Message from the Director: Release of Department of Justice Opinions

CIA Home > News & Information > Press Releases & Statements > Message from the Director: Release of Department of Justice Opinions RSS Message from the Director: Release of Department of Justice Opinions Statement to Employees by Director of the Central Intelligence Agency Leon E. Panetta on the Release of Department of Justice Opinions

This afternoon, the Department of Justice is releasing a series of opinions that its Office of Legal Counsel provided CIA between 2002 and 2005. They guided CIA’s detention and interrogation program, which ended this past January. Over the life of that initiative, CIA repeatedly sought and repeatedly received written assurances from the Department of Justice that its practices were fully consistent with the laws and legal obligations of the United States. Those operations were also approved by the President and the National Security Council principals, and were briefed to the Congressional leadership.

As this information is revealed, it is important to understand the context in which these operations occurred. In the wake of September 11th, the President turned to CIA—as Presidents have done so often in our history—and entrusted our officers with the most critical of tasks: to disrupt the terrorist network that struck our country and prevent further attacks. CIA responded, as duty requires.

Although this Administration has now put into place new policies that CIA is implementing, the fact remains that CIA’s detention and interrogation effort was authorized and approved by our government. For that reason, as I have continued to make clear, I will strongly oppose any effort to investigate or punish those who followed the guidance of the Department of Justice.

The President and the Attorney General have also made clear that there will be no investigation or prosecution of CIA personnel who operated within the legal system. In addition, the Department will provide legal representation to CIA personnel subject to investigations relating to these operations.

This is not the end of the road on these issues. More requests will come—from the public, from Congress, and the Courts—and more information is sure to be released. We cannot control the debate about the past. But we can and must remain focused on our mission today and in the future. The President and the rest of our citizens are counting on all of us to help disrupt, destroy, and dismantle al Qa’ida—and to learn the plans of our other adversaries. We have an obligation to this nation and to each other to do all we can to protect America.

This is an exceptional organization of talented men and women, dedicated to our national security. It is an extraordinarily capable organization that quietly defends our country while following its laws and upholding its values. For that reason, I am proud to stand beside you as your Director. And for that reason, this President—and future Presidents—will continue to ask us to undertake the hard missions that only we can. This is an opportunity for CIA to begin a new and great chapter in our history of service to the nation.

You need to be fully confident that as you defend the nation, I will defend you.

The President has sent a letter to the officers of CIA, which I share with you now:

I want to take this opportunity to thank you for the work you are doing for the country. Your work has informed every President dating back to President Truman and it protects our people. I have come to rely on your service and I believe strongly that it is vital to the security of our country. Given the threats, challenges, and opportunities facing America, the CIA remains as critical today as it has ever been to our Nation’s security. While necessity requires that the country may not know all of your names or the work that you do, all of us enjoy the freedom that you have helped secure.

I also wanted to share with you a decision that I made last night. Later today, the Department of Justice will release certain memos issued by the Office of Legal Counsel between 2002 and 2005. I did not make this decision lightly. As you may know, the release is part of an ongoing court case. I have fought for the principle that the United States must carry out covert activities and hold information that is classified for the purposes of national security and will do so again in the future. But the release of these memos is required by our commitment to the rule of law.

Much of the information contained in the memos has been in the public domain, and the previous Administration has acknowledged portions of the program – and some of the practices – associated with them. My judgment on this is a matter of record. I have prohibited the use of these interrogation techniques, and I reject the false choice between our security and our ideals.

In releasing these memos, the men and women of the CIA have assurances from both myself, and from Attorney General Holder, that we will protect all who acted reasonably and relied upon legal advice from the Department of Justice that their actions were lawful. The Attorney General has assured me that these individuals will not be prosecuted and that the Government will stand by them.

The men and women of our intelligence community serve courageously on the front lines of a dangerous world. Their accomplishments are unsung and their names unknown, but because of their sacrifices, every single American is safer. They need to be fully confident that as they defend the Nation, I will defend them. We will protect their identities as vigilantly as they protect our security.

This is a time for reflection, not retribution. We have been through a dark and painful chapter in our history. But at a time of great challenges and disturbing disunity, nothing will be gained by spending our time and energy laying blame for the past. The national greatness that you so courageously and capably uphold is embedded in America’s ability to right its course in concert with our core values, and to move forward with confidence.

It is a core American value that we are a Nation of laws, and the CIA protects and upholds that principle under extraordinarily difficult circumstances every day. My Administration will always act in accordance with the law, and with an unshakeable commitment to our ideals. That is why we have released these memos, and that is why we have taken steps to ensure that the actions described within them never take place again.

Posted: Apr 16, 2009 03:54 PM Last Updated: Apr 16, 2009 03:54 PM Last Reviewed: Apr 16, 2009 03:54 PM

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2235538/posts

“CIA memos: Clinton Attacks Cheney Rather Than Reveal Truth”
Start Thinking Right ^ | April 22, 2009 | Michael Eden

VIDEO:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIlRiOag_ZM

“Secretary Clinton on Torture Memos”

Video Description:

CSPAN
April 22, 2009
(less info)
Secretary of State Clinton responded to questions from Rep. Rohrabacher about information shared with her about torture memos as a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. In her remarks she also said that she did not view Former Vice President Cheney as “a particularly reliable source of information.”
Category: News & Politics
Tags: C-SPAN

http://www.cnsnews.com/public/content/article.aspx?RsrcID=46949

“CIA Confirms: Waterboarding 9/11 Mastermind Led to Info that Aborted 9/11-Style Attack on Los Angeles”
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
By Terence P. Jeffrey, Editor-in-Chief

SNIPPET: “Khalid Sheik Mohammad, a top al Qaeda leader who divulged information — after being waterboarded — that allowed the U.S. government to stop a planned terrorist attack on Los Angeles.

(CNSNews.com) - The Central Intelligence Agency told CNSNews.com today that it stands by the assertion made in a May 30, 2005 Justice Department memo that the use of “enhanced techniques” of interrogation on al Qaeda leader Khalid Sheik Mohammed (KSM) — including the use of waterboarding — caused KSM to reveal information that allowed the U.S. government to thwart a planned attack on Los Angeles.

Before he was waterboarded, when KSM was asked about planned attacks on the United States, he ominously told his CIA interrogators, “Soon, you will know.”

According to the previously classified May 30, 2005 Justice Department memo that was released by President Barack Obama last week, the thwarted attack — which KSM called the “Second Wave”— planned “ ‘to use East Asian operatives to crash a hijacked airliner into’ a building in Los Angeles.”

KSM was the mastermind of the first “hijacked-airliner” attacks on the United States, which struck the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Northern Virginia on Sept. 11, 2001.”

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2236360/posts

http://www.weeklystandard.com/weblogs/TWSFP/2009/04/goss_obama_decision_crossed_a.asp

“Goss: Obama Decision “Crossed a Red Line””

SNIPPET: “Porter Goss, former CIA Director and past chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, blasted the Obama administration for releasing Justice Department memos on harsh interrogation techniques. “For the first time in my experience we’ve crossed the red line of properly protecting our national security in order to gain partisan political advantage,” Goss said in an interview.”

Posted by Stephen F. Hayes on April 23, 2009 01:53 PM | Permalink

Note: The following post is a quote:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2236731/posts

Skip to comments.

Boehner: CIA Methods No Secret on Hill
The Washington Times ^ | April 23, 2009 | S.A.MILLER
Posted on April 24, 2009 4:34:09 AM PDT by kellynla

House Minority Leader John A. Boehner on Thursday chided Democrats for seeking an investigation of the Bush administration’s treatment of captured terror suspects, noting a long list of lawmakers from both parties were briefed about the use of harsh interrogation methods years ago.

“Not a word was raised at the time,” said Mr. Boehner, Ohio Republican, adding that he has seen a partial list of Democrats and Republicans briefed on CIA interrogation techniques as far back as 2002.

“There is nothing here that should surprise them,” he said.

Mr. Boehner continued: “If you look at the effort that was undertaken by our government after 9/11 in order to make America safe and help keep America safe, it’s clear to me that it was done in a bipartisan way.

“And whether you’re talking about the terrorist surveillance programs, whether you’re talking about interrogation techniques, whether you’re talking about the Treasury program to track this money, all of this information was downloaded to congressional leaders of both parties, with no objections being raised.”

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...

Note: The following post is a quote:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2236734/posts

Hill Briefed on Waterboarding in 2002
Washington Post ^ | December 9, 2007 | Joby Warrick and Dan Eggen
Posted on April 24, 2009 4:39:54 AM PDT by kellynla

In September 2002, four members of Congress met in secret for a first look at a unique CIA program designed to wring vital information from reticent terrorism suspects in U.S. custody. For more than an hour, the bipartisan group, which included current House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), was given a virtual tour of the CIA’s overseas detention sites and the harsh techniques interrogators had devised to try to make their prisoners talk.

Among the techniques described, said two officials present, was waterboarding, a practice that years later would be condemned as torture by Democrats and some Republicans on Capitol Hill. But on that day, no objections were raised. Instead, at least two lawmakers in the room asked the CIA to push harder, two U.S. officials said.

“The briefer was specifically asked if the methods were tough enough,” said a U.S. official who witnessed the exchange.

Congressional leaders from both parties would later seize on waterboarding as a symbol of the worst excesses of the Bush administration’s counterterrorism effort. The CIA last week admitted that videotape of an interrogation of one of the waterboarded detainees was destroyed in 2005 against the advice of Justice Department and White House officials, provoking allegations that its actions were illegal and the destruction was a coverup.

Yet long before “waterboarding” entered the public discourse, the CIA gave key legislative overseers about 30 private briefings, some of which included descriptions of that technique and other harsh interrogation methods, according to interviews with multiple U.S. officials with firsthand knowledge.

With one known exception, no formal objections were raised by the lawmakers briefed about the harsh methods during the two years in which waterboarding was employed, from 2002 to 2003, said Democrats and Republicans with direct knowledge of the matter.

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...

http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/016/419lgkxx.asp

“Preening & Posturing
Throwing those who guard us while we sleep to the wolves.”
by William Kristol
05/04/2009, Volume 014, Issue 31

SNIPPET: “”We have been through a dark and painful chapter in our history,” President Obama said when he ordered the release of the Justice Department interrogation memos. Actually, no. Not at all. We were attacked on 9/11. We responded to that attack with remarkable restraint in the use of force, respect for civil liberties, and even solicitude for those who might inadvertently be offended, let alone harmed, by our policies. We’ve fought a war on jihadist terror in a civilized, even legalized, way. Those who have been on the front and rear lines of that war—in the military and the intelligence agencies, at the Justice Department and, yes, in the White House—have much to be proud of. The rest of us, who’ve been asked to do little, should be grateful.

The dark and painful chapter we have to fear is rather the one President Obama may be ushering in. This would be a chapter in which politicians preen moralistically as they throw patriotic officials, who helped keep this country safe, to the wolves, and in which national leaders posture politically while endangering the nation’s security.

The preening is ridiculous, even by the standards of contemporary American politics and American liberalism. Obama fatuously asserts there are no real choices in the real world, just “false choices” that he can magically resolve. He foolishly suggests that even in war we would never have to do anything disagreeable for the sake of our security. He talks baby talk to intelligence officers: “Don’t be discouraged that we have to acknowledge potentially we’ve made some mistakes. That’s how we learn.””

BLOG:

http://hotair.com/archives/2009/04/25/former-cia-chief-goss-i-cant-believe-what-a-shameless-liar-pelosi-is/

“Former CIA chief Goss: I can’t believe what a shameless liar Pelosi is”
POSTED AT 1:53 PM ON APRIL 25, 2009 BY ALLAHPUNDIT

“Believe it, champ. And welcome to the club.
He doesn’t name any names but there’s no question who he’s aiming at.”

BLOG - Quote:

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2009/04/it_wasnt_an_nsa_tap_on_harmans.html

April 27, 2009
It wasn’t an NSA tap on Harman’s telephone line
Clarice Feldman
I knew it! The NSA was not the agency tapping Rep. Jane Harman’s calls:

COLLEGE PARK, Md. - The National Security Agency did not place a wiretap that reportedly intercepted phone conversations made by Rep. Jane Harman, D-Calif., the top U.S. intelligence official said Monday.

Dennis Blair, the national intelligence director, declined to say which agency requested the reported wiretap and oversaw the information gleaned from Harman’s conversations. Blair was speaking at the dedication of a new intelligence research facility.

The only other agency that has authority to place wiretaps on calls inside the United States is the Justice Department. It requires court approval.

The NSA story never made any sense.

Posted at 09:59 PM

Note: The following text is a quote:

http://www.dni.gov/press_releases/20090421_release.pdf

DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE
WASHINGTON, DC 20511

April 21, 2009

Statement by the Director of National Intelligence
Mr. Dennis C. Blair

I recommended to the president that the administration release these memos, and I made clear that the CIA should not be punished for carrying out legal orders.

I also strongly supported the president when he declared that we would no longer use enhanced interrogation techniques. We do not need these techniques to keep America safe.

The information gained from these techniques was valuable in some instances, but there is no way of knowing whether the same information could have been obtained through other means. The bottom line is these techniques have hurt our image around the world, the damage they have done to our interests far outweighed whatever benefit they gave us and they are not essential to our national security.

# # #

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/04/28/despite-reports-khalid-sheikh-mohammed-waterboarded-times/

“Despite Reports, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed Was Not Waterboarded 183 Times
The number of times Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was waterboarded was the focus of major media attention — and highly misleading. “

By Joseph Abrams
FOXNews.com
Tuesday, April 28, 2009

SNIPPET: “A U.S. official with knowledge of the interrogation program told FOX News that the much-cited figure represents the number of times water was poured onto Mohammed’s face — not the number of times the CIA applied the simulated-drowning technique on the terror suspect. According to a 2007 Red Cross report, he was subjected a total of “five sessions of ill-treatment.”

“The water was poured 183 times — there were 183 pours,” the official explained, adding that “each pour was a matter of seconds.”

The Times and dozens of other outlets wrote that the CIA also waterboarded senior Al Qaeda member Abu Zubaydah 83 times, but Zubayda himself, a close associate of Usama bin Laden, told the Red Cross he was waterboarded no more than 10 times.

The confusion stems from language in the Justice Department legal memos that President Obama released on April 16. They contain the numbers, but they fail to explain exactly what they represent.

The memos, spanning from 2002-2005, were a legal review by the Bush administration that approved the use of waterboarding and other “enhanced interrogation techniques.” Obama banned the procedure on his second day in office, saying that waterboarding is torture.”

http://www.stratfor.com/weekly/20090429_chilling_effect_u_s_counterterrorism

“A Chilling Effect on U.S. Counterterrorism”
April 29, 2009 | 1815 GMT

By Fred Burton and Scott Stewart

SNIPPET: “Politics and moral arguments aside, the end effect of the memos’ release is that people who have put their lives on the line in U.S. counterterrorism efforts are now uncertain of whether they should be making that sacrifice. Many of these people are now questioning whether the administration that happens to be in power at any given time will recognize the fact that they were carrying out lawful orders under a previous administration. It is hard to retain officers and attract quality recruits in this kind of environment. It has become safer to work in programs other than counterterrorism.”

SNIPPET: “As we’ve previously noted, it was a lack of intelligence that helped fuel the fear that led the Bush administration to authorize enhanced interrogation techniques. Ironically, the current investigation into those techniques and other practices (such as renditions) may very well lead to significant gaps in terrorism-related intelligence from both internal and liaison sources — again, not primarily because of the prohibition of torture, but because of larger implications.

When these implications are combined with the long-standing institutional aversion of U.S. government agencies toward counterterrorism, and with the difficulty of finding and retaining good people willing to serve in counterterrorism roles, the U.S. counterterrorism community may soon be facing challenges even more daunting than those posed by its already difficult mission.”

http://video1.washingtontimes.com/video/CIAletter.pdf

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/may/01/house-intelligence-chief-enters-controversy/

“Congress to oversee CIA more closely
Reyes enters CIA fracas”
By Eli Lake and Bill Gertz, THE WASHINGTON TIMES | Friday, May 1, 2009

EXCLUSIVE:

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