Intelligence Vets Back Torture Probe (Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity)

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consortiumnews.com

Intelligence Vets Back Torture Probe

By Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity
Posted September 28, 2009

Editor’s Note: In reaction to the extraordinary appeal by seven ex-CIA directors that President Barack Obama halt a Justice Department inquiry into the use of torture by CIA interrogators, a dozen former U.S. intelligence professionals urge the President to ignore that appeal and back the investigation. (Their memo to Obama was dated Sept. 27.)

MEMORANDUM FOR: The President

FROM: Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS)

SUBJECT: Accountability for Torture

We write you, Mr. President, as former intelligence professionals to voice strong support for Attorney General Eric Holder’s authorization of a wider investigation into CIA interrogation. We respectfully disagree with the direct appeal to you by seven former CIA directors to quash that wider investigation.

The signatories of this Memorandum are former intelligence officers and analysts who have worked with CIA directors going back as far as Allen Dulles. Our cumulative experience totals more than 200 years.

We are encouraged by your own support for Attorney General Holder’s decision to have federal prosecutor John Durham investigate possible criminal activity by individuals engaging in torture and other violations of international agreements on the treatment of detainees.

From our own experience in intelligence, both as field operators and as senior analysts, we know that personal accountability is vital to maintaining an effective intelligence service that reflects our best traditions and the rule of law.

Among the former CIA directors who, by letter of September 18, asked you to “reverse” the attorney general’s decision are some who were cognizant of and involved in decisions that led to the abuses in question. We find that troubling.

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