Smoke in the face. The sound of a drill. The threat to kill a terrorist’s family. A new inspector general’s report says that these techniques, plus waterboarding, were used – not widely, but sparingly – in CIA interrogations of terrorists such as Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the “mastermind of 9/11.” Mohammed broke under the pressure and disclosed important details about how the attack against the World Trade Center and the Pentagon was planned and executed. Now Attorney General Eric Holder is going to break the people who broke Mohammed. And by appointing a special prosecutor to do it, he is also trying to wash his hands of the investigation’s findings.
Principled liberals view a torture investigation as a moral necessity. Yet, even assuming that they have a point, every relevant fact argues against it. A Justice Department war on the CIA is a high-risk, low-reward proposition. First, torture prosecutions have little chance of success, governed as they would be by a statute demanding proof that interrogators “specifically intended to inflict severe physical or mental pain or suffering.”
Second, such investigations have a chilling effect on the nation’s terrorism intelligence gathering. Even when the CIA uses no harsh measures, interrogators should be able to seek useful intelligence without having to fear that pushing a permitted interrogation technique to the limit of the law could result in their becoming the object of a political witch hunt that costs them their careers.
Third, investigating the CIA will also inflict damage on the FBI. Following 9/11, the “wall of separation” that prevented these two agencies from sharing critically important information was identified as a hindrance to combating terror cells within the United States. Since both agencies properly have roles in identifying, tracking and interrogating terrorist suspects, FBI agents understandably will wonder if they will be the targets of the next political witch hunt.
It makes matters much worse that Holder has handed the matter over to a special prosecutor, nearly guaranteeing that the investigation will spiral out of control without achieving its goals, and possibly opening up additional areas of investigation and litigation that could be severely damaging to the national security. With this decision, which he approved, President Obama runs the risk of a fruitless investigation, after which he will be rightly blamed for weakening our intelligence services and making the U.S. more vulnerable to a terrorist attack.
