The United States government has so far resisted a wide inquiry into intelligence collection and special operations programs that, in ordinary times, might have brought down governments. But European countries have launched several inquiries; the European Union continues to look at several flash points, and the United Kingdom is about to launch a wide-ranging probe into its security services misconduct during the Iraq-Afghanistan period, with special attention paid to whether the UK was complicit in torture.
Neither President Obama nor his Attorney General, Eric Holder, were particularly interested in re-litigating the past because both believed it would interfere with their attempts to formulate a coherent and sustainable national security framework for the post-9/11 era. But more than a year and a half in, there is no framework. There are broad principles, a national security strategy, and an incredibly sticky mess of court cases, open wounds, and rancorous internal policy debates. Most of the people responsible for executing the controversial secret programs remain in government, albeit under new management.
There have been some notable shifts for the good: after an early period of tension, congressional oversight of the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency is as robust as it's ever been. Perhaps the oversight is not sufficient, but it is better than it was, and that is unquestionably, in the biblical, essential sense, a good thing.