Porter Goss
George Tenet
John Deutch
R. James Woolsey
William Webster
James R. Schlesinger
Hey you guys! haven't you heard?
Posted on 09/18/2009 11:01:18 AM PDT by delacoert
WASHINGTON — Seven former CIA directors are asking President Barack Obama to quash Attorney GeneralEric Holder's investigation into harsh CIA interrogations of terror suspects during the Bush administration.
The request came in a letter Friday from CIA directors who served both Democratic and Republican presidents, including three who served former President George W. Bush.
Holder announced in August that he was appointing an independent counsel to investigate incidents of potential abuse that were reported by the CIA inspector general to the Justice Department.
(Excerpt) Read more at ajc.com ...
will he quash the quixotic. alas i don’t think so
this report speaks volumes in the fear that nobama invokes throughout this country regardless of ones politics.
this country is in peril!!!!!!!!!
This game continues until January...when I suspect that AG Holder jumps up and announces he’s off to run for senator of Illinois. The new guy steps in around March...says he’ll spend sixty days reviewing all the documents...and then around June of 2010....dumps the whole thing.
September 18, 2009
The President
The White House
Washington, D.C.
Dear Mr. President:
We have served as Directors of Central Intelligence or Directors of the CIA for Presidents reaching back over 35 years. We respectfully urge you to exercise your authority to reverse Attorney General Holder’s August 24 decision to re-open the criminal investigation of CIA interrogations that took place following the attacks of September 11.
Our reasons for making this recommendation are as follows.
The post-September 11 interrogations for which the Attorney General is opening an inquiry were investigated four years ago by career prosecutors. The CIA, at its own initiative, forwarded fewer than 20 instances where Agency officers appeared to have acted beyond their existing legal authorities. Career prosecutors under the supervision of the US Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia determined that one prosecution (of a CIA contractor) was warranted. A conviction was later obtained.
They determined that prosecutions were not warranted in the other cases. In a number of these cases the CIA subsequently took administrative disciplinary steps against the individuals involved. 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. Moreover, there is no reason to expect that the re-opened criminal investigation will remain narrowly focused.
If criminal investigations closed by career prosecutors during one administration can so easily be reopened at the direction of political appointees in the next, declinations of prosecution will be rendered meaningless. 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.
They must be free, as the Chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, Senator Lieberman, has put it: “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.” Similar deference needs to be shown to fact-based decisions made by career prosecutors years ago.
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.
Success in intelligence often depends on surprise and deception and on creating uncertainty in the mind of an enemy. As President you have the authority to make decisions restricting substantive interrogation or any other intelligence collection method, based on legal analyses and policy recommendations.
But, the administration must be mindful that public disclosure about past intelligence operations can only help Al Qaeda elude US intelligence and plan future operations. Disclosures about CIA collection operations have and will continue to make it harder for intelligence officers to maintain the momentum of operations that have saved lives and helped protect America from further attacks.
Finally, another certain result of these reopened investigations is the serious damage done to our intelligence community’s ability to obtain the cooperation of foreign intelligence agencies. Foreign services are already greatly concerned about the United States’ inability to maintain any secrets.
They rightly fear that, through these additional investigations and the court proceedings that could follow, terrorists may learn how other countries came to our assistance in a time of peril. The United States promised these foreign countries that their cooperation would never be disclosed. As a result of the zeal on the part of some to uncover every action taken in the post-9/11 period, many countries may decide that they can no longer safely share intelligence or cooperate with us on future counter-terrorist operations.
They simply cannot rely on our promises of secrecy.
We support your stated commitment, Mr. President, to look to the future regarding these important issues. In our judgment the only way that is possible is if the criminal investigation of these interrogations that Attorney General Holder has re-opened is now re-closed.
Sincerely,
Michael Hayden
Porter Goss
George Tenet
John Deutch
R. James Woolsey
William Webster
James R. Schlesinger
http://rawstory.com/blog/2009/09/seven-ex-cia-directors-ask-holder-to-drop-torture-probe/
God bless and protect our brave military and intel warriors.
Hey you guys! haven't you heard?
Good luck to Holder and Hussein on that sorry day.
Precisely the result he seeks, in addition to preventing other countries cooperating with us.
Hussein is systematically deconstructing every American safeguard in order to take us to his idea of “ground zero” so he can rebuild America in his image. He is beyond dangerous.
As soon as skinny started waving around pictures of interrogations and wandered the globe slamming our way of life and methods of staying alive whilst soliciting prepaid, no name credit cards in his 1st $600,000,000.00 scam, the damage was done.
Every Single Foreign Policy Action he has taken since has weakened the United States, and his Domestic Policies are all geared to destroy our economy
And he can't even prove he is eligible to be here.
Our country is in peril and we have a inexperienced idealistic complete idiot in charge. And did I mention that he’s a compulsive LIAR too.
Wow- that’s quite a line-up. It will be very telling how the administration reponds to the plea from these heavyweights.
Sorry CIA, you been thrown under the bus.
Zero will never be able to resist this delightful (to him) possibility.
It’s breath taking just how ignorant and dangerous this administration is. (I was going to continue with the sentence with an explanation, but nothing further needs to, or can be, said!)
Is there any possibility that Obama hasn't thought the same thing?
Conclusion: That's what he wants!
And one would think that the person writing this letter would be aware of this, it's a terribly naive statement IMO.
These Idiot’s in the Whitehouse could care less about this country. These seven former CIA directors should reveal
the real Obama. I would bet that they already know that he is a fraud down to the slightest detail and have kept quiet because of the race thing but now it sounds as though something is about to blow. These men I believe are concerned
with the direction this Whitehouse is taking our country.
I have hope too (mr. obama) that my thoughts will become true.
.....These seven former CIA directors should reveal
the real Obama.......
One can only wonder, was there just such a threat?
If a 20 year old girl can bring down the prima donnas at acorn, it would seem the CIA could summon the courage to destroy a President
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