At war with intelligence

Washington Times Editorial:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's war with the CIA could not come at a worse time for America's beleaguered intelligence agencies. When the United States needs its intelligence arms the most - to combat terrorism, track Iran's nuclear-weapons program and fend off foreign espionage - they are under assault from many quarters.

The release of the "torture memos" was a major blow to intelligence-community morale, and on April 16, President Obama attempted to mitigate the damage by sending the CIA what its critics have disparaged as "the love letter." Mr. Obama praised the professionalism of the agency and noted that "this is a time for reflection, not retribution ... at a time of great challenges and disturbing disunity, nothing will be gained by spending our time and energy laying blame for the past."

Mr. Obama pledged to the CIA that "we will protect all who acted reasonably and relied upon legal advice from the Department of Justice that their actions were lawful" and that "these individuals will not be prosecuted and that the government will stand by them." When White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel later stated that the no-prosecution pledge included those who devised the policies, Mr. Obama clarified the limits of reflection over retribution. "That is going to be more of a decision for the attorney general within the parameters of various laws," he said, generating fears of more disturbing disunity ahead.

Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. has signaled that the Justice Department will cooperate with a suit brought in a Spanish court by four former Guantanamo Bay detainees claiming torture. "This is an administration that is determined to conduct itself by the rule of law," Mr. Holder explained in April, "and to the extent that we receive lawful requests from an appropriately created court, we would obviously respond to it."

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The Spanish court is an example of liberal lawfare gone wild. Liberals who lost the policy debate over going to war are trying to criminalize the conduct of those who were responsible for executing the war. Liberals like Pelosi are distracting intelligence operatives from gathering information about the enemies plans for mass murder of our non combatants.

The controversy about Pelosi is really about her rank hypocrisy. That she was aware of the enhanced interrogations does not mean that she is guilty of torture, but she is guilty of trying to exploit for political purposes the decisions made that resulted in the savings of thousands of lives. Her knowledge will make it harder for Democrats to demonize those who made the tough decisions they now want to criticize.