Six former Directors and Deputy Directors of the CIA fired back at the Senate Intelligence Committee with a vehemence almost never seen in the intelligence world.
The former CIA leaders — including George Tenet, Porter Goss and Michael Hayden — blasted the Senate report as “one-sided and marred with errors” and called it “a poorly done and partisan attack on the agency that has done the most to protect America after the 9/11 attacks.”
Their 2,500-word rebuttal was posted as an op-ed on the Wall Street Journal website once the report was released. The former intel chiefs are also launching their own website to respond to the attacks on CIA’s post-9/11 activities.
The former directors argue that the CIA interrogation program “saved thousands of lives” by helping lead to the capture of top al Qaeda operatives and disrupting their plotting.
“A powerful example of the interrogation program’s importance is the information obtained from Abu Zubaydah, a senior al Qaeda operative, and from Khalid Sheik Muhammed, known as KSM, the 9/11 mastermind,” the former directors write. “We are convinced that both would not have talked absent the interrogation program.”
As for Osama bin Laden, the former directors outline the steps that led the Navy SEALs to the Bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan.
“The CIA never would have focused on the individual who turned out to be bin Laden’s personal courier without the detention and interrogation program,” they write. “So the bottom line is this: The interrogation program formed an essential part of the foundation from which the CIA and the U.S. military mounted the bin Laden operation.”
released on Gruber day to divert attention I’m sure the networks will catch up on this and finally report how these Directors have spoken.
yea right.
Rats have lost, they look bad over Obama care, their numbers have plummeted and now they release info to our enemies while saying lives now could be at a more risky level.
Still when they have most networks in the media protecting them I;m sure they will be hailed as hero’s