TomPaine: Rendering the CIA Useless

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Rendering The CIA Useless
John Prados
February 16, 2007


John Prados is a senior fellow with the National Security Archive in Washington, D.C. His current book is Safe for Democracy: The Secret Wars of the CIA.

This week the European Parliament finished its investigation into the CIA’s use of “extraordinary renditions” to kidnap European citizens and residents and subject them to torture and imprisonment without trial. The EU condemned both the practice and 14 member nations for complying with it, frequently under the direction of non-elected intelligence officials without knowledge or consent from government representatives, let alone the public.

Today an Italian court has decided to grant warrants to arrest 26 CIA personnel allegedly involved in the February 2003 kidnapping in Milan of Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr. The chief of the Italian military intelligence service and his deputy are defending themselves before courts in the case. German courts in Munich recently issued arrest warrants against 13 alleged CIA officers and contract employees in the January 2004 rendition of German citizen Khaled al-Masri. The German parliament is reviewing its intelligence service’s collaboration with the CIA. There is widespread outrage in both Europe and the Muslim world over these practices.

What is the Bush administration response? Shoot the messengers. General Michael V. Hayden, the current CIA director, was asked a few months ago about the agency’s foreign intelligence partnerships, given the mounting investigations of CIA activities. Without touching the controversial U.S. operations at all, his response was, “If an ally believes—fears—that we can’t keep such activities private, then that ally is going to be much more reluctant to deal with us.”

Much as in the bad old days, the CIA persists in the delusion that what people say—not what it does—is the issue. The agency is riding for a fall. Ham-handed American spooks—who depend, by their own admission, on foreign intelligence services in up to 90 percent of their operations—have muddied the waters even with our best friends. The controversial “rendition” program that is at the centerpiece of Bush counterterrorism efforts has swept up many innocents along with known terrorists and has sparked trouble for our allies. .....(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2007/02/16/rendering_the_cia_useless.php