Posted on 08/24/2009 1:45:07 PM PDT by Cindy
Blog:
http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/08/what_the_presidents_attack_on.html
August 26, 2009
“What the President’s Attack on the CIA Really Means”
By Herbert E. Meyer
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.
A Bone to his Base
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.”
http://osint.internet-haganah.com/archives/001652.html
August 26, 2009
“THREATS ARE FOR AMATEURS
Just do it.”
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/08/26/cia-inspector-cheney-pressured/
“CIA Inspector: Cheney Never Pressured Me”
SNIPPET: “Former Vice President Dick Cheney never attempted to influence or intimidate the CIA’s inspectors in order to get the findings he wanted on the CIA’s review of enhanced interrogation techniques, the agency’s inspector general has told FOX News.”
SNIPPET: “In a rare response for a request to comment, CIA IG John Helgerson confirmed Tuesday that he met personally with Cheney during the course of the investigation, and despite allegations on Web blogs, the former vice president made no effort to influence his work.
“The VP (whom I had long known reasonably well, as, in a non-IG capacity, I used to brief the House Intelligence Committee on a weekly basis when he was an active Member) received me graciously and asked a number of good and appropriate questions. Despite what you may have read elsewhere, he did not attempt in any way whatsoever to intimidate me or influence what we were finding, concluding and recommending,” Helgerson wrote in an e-mail to FOX News.”
Hmmm....I made an educated guess to Congressman King’s question in less than .5 seconds.
#
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/027359.php
August 26, 2009
“Congressman Peter King on Obama Administration: “You wonder which side they’re on””
SNIPPET: “King: “You’re talking about threatening to kill a guy, threatening to attack his family, threatening to use an electric drill on him — but never doing it. You have that on the one hand — and on the other you have the [interrogator’s] attempt to prevent thousands of Americans from being killed” by Islamic jihadists.
Another, and particularly apt, Which-Side-Is-Obama-On Update: “King on Holder: ‘You wonder which side they’re on,’” by Ben Smith at Politico, August 25 (thanks to Benedict):
A “furious” Rep. Peter King, the hawkish, maverick Long Island Republican, blasted a “disgraceful” Eric Holder for opening an investigation of CIA interrogators and chided his own party for what he described as a weak response to the move in an interview just now with POLITICO.
“It’s bulls***. It’s disgraceful. You wonder which side they’re on,” he said of the attorney general’s move, which he described as a “declaration of war against the CIA, and against common sense.”
“It’s a total breach of faith, and either the president is intentionally caving to the left wing of his party or he’s lost control of his administration,” said King, the ranking Republican on the House Committee on Homeland Security and a member of the House Select Committee on Intelligence.”
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/016/881vlnwr.asp
“Eric Holder’s Anti-CIA Witch Hunt
Second-guessing career prosecutors for political gain.”
by Jennifer Rubin
09/07/2009, Volume 014, Issue 47
SNIPPET: “Holder pronounced himself obligated to “follow the facts and the law.” One critical fact, however, he entirely ignored: Professional prosecutors had already examined the allegations of CIA misconduct, conducted an inquiry, and made a determination—not to prosecute. (One contractor outside the interrogation program was prosecuted for assault.) Holder never mentioned that a task force (informally dubbed the “Detainee Abuse Task Force”) in the Eastern District of Virginia has already considered all of the applicable information, including the
CIA inspector general’s 2004 report made public last week. Following standard procedure, the task force drafted “declination memos” setting forth the rationale for not proceeding with prosecutions.
Those reasons were summed up in a letter from Principal Assistant Deputy Attorney General Brian Benczkowski to Senator Richard Durbin dated February 7, 2008. In each case, Benczkowski wrote, the decision rested on “one or more of the following reasons: insufficient evidence of criminal conduct, insufficient evidence of the subject’s involvement, insufficient evidence of criminal intent, and low probability of conviction.””
SNIPPET - quote:
Copyright 2009 Fox News Network, LLC.
Fox News Network
SHOW: FOX NEWS SUNDAY 9:00 AM EST
August 30, 2009 Sunday
083001cb.250
NEWS; Domestic
5438 words
Interview With Dick Cheney
Chris Wallace
Dick Cheney
http://www.frontpagemag.com/readArticle.aspx?ARTID=36122
“Obama Goes After CIA”
By: Dick Morris
FrontPageMagazine.com | Monday, August 31, 2009
SNIPPET: “So he has decided to throw a few CIA interrogators to the wolves.
The report that Holder released to accompany his decision to name a special prosecutor itself showed the trivial nature of the charges against these patriotic anti-terror investigators. Among the allegations prominently featured in the report is that the mastermind of the attack on the USS Cole was scrubbed with a rough brush in the bath so as to cause him pain.
Our heartless interrogators also threatened that they could bring in his family and parents for questioning. How do these “tortures” compare with the deaths of more than a dozen American sailors roasted to death in flames or drowned in the sea?
The CIA report, also released on Monday, demonstrates, within the limits that secrecy allows, how these very interrogations thwarted serious terrorist plots against our country.”
Opinion-Commentary Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDej-faInUQ
“Obama goes after the CIA his numbers plummet”
(Added August 31, 2009)
Quote:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2338379/posts
Former CIA Expert : Obama Undermining War on Terror
News Max ^ | SEPTEMBER 12, 2009 | Jim Meyers
Posted on September 12, 2009 7:36:22 PM PDT by RobinMasters
Former CIA counterterrorism expert Kent Clizbe tells Newsmax it’s “indisputable” that the Obama administration’s actions regarding intelligence agents have undermined the global war on terror.
Clizbe was a member of the CIA’s Directorate of Operations, and returned to the CIA after 9/11 to serve in multiple counterterrorism deployments. He recently wrote an opinion piece for Newsmax headlined “Obama and Holder ‘At War’ With Agency.”
Newsmax.TV’s Ashley Martella noted that President Barack Obama has allowed Attorney General Eric Holder to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate CIA personnel involved in the interrogation of terrorist detainees, and has taken future interrogations away from the CIA and turned them over to the FBI. He asked Clizbe how much damage Obama and Holder are doing to America’s intelligence community.
“It’s hard to quantify, but I almost shudder to think that the only way we’re really going to know how much damage they are doing will be when something happens,” said Clizbe.
If investigators begin interrogating or prosecuting CIA officers “you’re going to have officers who should be working on counterterrorism operations sitting down with their lawyers and spending weeks and months coming up with their defense against these charges,” he added.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsmax.com ...
Thank you special emailer for a link to this letter:
Note: The following text is a quote:
1
September 18, 2009
The President
The White House
Washington, D.C.
Dear Mr. President:
We have served as Directors of Central Intelligence or Directors of the CIA for
Presidents reaching back over 35 years. We respectfully urge you to exercise your
authority to reverse Attorney General Holder’s August 24 decision to re-open the
criminal investigation of CIA interrogations that took place following the attacks of
September 11.
Our reasons for making this recommendation are as follows.
The post-September 11 interrogations for which the Attorney General is opening
an inquiry were investigated four years ago by career prosecutors. The CIA, at its own
initiative, forwarded fewer than 20 instances where Agency officers appeared to have
acted beyond their existing legal authorities. Career prosecutors under the supervision
of the US Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia determined that one prosecution
(of a CIA contractor) was warranted. A conviction was later obtained. They determined
that prosecutions were not warranted in the other cases. In a number of these cases
the CIA subsequently took administrative disciplinary steps against the individuals
involved. Attorney General Holder’s decision to re-open the criminal investigation
creates an atmosphere of continuous jeopardy for those whose cases the Department
of Justice had previously declined to prosecute. Moreover, there is no reason to expect
that the re-opened criminal investigation will remain narrowly focused.
If criminal investigations closed by career prosecutors during one administration
can so easily be reopened at the direction of political appointees in the next,
declinations of prosecution will be rendered meaningless. 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 must be free, as the Chairman of the Senate Homeland Security
Committee, Senator Lieberman, has put it: “to do their dangerous and critical jobs
without worrying that years from now a future Attorney General will authorize a
criminal investigation of them for behavior that a previous Attorney General concluded
was authorized and legal.” Similar deference needs to be shown to fact-based decisions
made by career prosecutors years ago.
Not only will some members of the intelligence community be subjected to
costly financial and other burdens from what amounts to endless criminal
investigations, but this approach will seriously damage the willingness of many other
2
intelligence officers to take risks to protect the country. In our judgment such risk-
taking is vital to success in the long and difficult fight against the terrorists who continue
to threaten us.
Success in intelligence often depends on surprise and deception and on creating
uncertainty in the mind of an enemy. As President you have the authority to make
decisions restricting substantive interrogation or any other intelligence collection
method, based on legal analyses and policy recommendations. But, the administration
must be mindful that public disclosure about past intelligence operations can only help
Al Qaeda elude US intelligence and plan future operations. Disclosures about CIA
collection operations have and will continue to make it harder for intelligence officers to
maintain the momentum of operations that have saved lives and helped protect
America from further attacks.
Finally, another certain result of these reopened investigations is the serious
damage done to our intelligence community’s ability to obtain the cooperation of
foreign intelligence agencies. Foreign services are already greatly concerned about the
United States’ inability to maintain any secrets. They rightly fear that, through these
additional investigations and the court proceedings that could follow, terrorists may
learn how other countries came to our assistance in a time of peril. The United States
promised these foreign countries that their cooperation would never be disclosed. As a
result of the zeal on the part of some to uncover every action taken in the post-9/11
period, many countries may decide that they can no longer safely share intelligence or
cooperate with us on future counter-terrorist operations. They simply cannot rely on
our promises of secrecy.
We support your stated commitment, Mr. President, to look to the future
regarding these important issues. In our judgment the only way that is possible is if the
criminal investigation of these interrogations that Attorney General Holder has re-
opened is now re-closed.
Sincerely,
Michael Hayden
Porter Goss
George Tenet
John Deutch
R. James Woolsey
William Webster
James R. Schlesinger
Blog:
http://mypetjawa.mu.nu/archives/198900.php
September 20, 2009
“Obama: No Plans to Ask Justice to Drop CIA Interrogation Probe
To be expected.....the left’s War on US Intelligence goes on.”
SNIPPET: “When we get hit...........and we will... it will be because of the holy war the left in this country has declared on the men and women who are there trying to protect all of us.”
By Newbie at September 20, 2009 02:17 PM
###
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/09/20/obama-plans-ask-justice-drop-cia-interrogation-probe/
“Obama: No Plans to Ask Justice to Drop CIA Interrogation Probe”
SNIPPET: “Seven former CIA directors have asked the president to put an end to the Justice Department’s probe of CIA interrogations under the Bush administration.”
AP
Sunday, September 20, 2009
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/bloggers/2344571/posts
“My Op-ed in The Australian”
ALL THINGS COUNTERTERRORISM ^ | September 16, 2009, 3:56 am at 3:56 am | Leah Farrall, Australia
Posted on September 20, 2009 11:28:47 PM PDT by Cindy
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2425006/posts
“Editorial: Obama’s havoc to the intel system - President establishes intelligence death panels”
The Washington Times ^ | January 11, 2010 | The Editors
Posted on January 9, 2010 9:05:04 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
SNIPPET: “President Obama blamed “the system” for failing to stop al Qaeda’s Christmas Day bombing plot. The weakness with that excuse is that Mr. Obama fails to connect the dots between the systemic failure and his administration’s year-long record of destroying the morale of the intelligence community.
The intelligence process works in large part because of trust. A reliable sense of confidence must exist between superiors and subordinates, agents and sources, and the intelligence community and policy makers. Without trust, people will not take the risks needed to do their jobs successfully.
Mr. Obama has destroyed this sense of trust.”
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