By Jeremy Pelofsky
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Seven former heads of the CIA on Friday urged President Barack Obama to end the probe into allegations of abuse of prisoners held by the agency, arguing that it would hamper intelligence operations.
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder last month named a prosecutor to examine whether criminal charges should be filed against Central Intelligence Agency interrogators or contractors for going beyond approved interrogation methods, including using a power drill and death threats to scare detainees.
The former CIA chiefs countered that the cases had already been investigated during the Bush administration and lawyers had declined to prosecute all but one contractor.
"This approach will seriously damage the willingness of intelligence officers to take risks to protect the country," they said in the letter. "In our judgment, such risk-taking is vital to success in the long and difficult fight against terrorists who continue to threaten us."
The letter to Obama was signed by three CIA directors under President George W. Bush -- Michael Hayden, Porter Goss and George Tenet -- as well as by John Deutch, James Woolsey, William Webster and James Schlesinger, who dates to the Nixon administration.
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