Hard CAll, Wrong Call

To prosecute or not to prosecute, that is the question when it comes to now well documented violations of the law primarily by those at the highest levels who signed off on various forms of torture to be used by the CIA. It is a hard call because there is hardly any precedent and it might seem to some that it is just plain political revenge by a Democratic administration against a previous Republican one. President Obama decided to release the incriminating records, but decided not to prosecute any of the possible offenders. Hard call, true, but the wrong call. A soldier just got life in prison for killing Iraquis because it is against the law. What makes the CIA different? Wouldn't the CIA's reputation go up with all of us if it even collaborated in strategic legal actions against the intellectual authors of policy that violate nationa and international law. Wouldn't that be a "new day" that current CIA director Panetta talks about even as he promises that the CIA will defend any agent against which legal actions are brought for involvement in torture.

"Impunity" is a very bad word for a society that claims to be a society committed to the rule of law. Panetta says the lesson is learned, but I don't think you could find a legitimate psychologist or social analyst anywhere who thinks that releasing papers documenting crimes while promising not to bring any of the criminals to justice is any kind of lesson other than that "impunity" continues for the intelligence community. The "torture" in Iraq, Afghanistan and other places during this last fit of rage we call the "War on Terror" is not the worst of violations of law, national and international, or of basic morality that the CIA has committed during its years of existence. President Obama just missed a historic opportunity for cleansing what is one of the dirtiest agencies of government whose gross violations of human rights in Latin America, for instance, justified on national security grounds, have done nothing for improving national security but have managed to give our nation a bad reputation around the globe.

Navy Adm. Dennis Blair gets it even more wrong when he intimates that any lebal action against Bush administration officials or CIA operatives would be a disrespect for the military primarily because the war in Iraq was unpopular. Excuse me, but whatever happened to the "we are defending the freedom of America" schtick. Is that freedom not predicated on respect for law? What should be more unpopular than the war is letting criminals go free.

Sorry, President Obama, for whom I voted, but you are making the mistake of so many presidents, Democrats and Republicans, in protecting the military and intelligence community from the most basic of all elements that could produce responsible behaviour - the law. It might have been a hard call, but it was a wrong call...and worse, it was a bad call.