Writing in Roll Call, Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) warns against the dangers of Sen. Leahy's proposed
show trial
"truth commission":
It is not too difficult to imagine a scenario in which the creation of Leahy's commission greatly hinders the operation of the military or intelligence community. For example, interrogators after Sept. 11 sought critical intelligence information from captured enemy combatants - information that proved invaluable in preventing follow-on attacks against the homeland. Questioning their activities now, many years later, can easily have a chilling effect on intelligence community operatives. When faced with the prospect of being humiliated before a "truth squad" and, perhaps, ultimately being sent to prison, intelligence community operatives may not take the risks previous commissions have encouraged them to take, or worse yet, they may choose not to volunteer at all to serve in harm's way in a time of war.