Rep. King: Holder's CIA Probe Is "Disgraceful"

Says attorney general has "declared war" on agency

By GREG WILSON

Updated 3:08 PM PDT, Tue, Aug 25, 2009

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New York Rep. Peter King went ballistic on Eric Holder, calling the attorney general's decision to investigate the CIA over terrorist interrogations "disgraceful."

In an interview with Politico, the maverick Long Island Republican called Holder "disgraceful" for launching the probe and chided his own party for not making a bigger deal of it.

"It’s bulls***. It’s disgraceful. You wonder which side they’re on," King said, describing the investigation as a "declaration of war against the CIA, and against common sense."

"It’s a total breach of faith, and either the president is intentionally caving to the left wing of his party or he’s lost control of his administration," said King, the ranking Republican on the House Committee on Homeland Security and a member of the House Select Committee on Intelligence.

King said the most egregious tactics used by CIA questioners, threatening to kill a detainee's family, and using a power drill to scare another one, were defensible given the stakes.

"You're talking about threatening to kill a guy, threatening to attack his family, threatening to use an electric drill on him — but never doing it," King said. "You have that on the one hand — and on the other you have the [interrogator's] attempt to prevent thousands of Americans from being killed."

King called on his party to take a tougher stance against the Obama Administration over the issue.

"They’ve declared war on the CIA. We should resist and fight back as hard as we can," he said. "It should be a scorched earth policy. ... This isn't just another policy. This goes to the heart of our national defense. We should do whatever we have to do."