Posted on 09/10/2011 12:22:46 PM PDT by SmithL
President Obama upset a lot of supporters soon after taking office when he declared that it was time to look forward, not backward, so there would be no investigation of Bush administration officials who allegedly approved illegal wiretapping, kidnapping and torture. Now a former member of Obama's transition team has told a Bay Area audience that one reason for the decision was concern that a wide-ranging probe could infuriate leaders of the military and the CIA.
Christopher Edley, now the law school dean at UC Berkeley, was speaking at a panel at the school Sept. 2 when someone brought up the subject of criminal prosecutions. According to an audience member, whose account was later confirmed by Edley, the dean said high-level aides at a pre-inauguration meeting in January 2009 gave two reasons Obama wasn't going in that direction: that Republicans would respond by blocking his legislative agenda (something that's pretty much happened anyway), and, more provocatively, that Obama might have faced a "revolt" by leaders of the military, the National Security Administration and the CIA.
In a series of clarifying statements, Edley confirmed he'd used the word "revolt" but said he obviously hadn't meant it literally. "I'm quite sure that every law student in the audience knew that when I said 'revolt' I was talking about bureaucratic obstreperousness, being hyperbolic," he said. "The point was that some advisers thought, and I credit their expertise, that some in the intelligence and military communities would react to aggressive investigations and prosecutions with a mixture of demoralizing resentment and anger, with possible consequences for their mission."
Some in the same communities might also have been a bit nervous about possible scrutiny of their own roles in waterboarding suspected terrorists or wiretapping without a warrant. If so, they needn't have worried, ...
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Obama only organizes the revolts that place the world in chaos and confusion in far away places. Once the foodstamp money and section eight vouchers run out though,,,,,,,,,,Watch out!
Bull-ony. He had a democrat house and senate. He got everything he wanted.
That's not really a great argument for the strength of your leadership, no matter how you feel about the issue.
Perhaps he was afraid of what the CIA could reveal about him.
CIA’s fault. /s
BTW that is the 2012 democrat campaign in a nut shell - Obama was not able to do ANYTHING because the republicans wanted the country to fail.
Makes sense to me.
Another way to look at the situation is that Obama could find no common ground with Republicans because he was unwilling to compromise his ridged Leftist ideology and there for was unwilling to make necessary compromises to achieve some of his goals.
There are two intelligence agencies, the NSA and the CIA. The CIA has always been a tool of the socialists/democrats as could be seen when they were releasing embarrassing stuff on Bush and the war to the NY times. They are for the most part very partisan and pretty much do what they want (probably have dirt on just about every politician out there). The NSA is the opposite, very conservative and republican but also very much not into trying to influence politics. If you go back to the history of both organizations you’ll see why they have such very different cultures. In any case, the O probably didn’t want to hurt an organization that is really in the tank for him and will do his biding if any dirty tricks are required in order to keep him in office.
My original point was that he DID get a lot of his agenda through congress and he caused even more damage through his pure executive power.
But they are trying to plant the meme that he has been thwarted at ever turn.
SF Gate, Berkley, law school. I’ve read enough.
Yes I understood that and it is my view as well.
My point was why should a guy that was not able to accomplish his goals (your comment about his 2012 Democrat campaign) be given another chance regardless of the reasons he is a failure, especially one who’s failures are so monumental and disastrous for the country.
But they are trying to plant the meme that he has been thwarted at ever turn.
If Obama is being blocked in his agenda by the Republicans it is the exact reason that Obama should not be given a second term. He should not even be given a second nomination by the Democrats if that is true.
A good president can get most of his agenda through even a hostile congress. Reagan had a very oppositional congress and managed quite well in pursuing his agenda.
Funny how an opinion turns when you are in the chair.
My thoughts exactly. I think it was Gen Paul Vallely who said that CIA sources had confirmed that he has no Hawaii birth certificate...
Maybe if they blew the whistle on Obama as a criminal enemy combatant they could get off light for their own misprision of felony, now that Obama has claimed 2 different forged birth certificates.
Unless Obama has naturalized, he would be a foreign enemy and thus the CIA would be EXACTLY the group responsible to confront him as a secret foreign enemy.
Ever wonder why the CIA remains silent? The MOSSAD, surely knows the history of this man, yet they remain silent as he slowly dismantles Isreal’s defense, and brings the Middle East to a boiling point? For that matter why did GW leave Iran intact when he surely knew that his replacement would do?
These things can not be brought into rationality apart from a plan. The question we must decide is Whose plan?
Too bad. I'd almost look forward to a CIA coup about now. Something along the lines of a Turkish coup, just enough to get a radical Islamist government under control.
Right, the CIA is "obstreperous," but not Holder when we want to know about the DOJ's role in Fast and Furious.
That would explain this article rather neatly.
I think you hit the nail on the head. The CIA would certainly be ugly to cross. Eric Holder was going to try anyway though. Shows his intelligence.
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