Obama's agenda at risk in push for CIA inquiry

On Monday, it seemed the House Intelligence Committee might launch an investigation. Panel chairman Rep. Silvestre Reyes (D) of Texas sent a letter to ranking minority member, Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R) of Michigan, asking whether the GOP committee members deemed such a probe necessary.

So far, White House officials have been circumspect in their comments. Spokesman Robert Gibbs said Monday that the president “believes that Congress should always be briefed fully and in a timely manner in accordance with the law.”

The CIA chief is currently looking into how this situation came about, he added.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the program in question was a secret CIA effort to capture or kill Al Qaeda leaders. It may not have been reported to Congress in part because it never got off the ground, according to news reports.

“The problem is, they [the CIA] have no assets” inside terrorist organizations, says Professor Lustick of the University of Pennsylvania.

There may be more to the program, Lustick says. For instance, it may have involved attempts to draw in suspected terrorists by setting up fake efforts to attack the US.

Torture inquiry also possible

Aside from the CIA program, Bush administration interrogation practices remain a subject of possible investigation. Attorney General Eric Holder is reported to favor naming a prosecutor to look into whether these practices crossed the line into torture.

The White House has responded carefully to these reports, too. “Our efforts are better focused looking forward than looking back,” said Mr. Gibbs on Monday.

For the Obama administration, an investigation into either the CIA program or Bush interrogation policy could be harmful in two ways, says Stephen Hess, senior fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution in Washington. It could interfere with White House efforts to push its domestic agenda, especially at this critical period, he says.

Opening the Pandora’s box of the past could also subject the administration to criticism that it is eager, in a time of apparent safety, to target people who may have simply done what they thought was necessary in a time of greater apparent danger, he adds.

“These are the kinds of investigations that, once you’ve started them, you can’t turn them off,” says Hess.

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