How a decision to investigate CIA agents as criminals more than 30 years ago derailed U.S. intelligence.
By Ilario Pantano
Having parachuted into Nazi-occupied France, the former OSS officer is imminently qualified to answer my questions about the historical precedent of prosecuting intelligence officers during time of war. If he or his men had been captured by the enemy, they would have been tortured and executed. Many of his friends were. Retired U.S. Army Maj. Gen. John K. Singlaub, whose career in intelligence began before the Central Intelligence Agency or many its officers were even born, paused to consider his response.
"If we prosecute anyone, we need to go after Jimmy Carter and his appointee to head CIA, Adm. Stansfield Turner," he said. "Nothing has done us more harm. Turner gutted covert-action capabilities when he reduced the Directorate of Operations by a thousand experienced officers in 1977 and exposed the United States to crises which continue to haunt us 30 years later: Afghanistan and Iran."
It was a loaded question. I already knew there was no precedent for the steps Attorney General Eric Holder had taken in reopening in 2009 a criminal investigation of CIA operations. Eugene Poteat, the President of the Association of Former Intelligence Officers (AFIO), and himself a 30-year CIA man, had already set me straight. "Nope, there is no precedent," he explained. "Even the worst mistake in CIA history, the Bay of Pigs invasion under President Kennedy, had no criminal investigation. Men were fired, including my boss, but no one was tried as a criminal."
He shook his head, looked at me, and described the context. "We were in the height of the Cold War, doing what the president asked us to do. Prosecuting the CIA would have been a disaster. It would have put a freeze on everything."...
...Look for the entire article in an upcoming American Legion Magazine!
Ilario Pantano, author of Warlord: No Better Friend, No Worse Enemy
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