No Apologies Necessary - CIA Doing its Job

No Apologies Necessary – CIA Doing its Job

Commentary by Sanford D. Horn

December 12, 2014

America’s enemies have long memories and are patient people. Radical Islam did not introduce itself to the United States on September 11, 2001. While that may be the date by which all else is measured and thus galvanizing the American people, with damn good reason, if history has taught us anything, it is that a strong defense is the best offense. Ronald Reagan said it best when he said “peace through strength.”

The Senate Intelligence Committee’s recently released report on CIA enhanced interrogation tactics is an abysmal disgrace. Not because of the contents therein, but that it was issued at all. The sanctimonious Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) used the waning days of the Democrat’s time as the Senate majority to unleash this ultra-partisan report giving the United States a wallop of a black eye and worse yet, endangering the brave men and women wearing the uniform of their country.

"This is the most dangerous report to ever come out of Congress," declared Lt. Gen. Thomas McInerney.

Since the days of the wars against the Barbary pirates, during the administration of Thomas Jefferson (1801-05) and again under the presidency of James Madison in 1815, radical Islam has been a thorn in the side of the United States. Jefferson declined to pay tribute money to the pirates setting in motion a course that could be traced to today. Jefferson was correct then, and the CIA is correct now.

Covert operations are covert for a reason. This is how the men and women entrusted to run and win our wars are able to do so successfully. Wars should be won, and won decisively, not played out to a draw where thousands of lives are wasted; where the blood and treasure of the United States are lost for some indefinable, indiscernible reason. The American people do not need to know everything.

CIA Director John Brennan did the right thing be defending the men and women working for The Agency. Were mistakes made, to be sure there were, as people are fallible. Should that preclude the intelligence resources of the United States from making their best efforts to combat foreign and domestic terrorism? Absolutely not.

Former Senator and Governor of Nebraska Bob Kerrey (D), and more importantly a Vietnam veteran, condemned the Senate Intelligence report as being too partisan and a danger to the men and women in uniform and handling the day to day field operations of the CIA. The one-sided report by the Senate Intelligence investigators did not include a single word from CIA leadership as none were consulted or interviewed, according to a December 10 Wall Street Journal editorial “CIA Interrogations Saved Lives,” written by former CIA directors George Tenet, Porter Goss, Michael Hayden, and three other non-directors.

One cannot fight evil without getting dirty. The nature of the continuing war on terror being fought by the United States includes enemy combatants who have no moral code, fight for no country, under no particular flag, and do not abide by the Geneva Convention. The United States won the Revolutionary War by fighting as guerilla warriors against a more superior, better trained military machine – the British red coats. The American rebels fought an unconventional war leading to victory and freedom from the British Empire of King George III.

By the time of the war in Vietnam, the United States was the better trained military machine fighting against guerilla warriors and the end result was less than satisfactory. But those wars and the wars during the interim period were fought nations versus nations with rules of combat – Hitler’s methodical slaughter of six million Jews the glaring exception. And anyone who has opened a history book knows of the vicious cruelty the Japanese and Vietnamese inflicted upon their POWs. Any apologies from them? Hearing crickets.

The United States does live by a higher code and moral standard.

Yet, that did not prevent this country from interning 127,000 Japanese Issei (those born in Japan and immigrated to the US) and Nisei (those born in the US and were citizens) – mostly Nisei, in 10 camps in seven states: Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Idaho, Utah, and Wyoming. President Franklin Roosevelt (D) issued Executive Order 9066 on February 19, 1942 on the heels of the Japanese Empire’s attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, “a date which will live in infamy,” said Roosevelt. On that horrific date 2,403 innocents were murdered. In 1998, the United States, via Congress, attempted to apologize for the internment of American citizens.

However, September 11, 2001 as well as preceding and subsequent terror attempts and attacks by radical Muslims on American soil both at home and overseas at embassies are an entirely different story.

Congresswoman Jackie Speier (D-CA) simply has no concept of history. When asked if the United States and specifically the CIA should apologize for using enhanced methods of interrogation against the enemies of this country, her response – “absolutely!”

What would Speier prefer the interrogators do? Whisper sweet nothings into the ears of the terrorists? Say “pretty please,” or threaten to take away their dessert? Let’s not forget the first attack on the World Trade Center in 1993, the 1998 attacks on US embassies, as well as the attack on the USS Cole in 2000. This is not an enemy destined to go quietly into that good night. If enhanced interrogation techniques are what will get the job done and enable our troops to move more swiftly and survive their tours of duty, so be it. And if that includes waterboarding while thousands of our countrymen were murdered on September 11, 2001, well then, cry me a river.

“These people are evil,” said Congressman-elect Ryan Zinke (R-MT), a Navy Seal. This report “puts military lives at risk,” he said, condemning it and its supporters, adding, they “have no concept of 9/11.”

There is a sad irony to Speier’s desire to apologize to the enemies of the United States. This Senate Intelligence Committee report was issued just days prior to the slaughter of children. ISIS reported that it beheaded four Iraqi children each under the age of 15 for refusing to reject Jesus and Christianity and convert to Islam. And the US/CIA should apologize for what? Speier, Feinstein, and their ilk should be the ones apologizing for endangering the lives of not just American men and women in uniform, but the total of the American population.

The United States should never apologize for doing its level best to win any conflict, destroy any enemy, and continue to protect the borders and citizens of the United States. For without safe and secure borders, the people living within those borders are no longer safe and the Constitution along with all it entails and represents is meaningless when under the thumb of a narcissistic dictator.

Sanford D. Horn is a writer and educator living in Westfield, IN.