The Washington Times reports that the Vice Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI), Kit Bond, is pulling out of what was to have been a bipartisan review of Bush-era interrogation techniques. The reason he cited is Attorney General Eric Holder’s decision to proceed simultaneously with a special prosecutor’s investigation of CIA operatives whom career prosecutors already investigated and determined would not be subject to any criminal charges.

I contacted Bond’s office Friday evening. A spokesperson explained Bond’s thinking: “As Bond said before, it doesn’t take much to figure out that, with a criminal investigation hanging over the agency’s head, every CIA terror fighter will be in CYA mode. At a time when things are heating up in Afghanistan and Iraq, this is not good news for our intelligence community or the safety of our nation.” The spokesperson continued: “The senator was hopeful the SSCI could do a bipartisan review–but as he pointed out in his statement, Justice’s decision makes impossible the committee’s ability to interview current or former CIA employees. What kind of review can you do without speaking to the key players involved?”

Ironically, there is another person who agrees with Bond that Holder’s actions have bollixed up the SSCI’s work: Chairman Diane Feinstein. She explained when Holder announced his decision that she wished he had waited and that a comprehensive review is the “appropriate way” to get to the bottom of this. Perhaps she will agree with Bond and the two will implore the White House to call off Holder’s witch hunt. After all, Greg Craig is already taking the blame for the Guantanamo mess, so maybe the decision to name a special prosecutor can likewise be laid at his feet–and then short-circuited.

Bond deserves credit for putting Holder and Obama’s hyper-partisan tactics back in the spotlight and explaining just how counterproductive they are. Let’s see if Feinstein or any other Democrat agrees.

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This entry was posted on Saturday, September 26th, 2009 at 7:17 AM and is filed under Contentions. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.