[Ppnews] Former U.S. Intelligence Officers on Torture and Mukasey

[Political Prisoner News]

http://www.counterpunch.org/torture11062007.html

November 6, 2007


Memo on the Nomination of Michael Mukasey


Torture and Intelligence Gathering

By Former U.S. Intelligence Officers

MEMORANDUM FOR: Chairman and Ranking Member, Senate Committee on the Judiciary

FROM: Former U.S. Intelligence Officers

SUBJECT: Nomination of Michael Mukasey for Attorney General

Dear Senators Leahy and Specter,

Values that are extremely important to us as 
former intelligence officers are at stake in your 
committee's confirmation deliberations on Judge 
Michael Mukasey. With hundreds of years of 
service in sensitive national security activities 
behind us, we are deeply concerned that your 
committee may move his nomination to the full 
Senate without insisting that Mukasey declare 
himself on whether he believes the practice of waterboarding is legal.

We feel this more acutely than most others, for 
in our careers we have frequently had to navigate 
the delicate balance between morality and 
expediency, all the while doing our best to abide 
by the values the vast majority of Americans hold 
in common. We therefore believe we have a 
particular moral obligation to speak out. We can 
say it no better than four retired judge 
advocates general (two admirals and two generals) 
who wrote you over the weekend, saying: 
"Waterboarding is inhumane, it is torture, and it is illegal."

Judge Mukasey's refusal to comment on 
waterboarding, on grounds that it would be 
"irresponsible" to provide "an uninformed legal 
opinion based on hypothetical facts and 
circumstances," raises serious questions. There 
is nothing hypothetical or secret about the fact 
that waterboarding was used by U.S. intelligence 
officers as an interrogation technique before the 
Justice Department publicly declared torture 
"abhorrent" in a legal opinion in December 2004. 
But after Alberto Gonzales became attorney 
general in February 2005, Justice reportedly 
issued a secret memo authorizing harsh physical 
and psychological tactics, including 
waterboarding, which were approved for use in 
combination. A presidential executive order of 
July 20, 2007 authorized "enhanced interrogation 
techniques" that had been banned for use by the 
U.S. Army. Although the White House announced 
that the order provides "clear rules" to govern 
treatment of detainees, the rules are classified, 
so defense attorneys, judges, juries-and even 
nominee Mukasey-can be prevented from viewing them.

Those are some of the "facts and circumstances." 
They are not hypothetical; and there are simple 
ways for Judge Mukasey to become informed, which we propose below.

Last Thursday, President George W. Bush told 
reporters it was unfair to ask Mukasey about 
interrogation techniques about which he had not 
been briefed. "He doesn't know whether we use 
that technique [waterboarding] or not," the 
president said. Judge Mukasey wrote much the same 
in his October 30 letter, explaining that he was 
unable to give an opinion on the legality of 
waterboarding because he doesn't know whether it 
is being used: "I have not been made aware of the 
details of any interrogation program to the 
extent that any such program may be classified 
and thus do not know what techniques may be 
involved in any such program." Whether or not the 
practice is currently in use by U.S. 
intelligence, it should in fact be easy for him 
to respond. All he need do is find out what 
waterboarding is and then decide whether he considers it legal.

The conundrum created to justify the nominee's 
silence on this key issue is a synthetic one. It 
is within your power to resolve it readily. If 
Mukasey continues to drag his feet, you need only 
to facilitate a classified briefing for him on 
waterboarding and the C.I.A. interrogation 
program. He will then be able to render an 
informed legal opinion. We strongly suggest that 
you sit in on any such briefing and that you 
invite the chairman and the ranking member of the 
Senate Select Committee on Intelligence to take 
part as well. Receiving the same briefing at the 
same time (and, ideally, having it taped) should 
enhance the likelihood of candor and make it 
possible for all to be-and to stay-on the same page on this delicate issue.

If the White House refuses to allow such a 
briefing, your committee must, in our opinion, 
put a hold on Mukasey's nomination. We are aware 
that the president warned last week that it will 
be either Mukasey as our attorney general or no 
one. So be it. It is time to stand up for what is 
right and require from the Executive the 
information necessary for the Senate to function 
responsibly and effectively. It would seem 
essential not to approve a nominee who has 
already made clear he is reluctant to ask 
questions of the White House. How can a person 
with that attitude even be proposed to be our chief law enforcement officer?

We strongly urge that you not send Mukasey's 
nomination to the full Senate before he makes 
clear his view on waterboarding. Otherwise, there 
is considerable risk of continued use of the 
officially sanctioned torture techniques that 
have corrupted our intelligence services, knocked 
our military off the high moral ground, severely 
damaged our country's standing in the world, and 
exposed U.S. military and intelligence people to 
similar treatment when captured or kidnapped. One 
would think that Judge Mukasey would want to be 
briefed on these secret interrogation techniques 
and to clarify where he stands.

The most likely explanation for Mukasey's 
reticence is his concern that, should his 
conscience require him to condemn waterboarding, 
this could cause extreme embarrassment and even 
legal jeopardy for senior officials-this time not 
just for the so-called "bad apples" at the bottom 
of the barrel. We believe it very important that 
the Senate not acquiesce in his silence-and 
certainly not if, as seems the case, he is more 
concerned about protecting senior officials than 
he is in enforcing the law and the Constitution.

It is important to get beyond shadowboxing on 
this key issue. In our view, condoning Mukasey's 
evasiveness would mean ignoring fundamental 
American values and the Senate's constitutional 
prerogative of advice and consent.

At stake in your committee and this nomination 
are questions of legality, morality, and our 
country's values. And these are our primary 
concerns as well. As professional intelligence 
officers, however, we must point to a supreme 
irony-namely, that waterboarding and other harsh 
interrogation practices are ineffective tools for 
eliciting reliable information. Our own 
experience dovetails well with that of U.S. Army 
intelligence chief, Maj. Gen. John Kimmons, who 
told a Pentagon press conference on September 6, 
2006: "No good intelligence is going to come from 
abusive practices. I think history tells us that. 
I think the empirical evidence of the last five 
years, hard years, tells us that."

Speaking out so precisely and unequivocally took 
uncommon courage, because Kimmons knew that just 
across the Potomac President Bush would be taking 
quite a different line at a press conference 
scheduled to begin as soon as Kimmons finished 
his. At the White House press conference focusing 
on interrogation techniques, the president touted 
the success that the C.I.A. was having in 
extracting information from detainees by using an 
"alternative set of procedures." He said these 
procedures had to be "tough," in order to deal 
with particularly recalcitrant detainees who "had 
received training on how to resist interrogation" and had "stopped talking."



The Undersigned
(Official duties refer to former government work.)

Brent Cavan
Intelligence Analyst, Directorate of Intelligence, CIA

Ray Close
Directorate of Operations, CIA for 26 years-22 of 
them overseas; former Chief of Station, Saudi Arabia

Ed Costello
Counter-espionage, FBI

Michael Dennehy
Supervisory Special Agent for 32 years, FBI; U.S. Marine Corps for three years

Rosemary Dew
Supervisory Special Agent, Counterterrorism, FBI

Philip Giraldi
Operations officer and counter-terrorist 
specialist, Directorate of Operations, CIA

Michael Grimaldi
Intelligence Analyst, Directorate of 
Intelligence, CIA; Federal law enforcement officer

Mel Goodman
Division Chief, Directorate of Intelligence, CIA; 
Professor, National Defense University; Senior 
Fellow, Center for International Policy

Larry Johnson
Intelligence analysis and operations officer, 
CIA; Deputy Director, Office of Counter Terrorism, Department of State

Richard Kovar
Executive Assistant to the Deputy Director for 
Intelligence, CIA: Editor, Studies In Intelligence

Charlotte Lang
Supervisory Special Agent, FBI

W. Patrick Lang
U.S. Army Colonel, Special Forces, Vietnam; 
Professor, U.S. Military Academy, West Point; 
Defense Intelligence Officer for Middle East, 
Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA); founding director, Defense HUMINT Service

Lynne Larkin
Operations Officer, Directorate of Operations, 
CIA; counterintelligence; coordination among 
intelligence and crime prevention agencies; CIA 
policy coordination staff ensuring adherence to law in operations

Steve Lee
Intelligence Analyst for terrorism, Directorate of Intelligence, CIA

Jon S. Lipsky
Supervisory Special Agent, FBI

David MacMichael
Senior Estimates Officer, National Intelligence 
Council, CIA; History professor; Veteran, U.S. Marines (Korea)

Tom Maertens
Foreign Service Officer and Intelligence Analyst, 
Department of State; Deputy Coordinator for 
Counter-terrorism, Department of State; National 
Security Council (NSC) Director for Non-Proliferation

James Marcinkowski
Operations Officer, Directorate of Operations, CIA by way of U.S. Navy

Mary McCarthy
National Intelligence Officer for Warning; Senior 
Director for Intelligence Programs, National Security Council

Ray McGovern
Intelligence Analyst, Directorate of 
Intelligence, CIA; morning briefer, The 
President's Daily Brief; chair of National 
Intelligence Estimates; Co-founder, Veteran 
Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS)

Sam Provance
U.S. Army Intelligence Analyst, Germany and Iraq (Abu Ghraib); Whistleblower

Coleen Rowley
Special Agent and attorney, FBI; Whistleblower on 
the negligence that facilitated the attacks of 9/11.

Joseph Wilson
Foreign Service Officer; Chargé d'Affairs, Iraq 
(1990); Ambassador to Gabon and Sao 
Tome/Principe; Senior Director for African Affairs, NSC

Valerie Plame Wilson
Operations officer, Directorate of Operations, CIA




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