Former officials say morale has declined at CIA

A. B. “Buzzy’’ Krongard, the third-ranking CIA official at the time of the use of harsh interrogation practices, said that although vigorous oversight is crucial, the public airing of once-classified internal assessments and the prospect of further investigation are damaging the agency. “Morale at the agency is down to minus 50,’’ he said.

At the same time, former inspector general John Helgerson, whose review of the program was largely declassified last Monday, said that the release, though painful, would ensure that the agency confronts difficult issues head-on, instead of ignoring or trying to bury them.

Helgerson also said it would be “very difficult’’ to mount a successful prosecution of any of the individuals who participated in the program. The Bush-era Justice Department “approved the program orally and in writing; the agency’s chain of command was involved. There would be no jury appeal, and I do not believe there was any criminal intent among those involved,’’ Helgerson said.

Paul Gimigliano, acting director of the CIA’s Office of Public Affairs, said the agency remains focused. “Intelligence and espionage are, by definition, high-risk and controversial,’’ he said. “That comes with the territory.’’

Krongard, one of the few active or retired CIA officers with direct knowledge of the program willing to voice publicly what many officers are saying privately, said agency personnel may back away from controversial programs that could place them in personal legal jeopardy should their work be exposed. “The old saying goes, ‘Big operation, big risk; small operation, small risk; no operation, no risk.’ ’’

Other officials contended that agency personnel remain committed to their work. “If anyone thinks the CIA has gotten risk-averse recently, go ask Al Qaeda and the Taliban,’’ said one senior official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to discuss publicly the views of agency leaders. “The agency’s still doing cutting-edge stuff in all kinds of dangerous places,’’ he said.

A retired former senior CIA official said that since the announcement that the Justice Department would investigate the agency’s interrogation tactics, he has received many calls from serving intelligence officers, some in high management positions, seeking advice about new jobs or lawyers. “This is a bad one,’’ he said.

It is impossible to extrapolate from the small sample contacted by Washington Post reporters about the effect the varied inquiries are having on the thousands of agency employees, more than one-third of whom are spread around the world. But among the dozens of officials who were part of the program and remain active or have retired, feelings run high about how the White House and the Justice Department have handled the issue.

One former senior official said President Obama was warned in December that release of the Justice Department memos sanctioning harsh interrogation methods would create an uproar that could not be contained. “They [the White House] thought that it would be a two-day story; they were wrong,’’ this official said.

A much-discussed question is whether the legal reassurances of one administration carry over to its successor. “When a previous administration says something was legal, and the next says it doesn’t matter, the result is hesitancy to take on cutting-edge missions,’’ the former senior official warned.

Another former top official said senior managers detect a double standard. He pointed out that Attorney General Eric Holder supported Obama’s decision not to release photos of military abuses of detainees in Afghanistan and Iraq because they would harm military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“The warning that CIA operations would be made more difficult were disregarded,’’ former official said.