Another angle on the "CIA secret prisons" story, this time from an interview with Larry Johnson, former CIA official, in Gazeta Wyborcza (unofficial translation)
excerpts:
A lesson of Abu Ghraib has been remembered in the CIA: Bush's team cannot be trusted to defend people who were fulfilling its orders. Therefore, the CIA agents have rised an alarm on the issue of secret prisons, so as not to become sacrificial scapegoats - says Larry Johnson*
[passage omitted]
Q: Is this an internal fight of a part of the CIA with its new director, Porter Goss?
On the issue of prisoners in the war on terror Goss blindly supports the White House's position. When I talk with the Agency's employees, every time I hear how they are frustrated with this what is going on there. It's not the reform, but that they are told to keep indefinitely dozens of people without any law procedures, in some black holes all over the world. These employees are afraid that if something happens, the Agency's management will wash its hands and all the blame will be put on those who opened and managed those prisons, and not on those who gave the orders on these issues.
Q: Do we have often leaks from the CIA to the media, when its employees don't agree with politics of the administration?
There are two most frequent reasons for leaks. The first one is a concious attempt to manipulate public opinion. It takes place with the government's consent.
The second one - if there's a heated internal struggle in the Agency with regard to a political line chosen by the management. And these who don't like it, release a leak.
[passage omitted]
*Larry Johnson was a CIA officer in the 80's. In the 90's, he was a deputy director in the fight with terrorism in the US State Department.
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