Congress pledges to support CIA probe
By PAMELA HESS
Key members of Congress vowed Friday to defend the independence of the CIA’s inspector general and to put an end to the agency’s probe of its own internal investigator.
Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., asked Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell in a letter to terminate the investigation of the conduct of CIA Inspector General John Helgerson.
“I just don’t want to see the intimidation of inspector generals in Washington, D.C., and I’m of the view that people who know that they’re doing the right thing aren’t afraid of oversight,” Wyden, a member of the Senate intelligence committee, said in an interview with The Associated Press.
“The initiation of this investigation, if accurately reported, is troubling,” House Intelligence Committee Chairman Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas, said in a statement.
Congress overhauled the inspector general’s office to be an independent watchdog for the agency nearly two decades ago, Reyes noted, saying it would now “very aggressively preserve” that independence.
The CIA confirmed Thursday that its director, Gen. Michael Hayden, had ordered the internal review. In a series of reports on the agency’s conduct before and after the Sept. 11 attacks, Helgerson has criticized senior figures at the spy agency, including former Director George Tenet and officers involved in the CIA’s detention of terrorist suspects.
Wyden has been among the legislators pressuring the CIA to release those IG reports.
“Hayden fought me every step of the way in doing that,” he said. “When it came out Hayden basically said the IG was all wet, he was wrong on key points but he didn’t even say why he didn’t agree with the work of IG,” Wyden said.
Word of the probe touched off a bipartisan wave of concern among the agency’s congressional overseers that the CIA is trying to muzzle one of its sharpest critics and the only officially independent voice inside the secretive agency.
The Senate panel’s top Republican, Kit Bond of Missouri, said he also would “make sure that nothing is done to restrain or diminish” the inspector general’s office. Bond said in a statement that the CIA “has a track record of resisting accountability.”
Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger, D-Md., a House intelligence committee member whose district includes the National Security Agency, said CIA Director Gen. Michael Hayden made a mistake in launching the inquiry.
“When you are working in the clandestine arena you need to make sure the CIA is following the law and procedures set in place. That’s the purpose of the IG. It makes the agency stronger,” Ruppersberger said in an interview.
Reyes is to meet with the CIA leadership next week to discuss the matter. The House intelligence committee had been unaware of the investigation until it was reported Friday in The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times, said committee spokeswoman Kira Maas. Wyden said he also was not briefed.
CIA spokesman George Little said Friday concerns about the independence of the office are unfounded.
“This is a straightforward management review, nothing more. The authorities and independence of the Office of Inspector General are not in question. Taking a fresh look at the vital work that office does, and, if need be, offering constructive suggestions for the OIG itself to consider, can only strengthen oversight at the CIA. It’s ridiculous to suggest that this is in any way an attack on the concept of a vigorous system of inspection and investigation.”
The CIA review is being led by Robert Deitz, senior counsel to Hayden and the general counsel at the National Security Agency when Hayden was NSA director.
Helgerson has been highly critical of the CIA. In a report in August, for example, he concluded that Tenet and other senior leaders never developed a comprehensive plan to stop al-Qaida and missed crucial opportunities to thwart two hijackers in the run-up to the Sept. 11 attacks. Under congressional orders, the agency recently declassified portions of the embarrassing findings.
Helgerson has also been highly critical, in classified reports, of the agency’s treatment of detainees.
The newspaper reports said the review was focusing on complaints that Helgerson’s office has not been impartial and has assumed guilt on the part of agency operatives, particularly those who participated in the agency’s detention programs.
Hayden’s probe is highly unusual because it deviates from normal government processes. When agencies have issues with the conduct of their inspectors general, the standard procedure is to file a complaint alleging “gross misconduct” with a special panel at the White House Office of Management and Budget. If that panel finds merit in the complaint, it refers it to an inspector general at another federal agency for full investigation.
Hayden also could have taken his objections to President Bush, who appointed Helgerson, Ruppersberger said.
“Now that this is out in the media it doesn’t look good for anybody,” Ruppersberger said.
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