Posted on 08/25/2009 8:27:40 PM PDT by RobinMasters
I don’t often quote James Carville, but on the decision to name a special prosecutor to look at criminal charges against CIA operatives who utilized enhanced-interrogation techniques, he is certainly worth hearing. His main concern is the political blowback that may ensue from the decision to go after the CIA:
Well, the first thing is this is terrible politics for the Obama administration and Democrats. The country—having said that, people go out and give speeches about we’re a nation of laws and somebody in the justice department actually believes that and they believe they’re warranted to open a preliminary investigation by way of Republican career prosecutors. So, I know the politics of this, a lot of people wish it would go away, be, as long as people believe speeches of being a nation of laws you run into this danger.
[. . .]
And, look, if it were up to me, I would say I kind of agree with the former CIA general counsel who said, you know, we ought to punish these people and move on. Somebody in there believes these speeches, and they’re pretty—they seem to be fairly adamant about pursuing it. Politically, I think it’s not very wise. Leon Panetta, the head of the CIA, according to reports that I read today, was very, very upset about this. And, look, but somebody, again, we don’t know all the facts and a preliminary investigation, they seem to be bound and determined to proceed with this.
(Excerpt) Read more at commentarymagazine.com ...
Nothing to see here - just another boneheaded decision/move by an inept, incompetent administration. Hopefully we only have 41 months left of this insanity.
is he speaking english...
They want the CIA to be as demoralized as possible... you gotta ask yourself why...
Obama, Pelosilini and Reid would be waiting expulsion to CUBA.
Read it 3 time.. it gets better each time
/s
I have a broken watch. It’s right twice a day.
Carville is shaking his head in disbelief of the stupidity of this administration....I’ve been watching him lately and you can tell he can’t believe what he is seeing.....a sinking ship....and it’s his party that’s going down with this ship.......
However, torture requires specific intent. If you waterboard someone in SERE training it's not torture, because your goal was to teach, not torture. To prosecute these CIA people, Holder's traitors would need to prove they were trying to torture, not extract information. Lots of luck, morons.
Yep this could blow up big time on the Dems. Just think, here we are asking people everyday to put their lives on the line for our security and then here comes Obama threatening to arrest them for it. Do you really think they will work as they have and continue to with that threat? I’m amazed everday that I wake up and turn on the news and we haven’t been hit by terrorism again.
Let me detail only one scenario. The Dems drag CIA people over the coals in hearings in an attempt to score points off the Bush administration. The Republicans take the House in 2010. In the meantime there is some sort of terrorist incident that is even remotely connected to the CIA. Can anyone imagine that would not result in hearings on who handcuffed the CIA? How many sitting administration officials then would be subpoenaed? And could that fail to affect the 2012 Presidential elections?
As a seasoned political operative, Carville is right - this is a really stupid thing to politicize. 0bama's moonbat supporters are in a feeding frenzy at the moment but that will pass, and they won't be anywhere in sight when the hammer comes down in reply.
They had to do this. They are desperate. When you’re desperate, you do stupid things — even stupider than usual.
They’re about to lose socialized medicine. The commies who voted for baraq are fit to be tied. This is red meat for them, to keep them on the reservation despite losing their marxist medical deal.
Remember? They had put this business to be 5-6 months ago. The foregoing is the only reason I can see for resurrecting it. They just cannot afford to have the commies on the warpath against them. Those guys know how to purge like no other.
Of course, it won’t work. It’s only a temporary fix. Meanwhile, they are in a permanent fix.
Even a blind squirrel finds the occasional nut...
This time... were the charges checked out to make sure that Nancy Pelosi and other top Dems weren’t fully briefed while this was happening??
They can’t be this stupid twice, can they?
When the shoe is on the other foot there should be treason trials with the CIA as witnesses.
Unfortunately the CIA and Obama deserve each other. The CIA declared war on GWB when Rumsfeld tried to have DoD take lead on intel after the CIA failed 9/11. The CIA leaked selected parts of intel reports to MSM and DNC claiming that GWB was told that Iraq had no WMD and no links to AQ. Furthermore they set up the Valarie Flame incident via the trip to Africa to investigate the Yellow Cake lead by sending Ms Flame’s husband, a retired ambassador to check out the story. Upon return he wrote a scathing op ed in the NYT escoriating GWB admin and made it like they were viewing intel data from an ideological perspective. However a written report based on Flame’s verbal (nothing was written down by the ambassador which is unusual for CIA procedures) furnished to GWB indicate that Iraq may have been trying to get Uranium via Yellow Cake mud. The CIA declareed war on GWB because of Rumsfeld attempts to take over the agency’s turf, despite the fact we were engaged in a war in Iraq and Afghanistan. The CIA did not care, they used their subversive techniques and leaked GWB operational mistakes and failures to inflame the MSM and gave ammo for the DNC to beat up on GWB and GOP in order to pressure them to get rid of Rumsfeld. Eventually the CIA suceeded and Rumsfeld resigned and that ended the DoD attempt to take over intel. CIA is crying about the needs of a nation over the partisan motivation to investigate their interrogation issues, well where was the agency when they underminded GWB (and Iraq war) when they chose the agency’s bureacratic interests over the nation’s interest??!!! No freepers, the CIA and Obama deserve each other. If the GOP wants to defend the CIA, the CIA owes them a few things, for starters the ones involved in the Shadow War against GWB need to resign or retire.
Okay... is it just me... or would it seem to anyone else here that if I’m gonna pick a fight in DC, I’m sure as hell not gonna pick one w/ the CIA?
At some point, you’re gonna find yourself on the outs with any number of “spook” departments, not to mention the FBI, who no doubt will be used for such investigations.
It is said that Joe McCarthy’s career was ended when he went after the military. I can’t help but think that every piece of dirt on every Dem will find its way to the press come next election. I mean, just look at what they did to Dubya when he did far less to them....
Yeah, it has got to be tough watching his self-proclaimed predictions of “40 more year of Democratic dominance” being flushed right down the toilet....
“Yeah, it has got to be tough watching his self-proclaimed predictions of “40 more year of Democratic dominance” being flushed right down the toilet....”
At least no one pronounced a 1000-year Reich....
I’m thinking that it has only been 2 1/2 years since the GOP had the majority in the House... not that long ago... it can, and probably will, swing very quickly to the GOP side. That is why the hurry to do health care quickly -— the Dems know their days are numbered.
“Unfortunately the CIA and Obama deserve each other. The CIA declared war on GWB when Rumsfeld tried to have DoD take lead on intel after the CIA failed 9/11. The CIA leaked selected parts of intel reports to MSM and DNC claiming that GWB was told that Iraq had no WMD and no links to AQ. Furthermore they set up the Valarie Flame incident via the trip to Africa to investigate the Yellow Cake lead by sending Ms Flame’s husband, a retired ambassador to check out the story. Upon return he wrote a scathing op ed in the NYT escoriating GWB admin and made it like they were viewing intel data from an ideological perspective. However a written report based on Flame’s verbal (nothing was written down by the ambassador which is unusual for CIA procedures) furnished to GWB indicate that Iraq may have been trying to get Uranium via Yellow Cake mud. The CIA declareed war on GWB because of Rumsfeld attempts to take over the agency’s turf, despite the fact we were engaged in a war in Iraq and Afghanistan. The CIA did not care, they used their subversive techniques and leaked GWB operational mistakes and failures to inflame the MSM and gave ammo for the DNC to beat up on GWB and GOP in order to pressure them to get rid of Rumsfeld. Eventually the CIA suceeded and Rumsfeld resigned and that ended the DoD attempt to take over intel. CIA is crying about the needs of a nation over the partisan motivation to investigate their interrogation issues, well where was the agency when they underminded GWB (and Iraq war) when they chose the agency’s bureacratic interests over the nation’s interest??!!! No freepers, the CIA and Obama deserve each other. If the GOP wants to defend the CIA, the CIA owes them a few things, for starters the ones involved in the Shadow War against GWB need to resign or retire.”
I enjoyed your post. As a former spook, I understand the battles btwn the intel agencies and with DOD and I agree with your comments. Fun to read.
Later.
Al Ball
I said it once, I’ll say it again: The CIA is the most incompetent agency in the federal govt.
A Small List of CIA failures:
1. 9/11
2. The End of the Cold War
3. Aldrich Ames-and all of the people he got killed by the KGB.
4. Iran 1979-
5. The Tet Offensive
6. Iraq 2003
7. Kuwait 1990
8. Castro—1950s
9. The Bay of Pigs
10. Assassination plots against Castro—just get a guy with a long-range sniper rifle. It’s that easy.
11. The mafia plots (What? You want more money)
12. U2-Gary Francis Powers
btw: Did you know that the best spy we had in Moscow was run by J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI?
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