Why Did She Know What She Maybe Knew? The CIA IG Statute
Why would someone in the Inspector General's (IG) office even know of the CIA secret prisons and why would she disclose it?
The CIA's IG office is relatively new, created in 1990 to be the internal watchdog of the CIA. Until the Department of Homeland Security's IG, CIA was the last major agency to finally get an office. And, the legislation creating that office may give some hints as to what happened.
The relevant parts, after saying what the IG can do:
`(3) The Director may prohibit the Inspector General from initiating, carrying out, or completing any audit, inspection, or investigation if he determines that such prohibition is necessary to protect vital national security interests of the United States.
`(4) If the Director exercises any power under subsection (3), above, he shall submit an appropriately classified statement of the reasons for the exercise of such power within seven days to the intelligence committees. The Director shall advise the Inspector General at the time such report is submitted, and, to the extent consistent with the protection of intelligence sources and methods, provide the Inspector General with a copy of any such report. In such cases, the Inspector General may submit such comments to the intelligence committees that he may deem appropriate.
`(5) In accordance with section 535 of title 28, United States Code, the Director of Central Intelligence shall report to the Attorney General any information, allegation, or complaint received from the Inspector General, relating to violations of Federal criminal law (title 18, U.S.C. et seq.) involving any officer or employee of the Central Intelligence Agency, consistent with such guidelines as may be issued by the Attorney General pursuant to subsection 535(b)(2) of title 28, United States Code. A copy of all such reports shall be furnished the Inspector General.
Elsewhere in the statue it states that the IG must report to the House and Senate Select Committees on Intelligence if the Director (or Acting Director) of Central Intelligence is the focus of an investigation, audit or inspection.
So, here are the questions:
(1)Was there an IG investigation of the prisons? If yes, who authorized it? What happened to it?
(2)If no, did the CIA Director (goss) prohibit it from happening under the national security exception? Did he notify Congress as required by law?
I have no good answers to these questions, but they are worth looking into given the legal structure of McCarthy's workplace. It is just difficult to imagine she would have access to such information (given her employment timeline) in the absence of a request for an investigation. And if that didn't happen, do we know if the intelligence communities were notified. Does she?
Most money now is that she will not be facing criminal charges, lest the CIA wants her to talk about an issue they still do not acknowledge (the prisons).(Assuming, of course, her culpability).
My bet is that others in the Agency that were troubled by the detention practice went to her, not necessarily for a request to investigate. After all, if the program was ordered from the top what grounds are there for investigating? But she might have been seen as disinterested and capable of asking questions. She may have done so, been told to can it, and let it out. Would not surprise me if the polygraph interview was to find out who told her about the program, and she resisted.
April 24, 2006 6:54 AM | Reply | Permalink
Sounds right to me. It's hard to believe they don't talk to each other.
I thought the initial polygraph was one of the routine ones to maintain her clearance, not that they had already singled her out. But perhaps I just assumed that.
April 24, 2006 7:52 AM | Reply | Permalink
Mary McCarthy was well known to the CIA's top spy, Jose A. Rodriguez, CIA DDO.
Mary McCarthy worked in the Latin American division of the CIA in the 1980s. Jose Rodriguez, now the director of the National Clandestine Service, worked for the CIA in the embassy in Argentina 1994-1996, as station chief in Bogota about 1996-1998, as COS in Mexico City in 1999, and chief of the Latin America Division in the early 2000s.
Nicholas Negroponte, Director of National Intelligence, overall head of the civilian-military "intelligence community," was an ambassador/CIA operative in Latin America during the 1980s, when Mary McCarthy was at the Latin America desk at Langley.
Lately, Rodriguez fired Robert Grenier, director of the Counterterrorism Center (Rodriguez' old job) for not going along with illegal rendition/torture, just like Mary McCarthy.
There are other similarities between Jose A. Rodriguez and Mary O. McCarthy.
I there were mass polygraph tests but that McCarthy was targeted for firing as a sacrificial goat by that Judas goat Jose Rodriguez.
April 24, 2006 9:06 AM | Reply | Permalink
Juliette,
Excellent post as always. I doubt Mary would have talked to the press about this if the IG investigation was being allowed to move forward unfettered. Let's remember that John Helgerson's report on who screwed up inside the CIA before 9-11 also remains under wraps and there has been no accountability.
There is a story about what the IG was doing and where the investigation was headed. Don't know if there are any journalists left with the cojones to get this story.
April 24, 2006 2:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
Your questions are interesting. The answer to #1 is obviously "we will never know" because it is classified. Unless, of course, somebody else decides to break the law and leak classified information.
As for #2, if Goss did prohibit an IG investigation, then, of course he submitted a report to the intelligence commitees... because not doing so is easily verifiable by the IG (for Goss must send a copy of that report to said IG and once that happens the IG can submit comments to the intelligence committees).
I resent the inference that Mary McCarthy might have leaked the information because Goss broke the law.
April 24, 2006 8:39 PM | Reply | Permalink