Former Heads of CIA Ask Obama to Stop (the Department of) Justice

Check out a cutting from the September 19, 2009 article capped to the right on NYTimes.com:

Seven former directors of the Central Intelligence Agency asked President Obama on Friday to shut down the new Justice Department inquiry into past abuses during interrogations of terrorism suspects, arguing that it "will seriously damage" the nation's ability to protect itself.

In a letter to Mr. Obama, the former C.I.A. chiefs said the cases under study had already been examined by career prosecutors who found that no criminal charges were warranted. To reopen cases based on a change in which political party controls the government, they wrote, will make it harder for intelligence officers to take risks without worrying that some future attorney general might investigate them.

"Those men and women who undertake difficult intelligence assignments in the aftermath of an attack such as September 11 must believe there is permanence in the legal rules that govern their actions," the men said in their letter.

Yes and if they did nothing wrong, then none of us have anything to fear. Proving we don't do bad things will discourage terrorists from hating us.

Of course, if we did do something wrong, then don't we set a good example by prosecuting them?

Sure, it compromises some of our intelligence operations no matter what, but this is the cost of being a moral nation.

Isn't it better to clean up after ourselves and risk the consequences than to not remove all doubt that we're a moral country?

Sometimes we have to take some lumps for our principles--we can't just whine about it and make excuses.

Do what's right, Obama. Make sure those investigations happen or those things you should be investigating will happen again--maybe not under your watch, but sometime down the road. After all, what example are you setting?

"Let's look to the future."

Uh-huh. When I look to the future I see leaders abusing their power because we let them get away with it before.

Just my ¥2, of course, but I learned a long time ago that you lead by example. Set a good one and good people will follow you.

Set a bad example and bad people will follow you.

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