Editorial: If Congress probes, let it cast a wide net

11/11/2005

Star Tribune Editorial
Last update: November 10, 2005 at 6:08 PM

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and House Speaker Dennis Hastert are now demanding a bicameral investigation of a leak detailing a network of secret CIA prisons where detainees are subjected to “enhanced” interrogation techniques. The Washington Post’s Nov. 2 report on the prisons may have harmed national security, the two assert.

It’s odd that senior congressional leaders are upset about the leak but not about the prisons. As former military lawyer Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said, “Talk about not seeing the forest for the trees. The real story is those jails.”

He’s right: Any investigation must be much broader and deeper. Starting with the leak would be fine, so long as investigators also take a detailed look at the prisons themselves and what goes on in them. A good look is required as well into so-called renditioning, the CIA practice of sending prisoners to countries known to employ torture.

Then there’s the little matter of investigating how the White House used dubious prewar intelligence to sell the American people on a war in Iraq. In fact, the two investigations overlap.

In last Sunday’s New York Times, Douglas Jehl reported on a 2002 Defense Intelligence Agency report that identified an Al-Qaida detainee as a probable fabricator—months before the White House started using his statements as proof of links between Al-Qaida and Iraq. Why did the White House ignore the warning?

This case is particularly illustrative of the point Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., makes over and over: Torture doesn’t work. The Al-Qaida leader’s last name is al-Libi. When he was captured in Afghanistan, an FBI agent and a New York detective were assigned to interrogate him. According to an article in the American Prospect, they called their mentor in New York, a veteran FBI man named Jack Cloonan. He was part of the unit that captured and brought to trial those behind the 1998 embassy bombings in Africa, and he’s a skilled interrogator.

Cloonan said he told them, “When you get access, don’t say anything at first. Sit; say hello after while; offer him tea, dates, figs. Point out where Mecca is; ask him if he wants to pray. ... So they do all this. And they start building rapport. ... They’re getting good stuff. ...”

But the CIA decided to intervene. “My guys told me that a Toyota Tundra with a box in the back pulls up to the building,” Cloonan said. “CIA officers come in, start shackling al-Libi up. Right before they duct tape his mouth, he tells our guys, ‘I know this isn’t your fault.’ And as he’s standing there, chained and gagged, this CIA guy gets up in his face and tells al-Libi he’s going to [have sex with] his mother. And then off he apparently goes to Cairo, in a box.” Is it any wonder he offered up fabricated intelligence—which he retracted two years later?

So, yes, by all means let’s have Congress look at it all: where the intelligence came from, including secret prisons, what techniques were used to gather it, how it was used and abused and who has been leaking what to whom. It’s very likely that identifying leakers will be the least interesting detail of this sorry saga.