Comment: CIA Insiders Issue Torture Probe Warnings
September 1, 2009 4 Comments
A.B. Krongard
By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
Sensing that a government probe into its post-9/11 practices is around the corner, the CIA has employed its usual practice of issuing public warnings through friendly news outlets. Several Agency insiders appear to have simultaneously decided to break their customary silence. Speaking to The Washington Post, they sternly warned that “[m]orale has sagged at the CIA” because of the rumored government investigation into torture of detainees and other controversial intelligence projects.
Not surprisingly, most vocal are those CIA officials directly associated with torture practices, such as the Agency’s Executive Director Alvin Bernard Krongard (now retired), who told The Washington Post that morale at the CIA “is down to minus 50”. There are also the usual warnings, routinely recycled since 2004, that CIA agents are frantically hiring lawyers and are preparing in panic to leave the Agency.
In reality, morale at the CIA has been low for several years. It was irreparably wounded by the CIA’s failure to prevent the tragedy of 9/11. It was further damaged during the period of the Agency’s intense politicization, in the lead-up to the Iraq War. It was almost reduced to zero after its leadership allowed the Agency’s intelligence product to be hijacked by a Bush Administration desperate to convince a skeptical US public that the Ba’athist government of Iraq was a national threat. And it has now sunk to near-unprecedented levels following public revelations of the CIA’s leading role in the torture controversy, which has resulted to the Agency’s virtual exclusion from US interrogation protocol.
“Buzzy” Krongard is right when he says that morale at the CIA is below zero. But this is not the result of the US government’s attempt to reassert constitutional control over the Agency’s controversial practices. Rather, it is the result of the CIA’s operational and administrative failures, which have once again exposed its chronic inefficiencies and increasingly problematic relationship with acceptable legal standards. If it fails to collaborate with the rumored investigation, it will not only damage its own institutional credibility, but that of the US political system as well.
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Git em all – git every single one of them – smoke them out of their proverbial caves if ya have to – and whatever older ideologue that also comes scurrying out – GIT him too! Restore the HONOR the CIA had – that the U.S. had.
…and most of all, restore the honor of English grammar!
I Believe that no matter who influenced the C.I.A. into Torturing these Terrorists, that the Agency was Following The Caommands of The Chosen Elete. If the President and Vice President have Special Powers which I know they do, this can be Foregiven and The Proper Respect can be given to The Force of the C.I.A. for Following Commands, as well as The Other Agencies that Follwed Orders. This would Restore the Integrety of Our Finest Fighting Machine,as well as Make any and all Legal Suits of Illegal Practice by this Former Administration, an Act of War and Not a Legal Complaint. Then, if The Muslim Terrorist Society, was to Claim a Geneva Convention Ruling, on the Use of Torture, Then Hold them accoutable for The Terrorist activities, from The Past, in Chronological Order. Include International Terrorist Attacks also. When they can Justify their Rights to Terrorize the World, and Torture Our People, with Bombings and Beheadings, The Rape and Incest of Our Allies too, then we can Proceed with the Accountability Proceses. This would be a Good Protection to keep the Terrorists or any other Nation from using Torture against Us, in The Future also. Not the Point of Using Torture, again, but the Rights to Defend Out Nation from Terrorists, and The threats of any other Nation, Kingdom and Goverment also. To use the Outcome of the Action Described as Necessary, to Prevent a Major Compromise, of Our Nations Defense. There was no other Action, that could have Paralleled the Results of This Action, that was taken, to Prevent a National Disaster, of Untold Proportion. The Psychological Power of This Action was the Decisive Victory in This War, and to not Give it Proper Acknowledgement is a Grave Disaster, for Our Fighting Forces. They would never take another Risk from The Government again, that would require a Faith, in Our Elected Government. This will effectively Destroy our Defense and Our Sovereigty as a Military Giant, its better to acknowledge it, than Deny it. Just One Time. Volunteer intelligence
Thank you Mr. Allen for the dose of reality.
@Robert, Anon Ymous was just writin’ in Texan. Poor grammar is just an indicator of the common level of American illiteracy. Robert O’Dell exposes others: ignorance and arrogance. We need the truth of our history going all the way back to WWII exposed for popular consumption. Humility and humanity are missing from our society. Middle ages here we come!