What the President's Attack on the CIA Really Means

There is now just one group of people exempt from President Obama's worldwide ban on torture: the men and women of the CIA.

By authorizing Attorney General Eric Holder to appoint a special prosecutor to determine whether a full criminal investigation of CIA employees and contractors is warranted for the manner in which they interrogated captured terrorists, the President has thrown his power and support behind those far-left ideologues -- in Congress and elsewhere -- who believe that the CIA is a bigger threat to our country than al Qaeda.

I know the men and women of the CIA -- I had the honor of working with them during the Reagan Administration -- and they would rather have their fingernails pulled out with pliers or have holes drilled into their knees (neither of which they did to captured terrorists, as the Justice Department's hot-shot investigators will learn) than be thought of as anything other than honorable patriots doing their best, under extraordinarily difficult circumstances, to protect our country from its enemies. It will be excruciating for them to face their colleagues each morning under the strain of looming criminal prosecutions that will destroy their careers and deplete their meager savings accounts -- and, even worse, to come home to their families each evening with the stench of President Obama's contempt for their honor in the air.

By launching this latest attack on the CIA, the President has done more than merely throw a bone to his base. He has removed all remaining doubt about how the US now plans to confront the global threat of radical Islam. Simply put, we have reached one of those hinges of history whose swings alter the course of world events. The best way to understand what President Obama has done is to put aside this week's headlines and, for just a moment, press the rewind button:

In the 1930s, the world was becoming unglued and unstable. Fascism was on the march and, as usual, we Americans wished only to stay out of the world's problems and to focus instead on our own domestic issues. Then came the attack on Pearl Harbor, and we had no choice but to respond. Within a month we were at war not only with Japan, but also with Italy and Germany. In effect, President Roosevelt threw the switch from defense to offense. We went after not only those who had attacked us, but all of those who subscribed to the Fascist ideology. And, in time, we won.

Now let's fast-forward to the 1990s. Once again, the world was becoming unglued and unstable. This time it was radical Islam on the march and launching its attacks across the globe -- including a few on us such as the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, the bombings of our embassies in Africa, and the attack on the USS Cole. And once again we Americans wished only to stay out of the world's problems and to focus instead on our own domestic issues. Then came 9-11, and we had no choice but to respond.

President Bush made the same kind of decision that FDR had made 60 years earlier. Rather than just go after those who had launched the attack on our homeland, he undertook a Global War on Terrorism to defeat all of those states and groups that subscribed to the radical Islam ideology. Just like FDR, President Bush threw the switch from defense to offense. Whether he played offense well or poorly during his years in office is something that historians will debate for the next thousand years. But there's no doubt that after 9-11 the US was playing offense.

That's now over. Look hard at everything President Obama has said and done -- this week's attack on the CIA, his banishment of the phrase "Global War on Terrorism" and its replacement with the milquetoast "overseas contingency operations," his apologetic Cairo speech, his seeming indifference to the recent bombings in Iraq, his unwillingness to seize the opportunity of the students' uprising in Iran to knock over that dangerous regime, his trashing of our special relationship with Israel, and all the rest including his longtime personal relationships with vicious America-haters like Bill Ayers and the Reverend Jeremiah Wright -- and the conclusion is inescapable: President Obama is throwing the switch from offense back to defense, and returning the US to its September 10 mindset.

If President Obama and his supporters are right -- that what confronts us isn't a war but merely a complex international law-enforcement problem -- in the coming years not much will happen. We'll see the occasional bombing here or there, every so often an airliner will inexplicably fall out of the sky, and in a half-dozen or so countries most of us cannot even find on a map some previously unheard-of groups of thugs will seize power. But with the exception of those few of us unlucky enough to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, life will go on.

But if President Bush and those of us who supported him are right -- that we are in the midst of a global war on whose outcome rests the survival of Western civilization -- the future will unfold in a different and much less pleasant way. The forces of radical Islam will surge, our "allies" will cave in to pressure and cut deals with our mortal enemies, and at some point down the road -- seven years from now, three years from now, or perhaps next Tuesday -- something ghastly will happen.

Herbert E. Meyer served during the Reagan Administration as Special Assistant to the Director of Central Intelligence and Vice Chairman of the CIA's National Intelligence Council. He holds the U.S. National Intelligence Distinguished Service Medal, which is the Intelligence Community's highest honor. He is author of The Cure for Poverty and How to Analyze Information.

All that and more.

I’ll bet someone over there has the real scoop on the muzzie marxist at many levels beyond birth; including his visas to the Mideast, Pakistan and Indonesia. Barry ‘s interests are multifold, payback to the global muslims, his personal muslim marxist objectives, and then his personal life which he does not want uncovered.

"I’ll bet someone over there has the real scoop on the muzzie marxist at many levels beyond birth;"

Exactly. That's why the FBI is next on the list. He already has DOJ prosecutors.

yitbos

ON THE INTERNET:

FBI.gov (AG, US DOJ.gov): "SPECIAL TASK FORCE ON INTERROGATIONS AND TRANSFER POLICIES ISSUES ITS RECOMMENDATIONS TO THE PRESIDENT" (August 24, 2009)

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AMERICAN THINKER.com - blog: "WHAT THE PRESIDENT'S ATTACK ON THE CIA REALLY MEANS" by Herbert E. Meyer (August 26, 2009)

FOX NEWS.com: "CHENEY, REPUBLICANS BLAST INTERROGATION PROBE" (SNIPPET: "Former Vice President Dick Cheney refuted Holder's decision, saying it "serves as a reminder, if any were needed, of why so many Americans have doubts about this administration's ability to be responsible for our nation's security." Cheney told The Weekly Standard, a conservative journal, "The activities of the CIA in carrying out the policies of the Bush Administration were directly responsible for defeating all efforts by Al Qaeda to launch further mass casualty attacks against the United States. The people involved deserve our gratitude. They do not deserve to be the targets of political investigations or prosecutions."")(August 25, 2009)

WHITEHOUSE.gov: "STATEMENT FROM THE PRESS SECRETARY ON THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE INQUIRY" (August 24, 2009)

DNI.gov - Press Release - Director of National Intelligence: "The following message by Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair was sent to employees of the United States Intelligence Community:" (August 24, 2009)

WEEKLY STANDARD.com: "CHENEY STATEMENT ON CIA DOCUMENTS/INVESTIGATION" (SNIPPET: "The documents released Monday clearly demonstrate that the individuals subjected to Enhanced Interrogation Techniques provided the bulk of intelligence we gained about al Qaeda. This intelligence saved lives and prevented terrorist attacks.") -Posted by Stephen F. Hayes (August 24, 2009, 10:06 pm)

IBD EDITORIALS.com: "THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT'S WAR ON HEROES" by Investor's Business Daily (SNIPPET: "National Security: Appointing a prosecutor to harass CIA interrogators exposes this administration's priorities: The global war on terror takes a back seat to terrorizing some of America's most selfless warriors") (Posted August 24, 2009, 4:20 pm PT)

FOX NEWS.com - Opinion: Washington - "CIA TRIALS WOULD BE A DANGEROUS MISTAKE" by KT McFarland (SNIPPET: "If we do to the intelligence community today what we did to it thirty years ago we risk compromising human intelligence gathering once again, and being blind, once again, to the next terrorist attack.") (August 24, 2009)

US DOJ.gov/ag: "STATEMENT OF ATTORNEY GENERAL ERIC HOLDER REGARDING A PRELIMINARY REVIEW INTO THE INTERROGATION OF CERTAIN DETAINEES" (August 24, 2009)

CIA.gov: "STATEMENT TO EMPLOYEES BY DIRECTOR OF THE CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY LEON E. PANETTA ON RELEASE OF MATERIAL ON PAST DETENTION PRACTICES" (August 24, 2009)

WASHINGTON POST.com: "DETAINEES SHOWN CIA OFFICERS' PHOTOS Justice Dept. Looking Into Whether Attorneys Broke Law at Guantanamo" by Peter Fenn (August 21, 2009)

IBD EDITORIALS.com: "PICTURING THE ENEMY" by Investor's Business Daily (Posted August 21, 2009, 4:20 pm PT)

Link

POWERLINE BLOG.org: "DID TERRORIST DEFENSE LAWYERS 'OUT' COVERT CIA PERSONNEL TO THEIR TERRORIST CLIENTS" -Posted by Paul (August 21, 2009, 11:55 am)

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Frankly I expect more anger from the American people over this than we’ve seen regarding health care being taken over by Obama.

Obama is playing with fire and I think is going to get seriously burnt as a result.

Politically it’s not a smart move so what is the reason for it? The pessimist in me thinks this is another way to consolidate power under the WH.

Lifers at the CIA will be pledging their personal loyalty to Obama hoping they don’t get scooped up in the dragnet.

It’s a move used by many dictators to increase their power. Saddam Hussein was a master of this tactic.

Every day that Obama’s been on vacation another bombshell has come out. All the while he asks for “privacy”.

If this kind of thing doesn’t put a shiver up your spine...

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