Dialogue Of The Deaf Over CIA Probe
The last few days offer coming attractions in a debate already assuming the form of blood sport. First came the orchestrated leaks by former intelligence officials telling the Washington Post that morale at the agency has sagged since the announcement of an investigation into possible abuse by CIA interrogators. The effort here was clear: Portray the investigation as a witch hunt that's going to hurt national security while destroying the reputation of devoted public services.
Former vice president Dick Cheney picked up the theme as he complained to Fox's Chris Wallace on Sunday that politics was now informing the process (thereby ensuring that politics would now inform the process.) "It's clearly a political move," Cheney said while taking a few shots at Barack Obama's ability to lead the nation. "There's no other rationale for why they're doing this."
Actually, there is another rationale, though one that Cheney isn't going to acknowledge in front of the cameras. Eric Holder may be a party hack but as Attorney General of the United States, he is supposed to show independence and uphold the law. Unlike John Ashcroft and Alberto Gonzalez, Holder should put some distance between himself and the White House (and maybe, in some small way, he's now trying to make up for his participation in the Marc Rich pardon at the end of the Clinton presidency. What's more, President Obama, who doesn't want to go to war with the CIA, would court political disaster if he attempted to squash the Justice Department's upcoming probe by special prosecutor John Durham.
Unlike the intricacies of health care or cap-and-trade, which make most people's eyes roll in the back of their heads, this is the stuff that makes pundits palpitate. Unfortunately, there's no clear way to declare who's going to be proved right in this debate until months - and more likely years - later. So with both sides using the issue as a club to establish their national security bonafides, you can bet on a screaming match that lasts quite a while until the opposing sides have exhausted themselves.
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Out of curiosity, I spent some time surfing the Net to look up who had declared their positions on prisoner torture. As you might expect, there was no shortage of tough guys bloviating in the blogosphere. Unfortunately, I had no way of knowing how many had served in uniform. It was easier to come up with a list of former officers in opposition. They constitute a formidable block, led by Sen. John McCain. The Republicans may try o reprise their Cold War critique of Democrats as being soft on communism. But they'll have a tough sell with so many former officers against violating the Geneva Coventions and the convention against torture, which McCain notes, was ratified under President Reagan. On CBS's "Meet The Press" here's some of what he also had to say:
"I think that these interrogations once publicized helped al Qaeda recruit. I got that from an al Qaeda operative in a prison camp in Iraq who told-- who told me that. I think that the ability of us to work with our allies was harmed and so-- and I believe that information, according to the FBI and others, could have been gained through other methods...."
"And the second thing about it is, if you inflict enough pain on anyone, they'll tell you anything that to make the pain stop. So you not only get, perhaps, right information but you also get a lot of wrong information. But the damage that it did to America's image in the world is something we're still on the way to repairing. This is an ideological struggle as well as a-- as a physical one..."
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Separately, the following is an (admittedly incomplete) list of former high-ranking officers against enhanced interrogation techniques. The roster includes:
General Colin Powell
General John Vessey
Brigadier General David M. Brahms
Brigadier General James Cullen
Brigadier General Evelyn P. Foote
Lieutenant General Robert Gard
Vice Admiral Lee F. Gunn
Admiral Don Guter
General Joseph Hoar
Rear Admiral John D. Hutson
Lieutenant General Claudia Kennedy
General Merrill McPeak
Major General Melvyn Montano
General John Shalikashvili
Admiral Gregory G. Johnson
Admiral Jay. L. Johnson
General Paul J. Kern
Admiral Charles R. Larson
General David M. Maddox
General Merrill A. McPeak
Admiral Stansfield Turner
William G.T. Tuttle Jr.
General Anthony Zinni
General Daniel W. Christman
Lieutenant General Paul E. Funk
Lieutenant General Robert G. Gard Jr.
Lieutenant General Jay M. Garner
Admiral Lee F. Gunn
Lieutenant General Arlen D. Jameson
Lieutenant General Claudia J. Kennedy
Lieutenant General Donald L. Kerrick
Vice Admiral Albert H. Konetzni Jr.
Lieutenant General Charles Otstott
Vice Admiral Jack Shanahan
Lieutenant General Harry E. Soyster
Lieutenant General Paul K. Van Riper
Major General John Batiste
Major General Eugene Fox
Major General John L. Fugh
Rear Admiral Don Guter
Major General Fred Haynes
Rear Admiral John Hutson
Major General Melvyn Montano
Major General Gerald T. Sajer
Major General Michael J. Scotti Jr.
Brigadier General David M. Brahms
Brigadier General James Cullen
Brigadier General Evelyn P. Foot
Brigadier General Murray G. Sagsveen
Brigadier General David R. Irvine
Brigadier General John H. Johns
Brigadier General Richard O'Meara
Brigadier General John Schmitt
Brigadier General Anthony Verrengia
Brigadier General Stephen N. Xenakis
Ambassador Pete A Peterson, USAF (Ret.)