By SIOBHAN GORMAN and GARY FIELDS
WASHINGTON -- 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.
Many CIA officers were stunned by Attorney General Eric Holder's decision to launch a probe. Some were deeply angered by what they consider a selective declassification of documents describing the acts at issue, former agency officials said Tuesday.
Of particular concern to some: their agency's decision not to release a rebuttal of a 2004 CIA inspector-general report criticizing the agency's conduct in interrogations along with the report, which was made public Monday in response to a lawsuit.
"The employees that were involved wrote a joint rebuttal and they believe it was ignored deliberately by [Justice] for political reasons," said one former CIA official.
Justice spokeswoman Tracy Schmaler said her department doesn't have the authority to declassify CIA documents, and the CIA didn't identify any rebuttal as being responsive to the lawsuit.
An intelligence official said rebuttals are considered part of the draft rather than final version of an inspector general report, and sometimes affect the final language. Thus, the CIA didn't release the rebuttal "to keep confusion to a minimum." The official added that the "CIA made it clear that there were components of the agency that had serious heartburn with the inspector general report."
The CIA officers who feel slighted believe they handled matters properly by reporting misconduct and allowing the agency to discipline officers for transgressions, a former official said.
This official said all the officers he knows who were involved with the interrogation program have retained lawyers, despite administration assurances that the government would cover legal costs for those who acted within legal guidance they were given.
"Their view is, they policed themselves and they turned themselves in," he said. Now, "they have to fight al Qaeda and the U.S. government at the same time."
Some also worry that administration plans for greater oversight of the CIA renditions program, which transfers some detainees to other countries for interrogation, will make the program unworkable because governments won't cooperate if they feel too many U.S. officials are involved and won't keep activities discreet.
Justice spokesman Dean Boyd said the CIA concurred with recommendations for enhanced oversight. A counterterrorism official added that the goal is to "ensure that rendition, which out of necessity requires confidentiality, remain a tool that can help take terrorists off the street."
Others at the CIA are reserving judgment to see whether the preliminary investigation develops into prosecutions, current and former officials said. CIA Director Leon Panetta has built up goodwill with his troops, who believe he is aggressively protecting their interests, these people said.
They cited a memo Mr. Panetta wrote Monday calling the agency's conduct "an old story" and his statement that his responsibility is "to stand up for those officers who did what their country asked and who followed the legal guidance they were given."
Over at Justice, officials worried they may have picked the wrong fight. One Justice official said it is risky to take on the CIA because it is a powerful agency.
Another federal law-enforcement agent said he and his colleagues also fear the cooperation and information-sharing born of necessity after the 2001 attacks will dry up. The relationship could regress to the point when two of the hijackers were allowed to slip into the U.S. even though the CIA had spotted them at a terror summit in Malaysia in 2000, the agent said.
"We need the information-sharing to be successful to do our jobs," the law-enforcement agent said.
Regarding the potential for frayed relations, Ms. Schmaler said Justice officials "look forward to continuing to work side-by-side with our colleagues in the CIA to keep the American people safe" and that intelligence officers "deserve our respect and gratitude."
She also reiterated that "anyone who acted within the confines of [legal] guidance would not be prosecuted."
CIA spokesman George Little pointed to Mr. Panetta's statement that the issues being investigating have already been examined.
"He is also determined that nothing disrupt the agency's core mission, which is to protect the country today and into the future," he said. "The CIA is working closely with the Department of Justice to try to achieve that."
Write to Siobhan Gorman at siobhan.gorman@wsj.com and Gary Fields at gary.fields@wsj.com
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