Ex-CIA Officer’s Charges

In Michael Scheuer’s article, “Why I Resigned From the CIA” (Commentary, Dec. 5), he asks why the American public is not more outraged. Well, the outrage is there -- it is at the local Starbucks, Wal-Mart, shopping mall, on cellphones all over this country. The outrage is, if we become too concerned about the murder and devastation of others, we might lose some of the upper- and middle-class privileges we now consider essential to life in the United States.

We go on and on about 9/11 but seem unconcerned with the killings of more than 100,000 innocent Iraqi citizens and the few thousand American military who died for corporate profit by oil companies. Those of us who are outraged are, by and large, silenced by the corporate media and dismissed by politicians who are well funded by corporations that profit from the occupation and cower at the idea of losing the right-wing Christian vote that supports this genocidal war. So please stop asking “Where is the outrage?” We simply have not suffered enough in this country to be outraged.

Elizabeth S. Baker

Los Angeles

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The “senior White House officials” who Scheuer said “repeatedly refused to act on sound intelligence that provided multiple chances to eliminate Osama bin Laden -- either by capture or by U.S. military attack” should be identified and investigated.

I am outraged by this information, especially by Scheuer’s claim that the senior bureaucrats and policymakers decided not to act at each opportunity because “a United Arab Emirates prince meeting Bin Laden clandestinely in the Afghan desert might be killed.” If it is possible, these White House officials should be prosecuted for endangering the lives of the American people.

Tony Reyes

Brea

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Scheuer’s diatribe is partisan Republican politics. He blasts the Clinton administration for not ordering missions to kill or capture Bin Laden. He singles out several high-level Clinton administration officials: Sandy Berger, George Tenet, Louis Freeh and William Cohen. However, Scheuer utters not one criticism concerning President Bush’s decision to divert U.S. attention away from Bin Laden and attack Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, which had nothing to do with 9/11.

How many times during the campaign did Bush mention Bin Laden? How many times during the campaign did Bush mention terrorism and Iraq? Scheuer needs to recollect who worked on his ranch after receiving an August memo warning of an Al Qaeda attack rather than working to protect Americans. Hint: It was not Bill Clinton.

Arch Miller

Arcadia

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Former CIA manager Scheuer says that the CIA might be accused of assassination if Bin Laden were killed in an effort to capture him. Yet throughout his article Scheuer complains that senior White House officials refused on numerous occasions to eliminate Bin Laden by military attacks. Assassination is assassination, whether by military attack or by a lone wolf.

Why stop at Bin Laden? We don’t like Fidel Castro, urban drug dealers or even those silly French who ridicule us for our misadventure in Iraq. Possibly Bin Laden was not assassinated because we are a civilized society. This is a point completely missed by Scheuer.

Bob Munson

Newbury Park

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What is interesting about Scheuer’s piece is how he avoids mention of those in the current administration who may be culpable for leaving us vulnerable on Sept. 11. He is said to have left the CIA not the least because his public statements embarrassed the White House during the campaign. I do wonder if his reticence isn’t motivated by newfound fear; the incumbents are not a forgiving bunch and their self-proclaimed electoral mandate has given them a boost in confidence.

Those of us outside intelligence circles need to keep one thing in mind before we set our opinions about what is happening within them. Although it is a commonplace, the world of spies and bureaucratic intrigue really is one of smoke and mirrors. Few outsiders are in a position to obtain correct information of what goes on. Partisan politics, in particular, is no basis for reorganizing institutions that are critical to our security. In our current circumstance, I despair that the best interests of our country will be not pursued.

Tom Halasz

Los Angeles