All Blog Posts from Political Hotsheet

Seven former CIA directors sent a letter to President Obama on Friday urging him to use his authority to reverse Attorney General Eric Holder’s decision to re-open and pursue cases of prisoner abuse within the CIA in the wake of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

In August, Holder appointed a U.S. prosecutor to begin a criminal probe of CIA questioning of terror suspects during the Bush administration, reversing the course set by the Bush administration. The investigation potentially exposes CIA employees and agency contractors to criminal prosecution.

"Attorney General Holder's decision to re-open the criminal investigation creates an atmosphere of continuous jeopardy for those whose cases the Department of Justice had previously declined to prosecute," the former officials wrote. "Moreover, there is no reason to expect that the re-opened criminal investigation will remain narrowly focused."

Allowing a political appointee to reopen an already-closed case would "seriously damage the willingness of many other intelligence officers to take risks to protect the country," the officials wrote, since they would run the risk of facing "endless criminal investigations" for actions that may have previously been deemed legal.

"Those men and women who undertake difficult intelligence assignments in the aftermath of an attack such as September 11 must believe there is permanence in the legal rules that govern their actions," the letter said.

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CIA Director Leon Panetta addressed agency staff in an e-mail today marking the eighth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks tomorrow. With the CIA facing scrutiny over Bush-era torture of detainees and questions about how it should share responsibilities with the FBI and other federal agencies, Panetta used the opportunity to try to boost morale and rally employees.

Panetta's full message is included below:

Message from the Director: September 11th

Tomorrow, our nation as a whole will remember those lost to us eight years ago. For the men and women of the CIA, September 11th is a constant, powerful incentive in the war against al-Qa’ida and its violent sympathizers. Our Agency is at the center of that fight. We have no higher priority or greater focus.

Alone, and with partners in this country and overseas, the CIA has inflicted major losses on a dangerous enemy. Places that al-Qa’ida once counted as safe havens have become less safe. People on whom al-Qa’ida once relied—planners, commanders, facilitators, and trainers—have been taken off the battlefield.

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On “Washington Unplugged” today, Newsweek investigative reporter Mark Hosenball said people at the CIA are "freaking out" over Attorney General Holder’s appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate interrogation practices during the Bush adminstration.

“I was just speaking to some people [at the CIA], they’re really freaking out over this; it is going to cause them to start giving them second thoughts about doing risky things or creative things in the future and maybe that’s good, maybe that’s bad. It is tying them down,” he told CBS News’ Bob Orr .

Hosenball also weighed in on comments made by former Vice President Dick Cheney’s yesterday on Fox News when he said the techniques used by the CIA were valuable.

“It is true that the CIA program to interrogate and detain high value al Qaeda detainees produced a lot of intelligence,” he said.

The interrogation, Hosenball said, “produced the kind of intelligence that was like totally central to the CIA’s intelligence gathering about al Qaeda.“ But he added that the question is whether the enhanced interrogation techniques revealed reliable intelligence, and the recently released documents do not answer this question.

Hosenball said the documents also do not contain any " assessment of the ratio of good information to bad information."

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A White House spokesman on Monday said former Vice President Dick Cheney had his facts wrong when he criticized the Obama administration's decision to investigate allegedly abusive CIA interrogation techniques.

Cheney on Sunday called the Justice Department investigation an "outrageous political act" that will do significant long term damage to the nation. (Watch more about Cheney's comments here.)

At his regular press briefing Monday afternoon, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs brushed aside the criticism as "the same song and dance we've heard since literally the first day of our administration."

"I'm not entirely sure that Dick Cheney's predictions on foreign policy have borne a whole lot of fruit over the last eight years in a way that have been either positive or, to the best of my recollection, very correct," Gibbs said.

Cheney said on Sunday that the harsh interrogation techniques used on terrorist suspects were "directly responsible" for the fact that there have been no further mass casualty attacks against the United States since Sept. 11, 2001.

"I think the (former) vice president, if you watched some of his interview, clearly had his facts on a number of things wrong," Gibbs said Monday.

Gibbs contrasted Cheney's statements with Republican Sen. John McCain's comments on CBS's "Face the Nation." Though McCain said it was a "serious mistake" to investigate the interrogations, he said the interrogation techniques of the CIA under the Bush administration were harmful to the U.S.

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Politics Today is CBSNews.com's inside look at the key stories driving the day in Politics, written by CBS News Political Director Steve Chaggaris:

**Memorial service for Sen. Ted Kennedy tonight...

**Outnumbered Republicans in Massachusetts protesting potential move to allow governor to appoint Kennedy successor...

**Health care fight continues...

SEN. TED KENNEDY: Thousands lined the streets – and, according to the Kennedy family, 25,000 lined up to pay their respects at the JFK Library in Boston on Thursday. Today, Kennedy will lay in repose for a second day at the library before an invitation-only "Celebration of Life Memorial Service" at 7pm.

Speakers tonight include: Vice President Joe Biden, his niece Caroline Kennedy, his nephew former U.S. Rep. Joseph Kennedy II, D-Mass.; Gov. Deval Patrick, D-Mass.; Boston Mayor Tom Menino; Sens. Chris Dodd, D-Conn.; Orrin Hatch, R-Utah; John Kerry, D-Mass.; and John McCain, R-Ariz.

On Saturday morning, Kennedy will be taken to the Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, also known as the Mission Church, in Boston for a funeral Mass. President Obama will deliver the eulogy; former Presidents Clinton, Carter and George W. Bush will also attend.

CBS News has learned that Kennedy's sons Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I., and Edward Kennedy Jr. are also expected to deliver remarks.

Following the funeral on Saturday, Kennedy will be flown to Washington, D.C. and will be buried next to his brothers John and Robert in Arlington National Cemetery. His motorcade will stop by the U.S. Capitol en route to the cemetery.

Today's Kennedy coverage online:

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Former Vice President Dick Cheney is once again taking aim at the Obama administration in the wake of yesterday's news over CIA anti-terror interrogations during the Bush administration.

In particular, Cheney said new investigations and possible prosecutions into past CIA interrogations and the creation of new unit within the FBI to handle future interrogations both were "a reminder, if any were needed, of why so many Americans have doubts about this Administration's ability to be responsible for our nation's security."

Cheney has become one of the Obama administration's most persistent critics, especially when it comes to anti-terror policies and their criticism of interrogation and detention tactics taken during the War on Terror.

In this statement, the former vice president also zeroed in on the 2004 CIA report on interrogations, which was declassified yesterday. The report revealed more details of the interrogations of terror suspects, including threats made to kill the children of 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, other detainees who were threatened with a handgun and power drill and allegations that another suspect was told his mother would be sexually assaulted in front of him.

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Politics Today is CBSNews.com's inside look at the key stories driving the day in politics, written by CBS News Political Director Steve Chaggaris:

**President Obama to nominate Fed Chairman Bernanke to a second term...

**Deficit projection of $9 trillion to be announced today...

**Latest on CIA interrogations...

**President's vacation; health care debate continues...

BERNANKE NOMINATED FOR SECOND TERM: So much for the president's news-less vacation on Martha's Vineyard. President Obama announced that he's nominating Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke to a second term. Bernanke's term doesn't expire until January 2010.

"The president wanted the team that has been working to rescue this economy together," a White House official told CBS News' Rob Hendin last night when the news leaked. "This continuity is crucial and [White House Chief of Staff] Rahm [Emanuel], [Treasury Secretary Tim] Geithner and [chief economic adviser] Larry [Summers] all recommended to the president that Bernanke be retained to ensure this continuity. Larry [Summers] is of course staying first because no one can do what Larry can as the president's right hand advisor on the economy and because the president wants and needs his whole economic team together."

Mr. Obama said: "The man next to me, Ben Bernanke, has led the Fed through the one of the worst financial crises that this nation and this world have ever faced. As an expert on the causes of the Great Depression, I’m sure Ben never imagined that he would be part of a team responsible for preventing another. But because of his background, his temperament, his courage, and his creativity, that’s exactly what he has helped to achieve. And that is why I am re-appointing him to another term as Chairman of the Federal Reserve.

"Ben approached a financial system on the verge of collapse with calm and wisdom; with bold action and outside-the-box thinking that has helped put the brakes on our economic freefall. Almost none of the decisions he or any of us made have been easy. The actions we have taken to stabilize our financial system, repair our credit markets, restructure our auto industry, and pass a recovery package have all been steps of necessity, not choice. They have faced plenty of critics, some of whom argued that we should stay the course or do nothing at all."

"While the markets are likely to cheer the move on Tuesday, reappointment will likely come only after sharp skirmishes on Capitol Hill," write the Wall Street Journal's Jon Hilsenrath, David Wessel and Sudeep Reddy. "Some critics say Mr. Bernanke was too slow to recognize the severity of the crisis.

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Former Bush administration counselor and CBS News Analyst Dan Bartlett told The Early Show this morning that Attorney General Eric Holder's investigation into CIA interrogation practices will "pull the rug out from under" CIA agents currently in the field.

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Democrats in Congress today praised the Obama administration for taking steps to revamp procedures for interrogating suspected terrorists and called the Justice Department's investigation into past interrogation methods the first step towards justice. Meanwhile, Republicans called the creation of the new interrogation unit and the investigation politicized power grabs and distractions from critical anti-terrorism efforts.

The Obama administration is assigning a veteran U.S. prosecutor to begin a criminal probe of CIA questioning of terror suspects during the Bush administration, it was announced Monday. The White House also confirmed it is creating a new terror suspects interrogation unit that it will directly supervise. The developments came on the same day a 2004 report from the CIA inspector general was released revealing interrogation techniques like threatening the suspects' families.

Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said the inspector general's report provides "conclusive evidence" that interrogators overstepped the legal boundaries in place and that their techniques of "torturing detainees in U.S. custody did not make us safer."

"The conduct that is documented in this report illustrates the perils of the dark road of excusing torture down which the Bush administration took this nation," he said. "I also believe it underscores why we need to move forward with a Commission of Inquiry, a nonpartisan review of exactly what happened in these areas, so that we can find out what happened and why. Who justified these policies? What was the role of the Bush White House? How can we make sure it never happens again? Information coming out in dribs and drabs will never paint the full picture."

Though he would ultimately like to see a nonpartisan commission formed to examine the interrogations, Leahy said in a separate statement that Attorney General Eric Holder's decision to investigate the issue should bring a measure of accountability to the American people.

"I am grateful that the Justice Department is finally being led by an independent Attorney General who is willing to begin investigating this dark chapter in our country's history," he said. "I had no doubt that he would put the interests of the law ahead of politics, and he has demonstrated that."

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The Justice Department released today a voluminous report on interrogation techniques used during the Bush administration. The account was created in 2004 by the CIA inspector general, but hasn't been public until now. In addition, the White House announced that a new unit housed within the FBI and reporting to the White House will take the lead in interrogation of terror suspects.

CBS News' National Security Consultant Juan Zarate said this new structure for overseeing high level detainees could be "potentially problematic" for the White House.

"The White House tends to not want to get into operational matters," he said. "If you have a structure where the FBI head of this or the FBI director has to come to the White House or the national security adviser to get advice as to what steps to take, particular operational steps in an interrogation, that really starts to get dicey for the White House politically."

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