By Associated Press Writer Pamela Hess
February 6, 2009
WASHINGTON – The Obama administration will not prosecute
CIA officers who participated in harsh interrogations that
critics say crossed the line into torture, CIA Director-nominee
Leon Panetta said Friday.
Asked by The Associated Press if that was official policy,
Panetta said, "That is the case."
It was the clearest statement yet on what Panetta and other
Democratic officials had only strongly suggested: CIA officers
who acted on legal orders from the Bush administration would
not be held responsible for those policies. On Thursday, he
told senators that the Obama administration had no intention
of seeking prosecutions for that reason.
Panetta, in an interview with the AP after a second day of
confirmation hearings with the Senate Intelligence Committee,
said that he arrived at that conclusion even before he began
meeting with CIA officials.
"It was my opinion we just can't operate if people feel
even if they are following the legal opinions of the Justice
Department" they could be in danger of prosecution, he
said.
Panetta demurred on saying whether the Obama administration
would take legal action against those who authorized or wrote
the legal opinions that, for a time, set an extremely high
legal bar for an action to constitute torture.
"I'll leave that for others," Panetta said.
Panetta, a former chief of staff in the Clinton administration
and an ex-congressman from California, is expected to be confirmed
by a wide margin next week.
Panetta told the committee that the Obama administration will
continue to hand foreign detainees over to other countries
for questioning, but only if it is confident the prisoners
will not be tortured in the process.
That has long been U.S. policy, but some former prisoners
subjected to the process — known as "extraordinary
rendition" — during the Bush administration's anti-terror
war contend they were tortured. Proving that in court has proven
difficult, as evidence they are trying to use has been protected
by the president's state secret privilege.
"I will seek the same kind of assurances that they will
not be treated inhumanely," Panetta said during his second
day before the Senate Intelligence Committee. "I intend
to use the State Department to be sure those assurances are
implemented and stood by, by those countries."
Some critics worry that any gray area in delineating policy
on renditions could allow for abuses.
A detainee could be handed over to another country for reasons
other than harsh or coercive questioning. Some prisoners may
not have intelligence of value to the United States in its
effort to break up global terrorist groups, but they might
yield intelligence valuable to another government's more localized
security problems.
How such renditions work and what happens after prisoners
are handed over are secrets, and it is unclear that the Obama
administration would have any more tools to assure humane treatment
than its predecessor.
The options are limited: refuse to transfer prisoners to governments
that have a history of torture or human rights abuses; require
prisoners be allowed regular visits by the International Committee
of the Red Cross; or demand that U.S. officials have access
to the prisoners after the transfer. Each option carries with
it the potential of harming or complicating relationships with
foreign intelligence agencies.
Panetta formally retracted a statement he made Thursday that
the Bush administration transferred prisoners for the purpose
of torture.
"I am not aware of the validity of those claims," he
said.
Sen. Kit Bond, R-Mo., chastised Panetta for careless words. "You
cannot be making statements or making judgments based on rumors
and news stories," he said.
Because he has not yet been confirmed, Panetta has not been
briefed on the details of the secret program.
Panetta said he believed the Bush administration was trying
to protect the country from terrorists with its use of secret
prisons, renditions and harsh interrogations.
"I think they made some wrong decisions, I think they
made mistakes," he said. "I think sometimes they
believe the ends justifies the means, and that's where people
sometimes go wrong."
Panetta said he thinks that in the fear of another Sept. 11-style
attack, Bush administration officials thought, "We can't
be bothered with legalisms."
Panetta said, however, that he believes the greatest weapon
the United States has against terrorists is its moral authority
and commitment to the rule of law.
"The sense that we were willing to set that aside did
damage our security," he said.
Panetta said the Obama administration will no longer move
detainees to secret CIA prisons for interrogation, because
the so-called "black sites" have been ordered closed.
But it will move prisoners to other countries for prosecution,
he said.
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