Editorial: Protecting accountability

Tuesday, Oct. 16, 2007 | 7:13 a.m.

The CIA director has launched an inquiry into the performance of CIA Inspector General John Helgerson, whose independent reviews have criticized the CIA's senior officials and questioned the agency's counterterrorism programs.

Members of the House and Senate intelligence committees are calling on CIA Director Michael Hayden to halt his probe, which is highly unusual and which some lawmakers are calling an effort to intimidate Helgerson.

Helgerson's examinations of CIA activity include a 2004 probe that questioned the interrogation methods used with suspected al-Qaida members and a harsh 2005 report that criticized the CIA for failing to thwart the 9/11 terrorist attacks. In a story Saturday federal officials told The New York Times that Helgerson is working on reports regarding the CIA's detention methods, including the agency taking terrorism suspects to foreign prisons for interrogation.

In a story by the Associated Press last week, Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., a member of the Senate intelligence committee, said that inspectors general should not be subject to intimidation and that "people who know they are doing the right thing aren't afraid of oversight."

Officials from Hayden's office have characterized the investigation of Helgerson as nothing more than "a straightforward management review." But such assurances are difficult to believe coming from an agency that has been reluctant, at best, when it comes to being held accountable.

The CIA director was vigorous in his efforts to prevent the inspector general's 9/11 report from being released to the public. Congress eventually was forced to pass a law to mandate the report's release.

Although it is Congress' job to hold government agencies accountable, it is the duty of the inspectors general to provide Congress with independent reviews of those agencies so that lawmakers can be fully informed. Agency directors cannot be allowed to meddle with or suppress these important reviews. Congress should conduct hearings to find out whether the CIA director is interfering with the inspector general's duties and, if it turns out to be true, put a stop to it.