Posted on 05/01/2009 2:54:40 AM PDT by STARWISE
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has had a bad week. Caught between her own involvement in the CIA interrogations now condemned as torture and her party’s inquisitions, Pelosi floundered.
Her fear and frustration have apparently given way to panic after word reached her of the CIA’s reaction to the damage she, President Obama and other Democrats have done to the spy agency in the last three months.
Pelosi -- as I wrote earlier in the week -- was one of the few members of Congress briefed in detail on the harsh interrogation methods and who could have stopped them but didn’t.
Pelosi first said that she wasn’t briefed about waterboarding. Then she sort of admitted she had, inserting that the CIA only said that they might do it, not that they were going to do it. Which could have been plagiarized from John Kerry’s 2004 circular explanation of his vote for the war in Iraq.
As badly as that hurt Pelosi, what apparently pushed her into a panic was the feedback she and other Democrats are getting from the CIA.
Pelosi learned that her actions, and those of President Obama and other Democrats over the past ninety days have so damaged CIA morale that the agency’s ability to function could be in danger.
As a result, two emergency closed-door meetings were called this week on Capitol Hill.
The first meeting, on Tuesday evening, was attended by Pelosi, Intelligence Committee Chairman Silvestre Reyes (D-Tx) and others. The following night, Pelosi and some or all of the other attendees met with CIA Director Leon Panetta, also behind closed doors.
No Republicans were invited to either meeting which means the Democrats were assessing the damage and deciding how to maneuver their way out from under the responsibility for it.
Spin and strategy.
Morale among in the spy agency is so low because of the relentless assault on the CIA in President Obama’s first 100 days. The first blow to the CIA was his decision to close the terrorist detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba without any plan on what to do with the 240 dangerous detainees housed there.
Many CIA employees believe these people to be killers, responsible for the deaths of CIA operatives overseas. Many in the CIA apparently see this as a betrayal.
The Obama administration plan to set some of these people loose in the US was despite CIA objections.
And then came the president’s decision to release the so-called “torture memos” and the disavowal of CIA interrogation methods.
The president’s on-again, off-again promise to not prosecute CIA operatives who had conducted the harsher interrogations has left many in the CIA uncertain of his real intentions.
Leaving up to the Attorney General whether to prosecute the Bush-era lawyers who wrote the “torture memos” has added to the already great doubt about the safety and security of CIA interrogators’ jobs, and more.
By the end of the meeting Wednesday, Pelosi, Reyes and Panetta apparently determined that damage control had to begin immediately.
Later Wednesday evening, Reyes sent an unprecedented letter to CIA director Panetta making a sort of apology to the CIA.
Reyes’ cover letter asks Panetta to “…disseminate it to the CIA workforce as soon as possible.” (At this writing, the letter has not yet been distributed.)
The letter to CIA employees is a very odd mixture of praise for the CIA and CYA for Reyes.
Reyes begins, “In recent days, as the public debate regarding CIA’s interrogation practices has raged, you have been very much in my thoughts,” expressing his “…deep gratitude for the work you do each day.”
But then Reyes retreats into lawyer-isms: “First and foremost, I wholeheartedly support the President’s decision that no CIA officer or contractor will be prosecuted for authorized actions they took in the context of interrogations.” In other words, if some young prosecutor or Capitol Hill staffer decides you did something unauthorized, you’re sunk.
And then comes the CYA for Reyes: “One important lesson to me from the CIA’s interrogation operations involves congressional oversight. I’m going to examine closely ways in which we can change the law to make our own oversight of the CIA more meaningful; I want to move from mere notification to real discussion.”
The fact that “mere notification” of the interrogation methods was comprised of a virtual tour of them matters not at all: Reyes’ letter says Congress should be held innocent of any wrongdoing. If CIA morale was bad before the letter, it will be vastly worse after it.
Worst of all is the next sentence:
“Good oversight can lead to partnership, and that’s what I am looking to bring about.” If there’s anything that could possibly make the CIA even less effective than it was before 9-11, that’s it. The nation’s security requires that the CIA be strengthened and more effective, not bogged down with congressional tourism.
And, by the way, what Reyes proposes is unconstitutional because it violates the separation of powers doctrine. Not that Reyes would care. But the prospect of more Congressional involvement is just another morale killer.
Obama’s first 100 days did enormous damage to our entire intelligence community. It’s all too clear that Speaker Pelosi will do much more if she believes it will help her out of the corner she’s in. Panicked people make mistakes.
Pelosi has made a big one in propelling the inquisition into the CIA interrogations She will make more, and the damage to our intelligence gathering ability may be fatal to many Americans.
It was an answer to STARWISE about OBAMA’s “COUP”.
I ask again the question about OBAMA’s legitimacy as POTUS
DBM = Drive By Media as Rush says. They do a hit and run report, even if it is untrue.
With one of the Justices retiring now, I have a feeling we are headed down the road to an America not many people will recognize in 10 years. With all the taxcheats Hussein put in his cabinet, no one will ever be able to question anything he does from here on out. I have a feeling CWII is on the way.
I’m telling you Pelosi sleep with eyes open because she used so much botox they will not close.
I heard headlines that botox was bad for health but never heard anymore about it. If that is case there will be lots in Congress with bad health. Did anyone else hear this? If so what was the health problem!
The ...”people” running this governmnet are so hopelessly clueless that it is simply astounding.
Just as much as the military, the Men and Women of the CIA risk their lives for this country, and to have that country stab them in the back....
The Democrats that are leading the country suck.
W/ regards to CWII....that's a real possibility that is growing.
Arrowhead, just way too much 'coincidental' stuff has happened since March '08. The coordination with the LSM, the Supreme Court, the Congress, etc., etc........still no visual validation of the copy of the supposed vault copy of the Hawaiian birth certificate. 0 was pimped into place on purpose as well as RINO McLame being the opponent.
Still no effective physical southern border fence / wall. The area on the Indian reservation in AZ is still wide open not to mention significant drive across / walk across areas in NM too.
But fortunately she’s got a compliant media providing diversionary cover......Mexiflu, the next Black Plague they’d have us believe.
What’s a TGO?
One of my friend’s son is training in the military. She tells me lots of the training centers on controlling civil unrest.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the CIA, after getting information that there may be another major attack, dawdles around in investigating it further, (1) for fear of doing something that may only result in them being brought up on made up charges by this administration down the road, and (2) to send a message to this administration such as, you guys think you can protect the country better with your warm and fuzzy attitudes, then be my guest.
It's a who - Mark Levin, a.k.a. The Great One.
I do agree with you. Certain things must not be espoused on public forums. There is no such thing as anominity on the internet now-a-days.
Thanks.
Soros is the puppet master. There will be an inquisition, you can bet on it.
Well, the media was / is in the tank for Hussein to likes that have never been seen before. They wanted to make sure they are still revelant with the Internet and bloggers. I quit my paper subscription several years ago. My neighbor still gets the Austin paper, and said it has actually gotten more conservative. I still won’t buy that fishwrap.
During the months leading up to the election last year, the media held back many things about Hussein that should have been publized. I asked one of my moderate / liberal coworkers about several things just after the elections.
Who said that he “Had campaigned in 57 states”
Who said “I can see Russia from my house”
Who said “I can’t hear myself”
and on and on.
She thought McCain made the comment about the 57 states.
She said Gov Palin said she could see Russia from her house.
She never heard the part where Hussein got off teleprompter.
I finally asked her where she gets her news. CNN, CBS, etc. That is when I told her CNN stands for Communist or Clinton News Network. I also reminded her about dan rather [not tell the truth] being forced to retire early for the fake documents, and finally told her people like her were too stupid to vote. She didn’t talk to me for several months.
The other day I asked her what she thought about the AF1 flyover of NYC. She is now starting to question her news sources, because it was news to her.
This might be the card Obama is holding over the CIA’s head - “leave my birth certificate alone or I’ll out every dang operative’s name to my pets, the MSM.”
You mean FDR started the OSS, which was the forerunner of the CIA. CIA was a post war creation of The National Security Act of 1947.
That gives you an idea of the average intelligence of the House, since they elected her.
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Notice I did not say she was the dumbest member of the House. There are so many to pick from that make Nancy look like a Rhodes Scholar.
That gives you an idea of the average intelligence of the House, since they elected her.
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Notice I did not say she was the dumbest member of the House. There are so many to pick from that make Nancy look like a Rhodes Scholar.
Yes he has, but not often enough. I don't like it when TGO is off, but more of Jed Babbin when he is, would go a loooong way.
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