CIA Investigator Investigated
CIA Director Michael Hayden has ordered an internal review of the agency’s inspector general following the office’s probes of detention and interrogation programs.
The review focuses on whether Inspector General John Helgerson has been overzealous in targeting participants in these terrorism programs, the New York Times reports. The lengthy investigations second-guess decisions after the fact, and require agency officials to hire lawyers to defend themselves, critics of Helgerson’s office say.
But a CIA former inspector general, Frederick P. Hitz, told the newspaper it is a conflict of interest for the agency to review its own watchdog. “I think it’s a terrible idea,” he said.
Overseeing the review is lawyer Robert Deitz, who was formerly general counsel at the National Secruity Agency.
The inspector general’s office is almost finished with a report on several inquiries, including one that examines the agency’s extraordinary renditions program, which moves terrorism suspects to other nations where harsh interrogation techniques are allowed.
