The two sources for this story were an article in Saturday's Washington Examiner and Saturday's Washington Post.
On Friday, seven former CIA directors asked President Obama to end Attorney General Eric Holder's investigation into possible detainee abuse after September 11, 2001. Michael Barone points out in the Washington Examiner that the seven former CIA directors include all living former CIA directors except the nonagenarian Stansfield Turner and former President George H. W. Bush. Turner may be in no position to sign such a letter, while Bush, like living former presidents of both parties except for Jimmy Carter, can be presumed to be adhering to a policy of not criticizing the current incumbent. This information is not found in the Washington Post article.
The Washington Post did point out:
"CIA officials have noted that the allegations of detainee mistreatment had been evaluated by an aggressive team of federal prosecutors who declined to file criminal charges, after which some CIA employees were subjected to internal discipline.
""The CIA is cooperating with the official reviews now in progress, in part to see that they move as expeditiously as possible," agency spokesman Paul Gimigliano said."
This investigation into these cases concluded years ago. To open up this again is to cause serious problems both with the morale of the CIA and with our allies overseas that we cooperate with on covert operations. This is another example of playing domestic politics in a way that negatively impacts our relationships with our allies in the world.
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