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I’ve Seen Safer. This Isn’t It.

Jimmie | April 22, 2009 | Comments (0)

It’s hard for me to know what to say about this.

One veteran counterterrorism operative says that agents in the field are already being more careful about using the legal findings that authorize covert action. An example is the so-called “risk of capture” interview that takes place in the first hour after a terrorism suspect is grabbed. This used to be the key window of opportunity, in which the subject was questioned aggressively and his cellphone contacts and “pocket litter” were exploited quickly.

Now, field officers are more careful. They want guidance from headquarters. They need legal advice. I’m told that in the case of an al-Qaeda suspect seized in Iraq several weeks ago, the CIA didn’t even try to interrogate him. The agency handed him over to the U.S. military.

We don’t hire stupid people as CIA interrogators (we confirm them as Cabinet Secretaries instead). Our interrogators and other field agents know when they’re standing on solid ground. More importantly, they know when they’re on a rotten rope swinging over a lava-filed pit with a guy who doesn’t give a damn about them on one end waving a sharp knife. There is no way that our good, smart people are going to do put themselves at risk until they know that their bosses have their backs. Barack Obama hasn’t earned the amount of faith it would take to believe that he could prevent them from being prosecuted into complete ruination.

You don’t believe me? Look around. How many people who’ve gotten within five feet of Barack Obama really believe that he’ll put himself out to protect them? I’ll name some folks who have the tire treads across their backs that prove otherwise: Jeremiah Wright, his own grandmother, Jim Johnson, Austan Goolesby, Samantha Power, Tom Daschle, Gen. Wesley Clark, Bill Richardson, Bill Ayers, Bernadine Dohrn, and Michael Klonsky.

And those are people he’s met. These are his family and, supposedly, his friends (though I contend that he doesn’t actually have friends but only political associates). Do you really think that he’ll risk anything for someone he’s never met?

Neither do I. So, until 2013, let’s not expect the CIA to give us any good intelligence from any Islamist killer we happen to capture. I’m suddenly a bit more glad that I don’t live in a major population center.

(via Ace)