Who Will Want To Work For The CIA After Today? -- A Commentary

Attorney General Eric Holder. AP

Prosecuting the CIA -- Wall Street Journal

Eric Holder unleashes a special counsel on U.S. war fighters.

'It would be unfair to prosecute dedicated men and women working to protect America for conduct that was sanctioned in advance by the Justice Department." –Attorney General Eric Holder, April 2009

"Justice Department Names Prosecutor to Reopen CIA Abuse Cases" –Wall Street Journal, yesterday

Mr. Holder had it right the first time. His about-face yesterday, compounded by his release of a 2004 internal CIA report on that agency's handling of terrorists, opens a political war that President Obama, the CIA and above all the country will live to regret.

This is a trap the Administration set for itself. Mr. Obama and his team have attempted to appease their political left by publicly denouncing the Bush Administration's national security policies, even as they claimed to want to forget the past. Their disparagement has only fed the liberal demand for Bush prosecutions and increased the pressure on Mr. Holder to appoint a prosecutor.

Read more ....

My Comment: I started a commentary on this last night .... having a good idea on what was going to happen today .... and after writing a long dissertation on why this CIA witch hunt was wrong .... I gave up.

One can argue on the legal aspects of the cases that the Special Prosecutor is going to investigate. The breaking of rules and regulations. The immorality of it all .... but I realized last night that it is not going to make one iota of difference.

Many in the White House have been gunning against the CIA for a long time .... Attorney General Holder being on of them. If it was not this case .... it would be another .... and trust me, the CIA is filled with cases and operations that can be scrutinized for breaking not only U.S. law but also the laws of other nations. This blog has chronicled numerous cases and operations that the CIA has conducted in just the past year .... and I say to myself .... "Is this legal?"

The continuous drone missile strikes and assassination attempts on Taliban/Al Qaeda targets in Pakistan. The raid on a Syrian Al Qaeda safe house on the Iraq border last fall that killed numerous Syrian civilians. Iraqi and Afghan ops that can fill a computer hard drive. The CIA is an organization with thousands of men and women .... and their one mission is to protect you and I .... and they do their best .... and their best usually results in someone suffering somewhere.

But this world is about to be turned upside down.

After today .... no one is now safe in the CIA and in the other U.S. Intelligence Agencies. Hundreds of people are now going to be subpoenaed by this Special Prosecutor .... and thousands more will always be wondering if they will be subpoenaed next.

This fear and worry will now grip most of the U.S. Intelligence community. The focus will no longer be to target Al Qaeda and their allies .... the focus will now shift to protecting "one's butt".

In such an atmosphere .... who will want to work for such an organization. To know that what is permitted and santioned by the political masters of today .... may put you in jail a few years later.

The politicization of intelligence has now begun .... and my guess is that the results are going to be messy and deeply divisive for the U.S. of A.