Free Republic

Staten Island repo man Jose Rodriguez checks up on his tow truck several times a day. It's been sitting idle on Richmond Terrace for nearly two weeks, immobilized after cops put an orange boot on it when he tried to repossess an NYPD detective's car. Not having the truck, Rodriguez says, has cost him thousands of dollars in earnings. "I gotta get the truck out there. I have to get these cars for the banks," he says. The NYPD could not explain to NY1 why Rodriguez has not been allowed to reclaim his vehicle.The repo man says it's another example...

“We did call her Bloody Gina. Gina was always very quick and very willing to use force. Gina and people like Gina did it, I think, because they enjoyed doing it. They tortured just for the sake of torture, not for the sake of gathering information.”-John Kirakou I would take anything John Kirakou says with a grain from the salt pit.  I question his credibility. What does anyone really know about Gina Haspel, President Trump's nominee to be the next director of the CIA? Not a heck of a lot. So far what we have is media and ideology-driven hysteria:...

WASHINGTON – Countering resistance to President Donald Trump's pick for CIA director, the spy agency gave lawmakers a declassified memo Friday showing she was cleared years ago of wrongdoing in the destruction of videotapes showing terror suspects being waterboarded after 9/11. Gina Haspel is facing opposition from some Democrats and rights groups critical of her activities related to the shredding of 92 videotapes in 2005 and her overall role in the CIA's harsh interrogation program, which critics have portrayed as one of the shadiest chapters in the agency's history. Friday's release, however, did not satisfy opponents who want to know...

The Senate Intelligence Committee’s report on coercive tactics betrays intelligence officials and will erode their trust in future presidential administrations, a former CIA official who oversaw the agency’s enhanced interrogation program said Sunday. Jose Rodriguez, who headed the agency’s counterterrorism section and its clandestine service, said that the Senate report “throws the CIA under this bus.” He predicted that intelligence officials would be undercut by “second-guessing” from the White House and Congress and warned that allied nations that have cooperated with U.S. intelligence in the past might reassess their aid. …

It is an odd experience to enter a darkened room and, for more than two and a half hours, watch someone tell a story that you experienced intimately in your own life. But that is what happened recently as I sat in a movie theater near Times Square and watched “Zero Dark Thirty,” the new Hollywood blockbuster about the hunt for Osama bin Laden. When I was head of the CIA’s Counterterrorism Center from 2002 to 2004 and then director of the National Clandestine Service until late 2007, the campaign against al-Qaeda was my life and obsession. I must say,...

This doesn't quite qualify as breaking news for those who tracked the extraordinary labyrinth of intelligence that emerged in the days following the 2011 Abbottabad raid, but the subject of US interrogation policy is again generating controversy in advance of the release of 'Zero Dark Thirty,' a film that dramatizes the bin Laden mission.  Writing in today's Washington Post, a former top CIA counter-terrorism officer sets the record straight on what measures were, and were not, employed to help bring down the world's most infamous terrorist.  Jose Rodriguez -- who made headlines last year when his book exposed Nancy Pelosi's...

<p>As we mark the anniversary of Osama bin Laden's death, President Obama deserves credit for making the right choice on taking out Public Enemy No. 1.</p> <p>But his administration never would have had the opportunity to do the right thing had it not been for some extraordinary work during the George W. Bush administration. Much of that work has been denigrated by Obama as unproductive and contrary to American principles.</p>

The Path To bin Laden’s Death Didn’t Start With Obama Text Size PrintE-mailReprints By Jose A. Rodriguez Jr., April 30 Jose A. Rodriguez Jr. is a 31-year veteran of the CIA and the author of “Hard Measures: How Aggressive CIA Actions After 9/11 Saved American Lives.” As we mark the anniversary of Osama bin Laden’s death, President Obama deserves credit for making the right choice on taking out Public Enemy No. 1. But his administration never would have had the opportunity to do the right thing had it not been for some extraordinary work during the George W. Bush administration....

For unknown reasons, the judge in the civil lawsuit against Casey Anthony recused himself from the case on Friday. Judge Jose Rodriguez made the announcement shortly after the 8 a.m. hearing began, reports CBS affiliate WKMG. Zenaida Gonzalez, who shares the same name as a fictitious babysitter whom Casey Anthony claimed kidnapped her daughter Caylee in 2008, is suing Anthony for defamation. The move came after Anthony's attorney called for a sidebar, where attorneys from both sides talked with the judge for about 15 minutes. Gonzalez's attorney, John Morgan, said he did not request the recusal, WKMG reports. Morgan was...

Officer left names of lawyers off note By Matt Apuzzo Associated Press / July 26, 2010, Monday WASHINGTON — When the CIA sent word in 2005 to destroy scores of videos showing waterboarding and other harsh interrogation tactics, there was an unusual omission in the carefully worded memo: the names of two agency lawyers. [...] But when the CIA’s top clandestine officer, Jose Rodriguez, told a colleague at the agency’s secret prison in Thailand to destroy interrogation videos, he left the lawyers off the note. [rest of article deleted for copyright reasons]

WASHINGTON - Attorneys for Jose Rodriguez told Congress the former CIA official won't testify about the destruction of CIA videotapes without a promise of immunity, two people close to the tapes inquiry said Wednesday. Rodriguez, the former head of the CIA's National Clandestine Service, ordered that the tapes, which show harsh CIA interrogation of two al-Qaida suspects, be destroyed in 2005. Rodriguez is scheduled to testify before the House Intelligence Committee on Jan. 16. Defense attorney Robert Bennett told lawmakers, however, that he would not let Rodriguez testify because of the criminal investigation into the case. Without a promise of...

ATHENS, Greece (AP) - The CIA's counterterrorism chief met Tuesday with Olympic organizers, part of U.S. efforts to increase security cooperation in the final months before the games. Plans to safeguard the Aug. 13-29 games have taken an urgent tone after the bombings in Spain earlier this month and fears of Mideast violence following Israel's killing of Sheik Ahmed Yassin, the spiritual leader of the militant group Hamas. The director of the CIA's Counterterrorist Center, Jose Rodriguez, made no comment after talks at the Olympic organizing committee's headquarters. The meeting coincided with the end of a two-week Olympic security exercise...

Names of the four US Marines who died in yesterday's helicopter crash: Maj. Jay Thomas Aubin, 36, of Waterville, Maine Capt. Ryan Anthony Beaupre, 30, of Bloomington, Ill. Cpl. Brian Matthew Kennedy, 25, of Houston, Texas Staff Sgt. Kendall Damon Watersbey, 29, of Baltimore, Md. The Pentagon has just released the names of two more US Marines who were killed in Iraq. I'll post as soon as I find that.