First, congratulations on your successful appointment as Director of the CIA, the honor of which is eclipsed only by the scale of the responsibility which you have accepted. I wish you the best of luck in your position.
I missed the Senate hearings, but I have before me a copy of your opening statement. In the first paragraph, you state that "there is probably no agency more important in preserving our security and our values as a people than the Central Intelligence Agency." General, I'm troubled by the accounts I've read over the last few years concerning some of the strategies employed by the CIA, the NSA, the Defense Department, and other agencies charged with protecting our country's security. I'm frightened that these agencies have, in their efforts to protect our country, engaged in actions that have in fact undermined our country's values. I'm afraid that in the years following the 9/11 attacks, we have actually caused significant damage to the spirit of our country by violating some of the most basic principles associated with the United States. In the frequently quoted words of Walt Kelly, "We Have Met The Enemy and He Is Us."
First, I'm distressed at reports of the practice described in the press and elsewhere as "extraordinary rendition." I believe strongly that we need to operate according to procedures by which we can hold ourselves accountable. I believe that operating by the principle that the end justifies the means is inherently corrosive and will inevitably result in a darkening of our country's light. There is no other nation in a better position to take the moral high ground, and that it is our imperative to do so; otherwise, we have consigned to the world and our future to darkness.
Similarly, I'm perturbed by reports of so-called "black sites", and in particular the reported secret prisons administered by the CIA in countries around the world. Again, the operation of such prisons is not only conducive to the mistreatment of the prisoners, it flies in the face of the transparency and accountability for which our traditional system of law is rightfully held in high esteem around the world. When I think of the secret prisons administered by Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, and other repressive regimes that litter history, I can't help but weep to consider ourselves in the same company.
Finally, reports that our agents are practicing abusive techniques of interrogation, including sensory deprivation, wall-standing, hooding, subjection to noise, deprivation of sleep, deprivation of food and drink, waterboarding, etc, fill me with anguish. The fates of Habibullah and Dilawar are direct examples of the dehumanization that result from a climate where torture is permissible. Whatever the political tides of the day, these people are, indeed, people, like all of us. The collateral damage of these practices is to our own souls.
Let me quote again a paragraph from your speech:
"As we do our work, we will have difficult choices to make and I expect that not everyone will agree 100 percent of the time, but I would redouble our efforts to act consistent with both the law and a broader sense of American ideals. And while the bulk of the Agency's work must, in order to be effective, remain secret... the CIA is protecting [ the American people ] ... in a way consistent with the core values of our nation... I did that at NSA and .... I pledge to do it at CIA."
General, it's becoming clear in my mind that while the specific actions of the intelligence agencies might need to remain secret, the policies under which those actions are taken cannot be. The "core values of our nation" are not codified in any one body of text that the architects of these policies can consult, but are instead in constant evolution driven by public discourse of democracy. For example, General, recently it was reported that the NSA has been collecting phone logs in the creation of a vast secret database. Is this policy consistent with the core values of our nation? It is certainly not consistent with my core values; there are too many instances in our recent history where officials have abused the power available to them. Without a broader dialog, how can one determine whether such activities adhere to our values or not? The implementation of secret policies that are kept hidden for the good of the people the policies purport to protect begins to smell to me something like totalitarianism.
You said: "Accountability is one thing--and we will have it--but true accountability is not served by inaccurate, harmful, and illegal public disclosures... CIA needs to get out of the news." General, I would ask if you believe that the stories in the press concerning rendition, secret prisons, torture, and the collection of phone logs within the United States are included in the public disclosures that you want to see get out of the news. If so, sir, and I'm afraid that the answer will be in the affirmative, then I respectfully beg to disagree, and disagree most vehemently. I believe that we must, as a nation, discuss exactly the policies that led to these actions, for our entire country will be held accountable for these actions by the world and by history. If it turns out that these actions are indeed consistent with the core values of our nation, then it will fall to me to either reexamine my own values, or to wrestle with the values of the nation. In the meantime, I believe that my values are in fact generally representative of the values of the nation, and that it is in fact the intelligence agencies that are acting out of touch with the countrymen they represent.
Walt Kelly image is ©O.G.P.I.
