CIA To Congress: We Are Not The Enemy

Retired high-level CIA agents angrily spoke out against a proposed Senate review of the CIA’s detention and interrogation program, insisting that sometimes unsavory actions are needed to save American lives.

“It’s not like some CIA officer wakes up and says we are going to waterboard today. We are not a group of rogues, ” former official John Kiriakou told FrumForum.com.

Kiriakou’s words are especially noteworthy, since he himself questioned terror suspects.

Kiriakou noted that the intelligence community had information that Osama bin Laden was planning an attack that would “dwarf September 11th. After watching 3000 Americans slaughtered in the street that day we had to take the man at his word.” All the information gained during the enhanced techniques was validated by enabling America to prevent some very serious terrorist attacks.

“None of us want to do it,” Kiriakou continued. “All of us wish it is something we never had to confront but sometimes you find yourself in a position in order to do something that saves lives." He points out that Khalid Sheikh Muhammad only spoke after he was subjected to the enhanced techniques.

The Senate review, announced on March 5 by Senators Diane Feinstein (D., Cal.) and Kit Bond (R-Mo.), chair and vice-chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, will scrutinize, among other issues, how the CIA gathers its information.

In an interview with NewMajority, Sen. Bond said it is his hope that the investigation will be impartial and without any political agenda: “This review should be about giving an objective assessment to the CIA — and to President Obama — on how our policies should look going forward, not a witch hunt to go after intelligence officials who acted in good faith with proper authorization in the conduct of interrogations.”

However, a witch hunt is what many CIA officials fear. As one retired senior official, who wished to remain anonymous stated, “I don’t think people for the most part are worried about prosecution. But they are worried about harassment, being hauled before a congressional committee…”

And while these officials agreed that the CIA should maintain a good relationship with Congress, none felt that an investigation was necessary or would be beneficial.

Currently there are no plans for prosecuting any CIA individuals. On the other hand, it is not clear whether the administration would act to protect these officials from assertions of jurisdiction by other countries, like Spain, which is currently investigating whether to prosecute six Bush administration lawyers.

The CIA officials interviewed stated that all members followed lawful instructions that were approved by the administration and Justice department. They also noted many of the same Senators who are calling for an investigation were briefed at the time and involved in some of the decisions, including water-boarding. On September 12th, there were very few outspoken critics of the CIA’s tactics. These sentiments continue today, as evidenced by the Obama administration’s decision to maintain many of the CIA’s techniques such as enhanced interrogation techniques (except water-boarding), the rendition program, and the wire-tapping policy. Kiriakou notes that “it’s unfair to the agency and its officers to have policies continually changing, putting agency officers in a bad position.”

Robert Grenier, a retired senior CIA official pointed out that the Senators viewed the CIA practices at the time as being disciplined, professional, and effective. As another noted, after September 11th, Congress bluntly stated that the CIA would be held accountable for another terrorist attack unless they had done everything in their power to stop it. “[The Senators] don’t seem to be looking into whether the members of the committee are accurate about what they said.” This official further resents that the entire focus of the investigation seems to be on the intelligence community: “I believe the senior leadership of the intelligence committees were indeed informed on the most significant activities and many of them seemed to have developed amnesia when the programs were leaked and became controversial.”

These former officials stated that only three terrorists were water-boarded, and then only in the immediate urgency of anticipated attacks. As one stated, in defense of water-boarding, “[Post-9/11], when you encounter someone who knew about the next plot, you don’t have time to build a relationship.”

So can any good come of this review, at least from the CIA’s point of view?

As one of the former officials observed, it could have the benefit of making Congress — and the public — better understand the enemy we face: “Once the members of Congress see the information obtained was extraordinarily valuable they, as well as the CIA, can share in the moral dilemma, if you have the possibility to learn information and fail to learn that information to disrupt that plot then you failed the American citizens, and you have blood on your hands.

Grenier agreed. “It’s very easy for people in an academic or a political setting to make hard and fast comments as though the world were black and white. The people whose job it is to get their hands dirty, to protect our citizens have to live in a very gray world,” he said. Agents are burdened by the knowledge that the elected officials “who are supporting me now may very well be publicly denouncing me later. Unfortunately, that is just a political reality.”