THE CIA will come under some of its toughest scrutiny for years with the publication today of a report detailing its use of mock executions, and the possible appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate its detention policy.
The alleged abuses all took place under the Bush administration but some intelligence officials argue the pendulum has swung too far in the other direction, and that congressional preoccupation with the CIA’s past misdeeds is hindering its current operations.
The report was drawn up in 2004 by CIA inspector general John Helgerson and kept secret until now. According to leaks, it will say CIA interrogators carried out mock executions to terrorise suspected terrorists into informing.
In one case, Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, suspected of playing a role in the bombing of the USS Cole in 2000, was threatened with a gun and a power drill. In another case, a gun was fired in a room next to a detainee being questioned to convince him a fellow detainee had been killed. Threatening a detainee with summary execution is a violation of US law.
The reports come weeks after the CIA’s admission it had considered the use of hit squads to target senior al-Qaeda leaders. It also emerged private contractors were hired to take part in the CIA programme. Although the programme was cancelled because of legal and logistical misgivings before any assassinations were carried out, the revelations have added to CIA embarrassment.
Barack Obama’s administration has been reluctant to open an investigation but pressure from Democrats in Congress and human rights groups has been fuelled by the revelations.
The new CIA director, Leon Panetta, who has brought some of his predecessors’ excesses to the attention of Congress, warned political wrangling over the past could distract the agency from its key task. “The CIA no longer operates black sites and no longer employs ‘enhanced’ interrogation techniques,” he wrote in the Washington Post. “Yet my agency continues to pay a price for enduring disputes over policies that no longer exist.”
Vincent Cannistraro, a former CIA official, said “the pendulum on intelligence has swung from one side to the other. The clandestine capability that was arduously built up is already weakened through bureaucratisation, potential congressional hearings and investigations motivated by partisan political concerns”.
Robert Baer, also former CIA, disagreed, arguing accountability was paramount: “It’s the appearance of illegality that keeps running through this as a watermark. You can’t just say let’s put this behind us.”