NYT Headline: Abuse Issue Puts the Justice Dept. and C.I.A. at Odds -- WSJ Headline: Probe of CIA Imperils Interagency Trust

Leon E. Panetta, left, director of the Central Intelligence Agency, tried to persuade Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., right, to drop plans to investigate the treatment of C.I.A. detainees.

An 8-26-09 post was entitled "Past CIA activity has already been condemned & prohibited; this will most definitely have a chilling effect: Decision Sets Off Storm of Protest."

The post noted that Obama already has his plate full at the moment: a battle to save his health-care plan, fortify the war effort in Afghanistan, restart Middle East peace negotiations, lay the groundwork for sanctions against Iran, close the Guantanamo Bay prison, bring the U.S. into a global climate-change effort, and end a global recession.

Obama and Rahm Emanuel and wrong, very wrong, and doing the country and the CIA a great disservice in allowing Holder's investigation to go forward. Obama will be distracted; his leadership further eroded.

Here is The New York Times article, and here is The Wall Street Journal article whose headlines are noted as the caption of this post.

The Wall Street Journal notes:

The Justice Department's decision to investigate CIA interrogation practices increased tension between the agencies and prompted a sense of betrayal among some CIA officers, current and former officials said.

Rivalries had raged since the early days of the Central Intelligence Agency's World War II-era forerunner, the Office of Strategic Services, and the trust built in the wake of the 9/11 attacks could be shattered by the investigation, these people said.

The Washington Post reports:

About five weeks ago, faced with a crucial decision on how to react to brutal CIA interrogation practices, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. concluded that it would be all but impossible to follow President Obama's mandate to move forward, rather than investigate divisive episodes from the Bush "war on terror."

Holder notified the White House that he was reluctantly leaning toward naming a prosecutor to review whether laws had been broken during interrogations -- the very thing Obama had said he wanted to avoid. And the word Holder got back, according to people familiar with the conversations, was that the decision was up to him.