Justice Probe Will Make CIA More Risk Averse: GOP Congressman

Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-Mich.) the senior Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, spoke with All Things Considered host Melissa Block in an interview in which he criticized Attorney General Eric Holder's decision have a prosecutor review previous CIA interrogation practices for possible criminal charges.

One of Hoekstra's main points: the controversial CIA activities have already been reviewed at the CIA, the Justice Department and in Congress, with some individuals sanctioned. So an additional review to his mind is redundant.

He said:

"Now this is all being opened up one more time for perhaps the fourth or fifth review. And I just don't see what new evidence there is that justifies the attorney general reopening these cases... The people within the organization have been held accountable. But in some ways it almost appears to be double jeopardy. It's going to be reviewed again."

Hoekstra also said Holder's review is a distraction at a time when U.S. military forces are preoccupied with bringing greater security to Afghanistan, among other missions.

The bottom line here is we are still under threat from radical jihadists. We've got troops on the ground that are fighting an ever increasingly strong enemy in Afghanistan and what we're seeing is the president's national security team kind of in disarray.

The president himself said I want to look forward. Now Eric Holder is looking back. Is Eric Holder freelancing? The director of the CIA, according to press reports, Leon, Leon Panetta has said, he was threatening to quit because he thought this was so inappropriate.

 

Hoekstra also saw Holder's review as having a "chilling effect" on CIA officials and operatives.

"All of these things have sent a chilling effect through the CIA. They believe that they were following the direction of their leadership both in Congress and the executive branch. Many of them were held accountable for working outside of the rules. But now what their colleagues are seeing, when there's a new administration comes in, a new sheriff in town, the rules can be rewritten and re-evaluated and you can be, the rules will change and you may be the ones that are vulnerable. You're going to see a CIA that is more risk averse. They're not going to take the chances in a very dangerous business that they need to do to collect the information that they need to keep our troops safe and defeat our enemy.