Ex-CIA directors speak out

Los Angeles Times: It wasn’t their intention, but seven former CIA directors who asked President Obama to abort a Justice Department inquiry into “enhanced interrogation techniques” have moved Obama to renew his promise that he will do no such thing.

Last month, Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. asked a career federal prosecutor, John H. Durham, to conduct a “preliminary review” into whether laws were violated in overseas interrogations of suspected terrorists. Holder made it clear that interrogators who complied with Justice Department guidelines, inadequate as they were, had nothing to fear.

Unfair

That didn’t prevent the former directors from sending Obama a letter asking him to “exercise your authority to reverse” Holder’s decision. They argued that the inquiry was unfair to CIA employees who thought the Bush administration’s decision not to prosecute was final and now lived in an “atmosphere of continual jeopardy”; that the inquiry will threaten cooperation from foreign intelligence services; and that “there is no reason to expect that the reopened criminal investigation will remain narrowly focused.” None of these arguments is persuasive.

We remain skeptical that the indefensible interrogation methods countenanced by the Bush administration will give rise to criminal prosecutions, let alone convictions. Even so, Holder’s decision shouldn’t be second-guessed by the president, especially because of outside pressure.