Ex-Intelligence Officials Cite Low Spirits at CIA

Washington Post ^ | August 30, 2009 | Walter Pincus and Joby Warrick

[rightwingintelligentsia]

Morale has sagged at the CIA following the release of additional portions of an inspector general's review of the agency's interrogation program and the announcement that the Justice Department would investigate possible abuses by interrogators, according to former intelligence officials, especially those associated with the program.

A. B. "Buzzy" Krongard, the third-ranking CIA official at the time of the use of harsh interrogation practices, said that although vigorous oversight is crucial, the public airing of once-classified internal assessments and the prospect of further investigation are damaging the agency. "Morale at the agency is down to minus 50," he said.

At the same time, former inspector general John L. Helgerson, whose review of the program was largely declassified Monday, said that the release, though painful, would ensure that the agency confronts difficult issues head on, instead of ignoring or trying to bury them.

Helgerson also said it would be "very difficult" to mount a successful prosecution of any of the individuals who participated in the program. The Bush-era Justice Department "approved the program orally and in writing; the agency's chain of command was involved. There would be no jury appeal, and I do not believe there was any criminal intent among those involved," Helgerson said.

[outhousepatrol]

Attention CIA: It’s is time to CAP AND TRADE for a new, honest, and alive AG!

[outhousepatrol]

Attention CIA: It’s is time to CAP AND TRADE for a new, honest, and alive AG!

[SaraJohnson]

The CIA, like the State Department, is full of radicals and and “diversity” foreigners who have no problem at all throwing their American-American thought enemies within the agency under the bus.

There is no rosy loyalty and brotherhood at the CIA. They were infiltrated by the far left long ago just like the rest of our institutions have been. They work like termites in the Agency just like they do everywhere in our country. The CIA is not magically incompetent. It is intentionally incompetent.

[Howie]