The Rizzo Investigation by Scott Horton

[Jefferson23]

Marc Ambinder and Yochi Dreazen report in the National Journal:

The Justice Department is investigating whether a former top U.S. intelligence official, John Rizzo, improperly disclosed classified information about the CIA’s drone campaign, one of the spy agency’s most secretive and politically sensitive programs.

People familiar with the matter say that the CIA’s general counsel’s office opened the probe in March, shortly after Newsweek published an article in which Rizzo — who had retired in 2009 after serving as the CIA’s acting general counsel — outlined an array of specific details about how CIA officials choose terrorists for drone strikes and which American officials sign off on actually carrying them out.

The CIA’s decision to launch a leak probe targeting a long-time employee who served as its highest legal officer is significant on at least two fronts. First, while the CIA will disclaim this interpretation, the probe should be understood as an acknowledgement of the accuracy of the statements Rizzo made during his interview with Tara McKelvey. McKelvey’s article — Newsweek’s most important national-security reportage of the past year — provided a reasonably detailed description of how the CIA authorizes its drone-strike targets. Rizzo, who candidly referred to the attacks as “murder,” acknowledged that as acting general counsel of the agency, he had vetted strikes before they occurred, approving some and vetoing others based on the cases made by CIA analysts. The decisions did not go through the White House, nor through senior military officials. Harold Koh, Legal Adviser of the Department of State, has argued that U.S. drone-strike policy involves the meticulous observation of international legal standards, including of the laws of war, but readers of the Rizzo interview are unlikely to be persuaded by this claim. (Perhaps the most that can be said of the CIA’s efforts in this regard is that it may have “reached out” for guidance from uniformed lawyers with the U.S. Central Command in the past.)

remainder in full: http://www.harpers.org/archive/2011/11/hbc-90008314

[Demeter]

1. Another Whistleblowing hero of the People

I salute you, Mr. Rizzo.

[Jefferson23]

2. Me too. n/t