Lately, things have been going pretty badly for the CIA. Of course, the biggest story in the news has been how the CIA botched the prewar intelligence on Iraq. However, the CIA has now screwed up in Europe on a scale that puts American interests under threat. Frankly, I'm beginning to get pretty darn annoyed with them.
The situation in Europe that I am worried about now concerns the CIA's practice of a method called "extraordinary rendition." This practice involves detaining and transferring people that the CIA considers a threat to countries where interrogators are more "open" to using methods such as torture to extract information. Popular destinations for the detainees are places like Egypt or Jordan. Unfortunately for the United States, the CIA has routinely used kidnapping as a method to detain these people. The large number of kidnappings and the operation of several secret prisons in Europe prompted an investigation by the European Union. Whatever happened to the idea of low-key covert operations? The sort of attention that mass kidnappings bring is extremely undesirable.
The most easily seen effect of this policy has been the criminal cases that European courts are beginning to bring against CIA agents. In January, a German court issued arrest warrants for 13 Americans who were likely involved in kidnapping a German resident. Now, it seems quite clear to me that putting agents in situations where they get indicted for kidnapping by a friendly country is probably a policy that needs to be fixed. If that weren't bad enough, Italy is expected to decide today whether or not to indict 26 American CIA operatives. Currently in the United States, the Valerie Plame incident broke the cover of one CIA agent and has caused somewhat of an uproar. In this case, 40 CIA agents have gone down the drain with barely a whimper. This situation has cost the CIA a tremendous amount of resources that cannot easily be recouped.
On top of the indictments, an investigative report released this week from the European parliament has laid blame on many European countries for having knowledge of or cooperating with the CIA in detaining and transporting terrorist suspects. According to a BBC news report, the 14 countries mentioned in the EU report include several important allies, including the United Kingdom, Germany and Italy. How nice of the CIA to involve U.S. allies in their problems. Apparently the planners in the CIA have forgotten the meaning of the word "covert."
Most of the European public is already highly suspicious of U.S. motives and intentions. This report can only turn European public opinion further against the United States' interests. In turn, these governments will be less likely to cooperate if the United States needs their help in the future, even if it doesn't involve violating basic human rights. Of course, the flip side is that it's nice to see that trans-Atlantic ties are still running pretty strong between the United States and European governments. However, publicly involving European allies in unofficially kidnapping citizens is definitely not the best way to test that.
So, where does this go from here? The embarrassment of the CIA will likely increase as more light is shed on its European activities. In the future, I sincerely hope the CIA understands that its actions can have adverse consequences. I can understand using the CIA to gather intelligence on suspects in Europe. I don't necessarily agree with it, but it does make sense if Europeans are not willing to do it. However, the CIA does not need to play the role of police agency extraordinaire. That is a job that needs to be left to the sovereign states of Europe.
Andrew Wagner ([email protected]) is a sophomore majoring in computer science and political science.
