want them to suddenly feel like they’ve got to spend all their time looking over their shoulders and lawyering up.” If that is what he believes, why doesn’t he ask Holder to back off, especially in light of the letter he received on Friday?

Seven former directors of the Central Intelligence Agency urged President Obama to reverse Attorney General Eric Holder’s decision to hold a criminal investigation of CIA interrogators who used enhanced techniques on detainees.

The directors, whose service includes tenure under both Republican and Democrat Presidents, sent a letter to the president reminding him that the cases have already been investigated by the CIA and career prosecutors. The former directors say that reconsidering these decisions makes it difficult for agents to believe they can safely follow legal guidance.

Here is the breakdown:

After the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States of America, President George W. Bush authorized “enhanced interrogation techniques” for terror suspects. The interrogation techniques in question were put in place to protect this country from another attack.

Four years ago, the CIA forwarded to career prosecutors fewer than 20 instances where agency officers appeared to have acted beyond their existing legal authorities. Under the supervision of the US Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, it was determined that one prosecution (of a CIA contractor) was warranted. A conviction was later obtained and the subsequent cases were dealt with through administrative disciplinary action against the individuals involved.

Some of the questionable tactics used in that pursuit included the use of unauthorized detainee interrogation methods. Some of the findings reported include:

U.S. interrogators threatened a captured al Qaeda operative with a power drill to try to scare him into giving up information.
Interrogators threatened to kill a top captive’s children in an effort to get the man to talk.
The gun and drill were used in two interrogation sessions against Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri - the man accused of plotting the 2000 attack on the USS Cole, which left 17 U.S. sailors dead. The report says interrogators told al-Nashiri that if he didn’t talk, “we could get your mother in here. We can bring your family in here.”
Interrogators reportedly told Khalid Sheikh Mohammed – the alleged mastermind of the 9/11 attacks - that “if anything else happens in the United States, we’re going to kill your children.”
Unauthorized detainee interrogation methods also included “the making of threats, blowing cigar smoke, employing certain stress positions, the use of a stiff brush on a detainee, and stepping on a detainee’s ankle shackles.”
Interrogators staged mock executions to try to frighten detainees into talking. In one instance, a gun was fired in an adjacent room to make a terrorism suspect think another prisoner was being killed. When the guards moved the detainee from the interrogation room, they passed a guard who was dressed as a hooded detainee, lying motionless on the ground and made to appear as if he had been shot.

THINK: People train and pledge to defend and protect this country. Those people [CIA interrogators and the like] use methods they deem necessary to extract information from detainees. Information collected prevents future attacks on Americans. Information collected leads to arrests of more terrorists committed to destroying Americans.

On Monday, August 24, 2009, the Justice Department released a revised version of a 2004 CIA report regarding abuses against detainees in secret prisons overseas run by the CIA. Eric Holder, the US attorney-general, said that after reviewing the report , he was compelled to initiate a preliminary review.

“As a result of my analysis of all of this material, I have concluded that the information known to me warrants opening a preliminary review into whether federal laws were violated in connection with the interrogation of specific detainees at overseas locations,” Holder said. “The Department regularly uses preliminary reviews to gather information to determine whether there is sufficient predication to warrant a full investigation of a matter. I want to emphasize that neither the opening of a preliminary review nor, if evidence warrants it, the commencement of a full investigation, means that charges will necessarily follow.”

It is now being reported that Attorney General, Eric Holder did not read the original report and the findings of the seasoned prosecutors who declined to prosecute all but one individual.

THINK: The charges against the CIA and their interrogators have already been investigated. Proper reprimands have long since been delivered. President Obama’s Attorney General decides to re-investigate.

The concerns the seven former CIA directors have include the significant personal burden put on the agents who are forced to defend themselves:

”but this approach will seriously damage the willingness of many other intelligence officers to take risks to protect the country.”

The directors state their concerns that interrogators will not be able to perform the necessary duties for fear of being criminally charged by the next administration, by quoting Senator Lieberman:

“to do their dangerous and critical jobs without worrying that years from now a future attorney general will authorize a criminal investigation of them for behavior that a previous attorney general concluded was authorized and legal.”

The effectiveness of the job of a CIA interrogator will undoubtedly be effected by the financial burden that will come from defending the [at the time] legal interrogation methods.

“Not only will some members of the intelligence community be subjected to costly financial and other burdens from what amounts to endless criminal investigations, but this approach will seriously damage the willingness of many other intelligence officers to take risks to protect the country. In our judgment such risk-taking is vital to success in the long and difficult fight against the terrorists who continue to threaten us.”

If an interrogator is forced to perform their sworn obligation under the umbrella of fear of being sued or criminally charged, how effective will they be at extracting the information required to keep the United States and her people safe from another terrorist attack?

The directors also warned that if the investigations are opened up, they fear that the assistance given to the United States by foreign intelligence agencies may jeopardize future cooperation.

President Obama could easily put an end to all of this. The charges against the CIA and their interrogators have already been investigated. He could advise his attorney general that he does not think it is in the best interest of our national security to pursue this witch hunt.

THINK: The president has the authority to decide which legal recommendations to allow for interrogation methods. At what time is public disclosure helpful for intelligence officers trying to protect the U.S. from further attacks?

President Obama doesn’t stop here. He is closing Guantanamo Bay with no plan to relocate the dangerous prisoners, along with the direction that many of these terrorists be tried in civilian courts. Obama has abandoned the term “war on terror” for the more friendly term “overseas contingency operations”, as well as ordering captured terrorists to be Mirandized on the battlefield.

THINK: President closes terrorist detention center with no place to put detainees. Now captured terrorist are to be given the same rights as American citizens in our courts.

Just in case you haven’t heard enough…Watch this: