Talk about misplaced priorities. Republican congressional leaders are calling for an investigation into the disclosure of secret prisons used to detain terror suspects abroad – rather than investigating the existence and legality of such prisons themselves.
Using these so-called “black sites” may have solved an immediate problem when the first detainees were taken into custody after Sept. 11, but the administration will have difficulty proving that they’re needed today.
House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., are making two blunders in their call for the Senate and House intelligence committees to investigate how The Washington Post discovered the existence of CIA-run detention and interrogation facilities in eight foreign countries.
The first mistake is political, because the trail is as likely as not to lead back to well-placed Republicans – just as the Valerie Wilson investigation eventually came to roost at the feet of I. Lewis Libby, chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney.
The second pitfall – the one that concerns us – is that a leak investigation will inevitably lead to underlying issues whose airing could damage national security or the nation’s image.
Neither the war on terror nor the intelligence business in general is fought by Marquess of Queensberry rules. While the U.S. should stay within domestic and international law, our enemies are less fastidious. It’s not impossible to imagine the use of extreme measures to protect against terrorist acts, and the real risk of a highly political probe is that it can compromise U.S. security and that of eight friendly nations abroad.
Hastert and Frist are grandstanding in the cherished tradition of trying to change the subject. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., fired a reasonable shot across their bow when she insisted that any inquiry should also look at possible manipulation of prewar intelligence on Iraq.
What’s the chance Frist and Hastert could keep any leak probe from damaging our intelligence process or embarrassing our allies abroad? No chance at all – they’ve already blundered into a weird “leak within a leak” scandal, with Frist’s office revealing their proposed investigation prematurely and embarrassing GOP colleagues who hadn’t been briefed.
Congress should focus squarely on the existence of the secret prisons and whether the activities are within the law. Frist, however, has repeatedly insisted that he won’t discuss that underlying issue. In all honesty, we can’t even imagine what that’s all about.
