Siobhan Gorman reports on intelligence.

Seven former Central Intelligence Agency directors lined up against Attorney General Eric Holder, who launched a criminal investigation into alleged abuses in the CIA’s interrogation program.

In a letter to President Barack Obama, the seven — Michael Hayden and Porter Goss, who served under President George W. Bush; George Tenet (Bush and Clinton administrations); John Deutch and R. James Woolsey (Clinton administration); William Webster (Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations), and James R. Schlesinger (Nixon administration) – asked that the investigation be dropped.

“Those men and women who undertake difficult intelligence assignments in the aftermath of an attack such as September 11 must believe there is permanence in the legal rules that govern their actions,” they wrote.

The current CIA director, Leon Panetta, earlier voiced similar opposition to Holder’s probe.

Holder launched a preliminary investigation last month into fewer than 20 cases of potential criminal behavior that had been reviewed during the Bush administration.

The former CIA directors told Obama that reopening the cases “creates an atmosphere of continuous jeopardy.” Besides requiring CIA officers to obtain lawyers, the new investigation will make them less willing to take risks and will damage relationships with foreign spy agencies, they said.

But the CIA officials aren’t likely to be happy. The White House said it doesn’t make decisions on investigations.

The letter was not shared ahead of time with Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who served as CIA director in the first Bush administration, or former president and CIA director George H.W. Bush out of respect for their current and former posts, said Jennifer Millerwise Dyck, spokeswoman for Goss.