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Groups > DONE with Dubya (Formerly Down with Dubya) > Discussions > Topic: CIA, (intelligence agencies) FBI, NSA, FISA, etc. (2)
Topic: CIA, (intelligence agencies) FBI, NSA, FISA, etc. (2)

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Yvonne W.	October 31, 2009 3:26 PM Jason Leopold \| Cheney Could Not Recall Key Events About His Role in CIA Leak Jason Leopold, Truthout: "A month before Valerie Plame Wilson's covert status as a CIA operative was revealed, Vice President Dick Cheney told his then-chief of staff, I. Lewis 'Scooter' Libby, and his press secretary, Cathie Martin, that Plame Wilson worked at the CIA. But according to a 28-page summary of Cheney’s May 8, 2004 interview with the special prosecutor probing the leak, Cheney did not recall having that conversation." Read the Article [ send green star]
Blue B.	September 18, 2009 12:20 PM UNPRECEDENTED: Seven former CIA directors want Obama to drop torture probe [ send green star]
Blue B.	September 01, 2009 4:02 PM *Gonzales defends* limited CIA torture probe Ex-CIA director: Assassination program was 'valuable' CIA refuses to turn over torture docs** [ send green star]
Blue B.	August 12, 2009 6:35 PM *DOCS REAP MILLIONS* SELLING TORTURE 'SERVICES' TO CIA** [ send green star]
Blue B.	August 12, 2009 10:58 AM Countdown: Prosecuting CIA Torture By Heather Wednesday Aug 12, 2009 8:00am DOWNLOADS: (308) PLAYS: (948) Keith talks to Harper's Scott Horton about the reports that Attorney General Eric Holder is about to appoint a Special Prosecutor to investigate the CIA for torturing prisoners. Horton has more at Harpers: Here’s another question. According to the Los Angeles Times, “Officials said it wasn’t clear that any CIA interrogators were ever informed of the limits laid out in the Justice Department memo. ‘A number of people could say honestly, correctly, “I didn’t know what was in it,”‘ said a former senior U.S. intelligence official.” How would that affect the work of a special prosecutor? The Times piece builds off accounts furnished by “former senior Justice officials,” close to the torture issue, with apparent knowledge of “investigations.” In all likelihood, we’re talking about Bush Administration political appointees apprehensive about what a special prosecutor might uncover. I would strongly discount the claims that the investigations will never go anywhere because of a lack of witnesses and evidence. That conclusion can’t be justified until a serious investigation has actually been conducted—and it’s clear that the Bush Justice Department did not conduct a serious investigation because they were concerned about where it might lead. Continue reading.... Tags: CIA, Countdown with Keith Olbermann, Eric Holder, Scott Horton, Special Prosecutor, Torture [ send green star]
Blue B.	July 23, 2009 8:04 PM Congressional Investigations of CIA Move Ahead, Republicans Flipflop to Score Political Points Frank Naif, 07.23.2009 Intelligence And US Army Veteran Is the House Intelligence Committee's investigation the beginning of a new round of far-reaching Congressional inquiries into intelligence activities? Read Post \| Comments [ send green star]
Blue B.	July 20, 2009 3:40 PM Judge Rules CIA Committed Fraud In Court Quick Read \| Comments (66) [ send green star]
Blue B.	July 20, 2009 12:38 PM Panetta "Blindsided" By Probe Of Secret CIA Program Feingold Hits Back At CIA Quick Read \| Comments (83) \| Eric Holder [ send green star]
Blue B.	July 17, 2009 10:48 PM HOUSE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE LAUNCHES PROBE.... Given what we've learned this week, this seems like the right call. The chairman of the House Intelligence Committee says his panel will investigate whether the CIA broke the law by not telling Congress earlier about a secret program to deploy hit teams to kill individual al-Qaida members. CIA Director Leon Panetta told the committee about the program on June 24, a day after he first learned of the program and canceled it himself. Law requires that the House and Senate intelligence committees be kept informed of significant intelligence activities or anticipated activities. Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-Tex., announced the investigation in a statement Friday. According to a press release issued by the committee, the investigation "will focus on the core issues of how the congressional intelligence committees and Congress are kept fully and currently informed. To this end, the investigation will examine several issues, including the program discussed during Director Panetta's June 24th notification and whether there was any official decision or direction to withhold information from the Committee." This week, Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair said he agreed the agency probably should have briefed lawmakers on the assassination program, but disagrees that the CIA was legally obligated to do so, calling it a "judgment call" under the circumstances. Obviously, a full investigation will determine whether that's the right assessment or not. Regardless, that the committee's leadership is moving forward with a probe, whether the administration wants one or not, signals the willingness of at least some House Dems to take Bush-era accountability seriously, regardless of the politics as it relates to the White House. Also, as Greg Sargent noted, it suggests the GOP's concern trolling didn't work: "House Dems are ignoring the insistence by some Republicans and conservatives that continuing to raise questions about the CIA's conduct is bad politically for Democrats. House GOPers have repeatedly sounded the refrain that the continued focus on the CIA by House Dems is very, very bad news for Nancy Pelosi, because it plays into GOP efforts to paint her and Democrats as weak on national security. It seems Dems are forging ahead and ignoring the GOP's well-intentioned advice." It's almost as if some Democratic leaders believe Republicans don't really have their best interests at heart. Imagine that. —Steve Benen 4:00 PM Permalink \| Comments (11) [ send green star]
Blue B.	July 15, 2009 8:25 PM Torture Memo Author Opens Up: Why We Endorsed Warrantless Wiretaps Quick Read \| Comments (50) [ send green star]
Blue B.	July 14, 2009 5:07 PM Morning notes Gosh, Rachel is actually covering The Family, the creepy religious cult that helps run Washington. (And if you keep listening, Rachel also exposes the astonishingly ugly racism of Senator Jeff Sessions (R-White Sheet), who apparently thought the KKK were OK until he found out they liked pot.) [ send green star]
Blue B.	July 14, 2009 5:03 PM Under the Ice Hmmmm? "Since the initial hullabaloo over Hersh's claim of the assassination ring, we've heard almost nothing - or have we? Just this week, CIA Director, Leon Panetta, briefed the House Intelligence Committee that on the previous day he had just shut a secret CIA program that had been in operation since 2001. None of the House Intelligence Committee members had EVER been briefed on this program. One of the members of the committee, Rep. Anna Eshoo, (D-CA), said she could not discuss what was a 'highly classified program.' She did, however, note that when Panetta told House Intelligence Committee members what had been kept secret, 'the whole committee was stunned, even Republicans.' A Republican committee member said it was something they hadn't heard before." Via Atrios I see that, "two former ranking CIA officials have told TIME that there's another equally plausible possibility: The program could have required the Agency to spy on Americans. Domestic surveillance is outside the CIA's purview - it's usually the FBI's job - and it's easy to see why Cheney would have wanted to keep it from Congress. Both officials say they were never told what was in the program, and that they're only making calculated guesses. But their theory gibes with other reports, quoting ex-CIA officials, that say the program had to do with intelligence collection, not assassinations." And that's something only certain lefty bloggers were willing to say out loud until, well, now. Hilariously, Dianne Feinstein is shocked. [ send green star]
Blue B.	July 13, 2009 7:33 PM AP: Secret CIA program involved assassinations [ send green star]
Blue B.	July 12, 2009 9:59 PM The Moral Failure of Our National Intelligence Scott Atran, 07.11.2009 Professor and author A new government report on the Bush administration's surveillance of personal commmunications reveals a familiar pattern of intellectual deafness and moral abuse of the country. Read Post \| Comments (26) [ send green star]
Blue B.	July 12, 2009 9:48 PM *Report: CIA had plan to kill Qaeda leaders* Feinstein: CIA program was 'outside the law' [ send green star]
Blue B.	July 11, 2009 10:25 PM Cheney Told CIA To Hide Program From Congress Quick Read \| Comments (732) \| Dick Cheney [ send green star]
Blue B.	July 11, 2009 8:04 PM The Washington Independent: Long-awaited warrantless surveillance report finally released Emptywheel: US government covered up war crimes committed by CIA's warlord [ send green star]
Blue B.	July 08, 2009 7:16 PM House Intel Panel Chair: CIA "Affirmatively Lied" To Us Quick Read \| Comments (326) [ send green star]
Blue B.	June 30, 2009 11:45 AM Top CIA lawyers face legal complaints related to torture [ send green star]
Blue B.	June 08, 2009 9:06 PM CIA Tells Judge: Keep Torture Documents Secret Quick Read \| Comments (307) [ send green star]
Blue B.	May 30, 2009 12:01 PM Man Who Tracked Che For The CIA Awarded $1B In Lawsuit Quick Read \| Comments (107) \| Cuba [ send green star]
Blue B.	May 29, 2009 2:06 PM U.S. Intelligence -- or the Lack Thereof -- on North Korea Keith Thomson, 05.29.2009 Reporter and author How is it -- given a skyful of satellites and legions of human spies -- that we were surprised by North Korea's missile launch? Why is it that we know so little about this country? Read Post \| Comments (46) [ send green star]
Yvonne W.	May 21, 2009 12:20 PM National Security-Related Hard Drive Missing http://www.truthout.org/052009J?n Eric Zimmermann, The Hill: "A massive amount of sensitive, national security-related information from the Clinton administration has gone missing from the national archives. The Inspector General of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) told congressional committee staffers Tuesday that a hard drive containing over a terabyte of information -- the equivalent of millions of books--went missing from the NARA facility in College Park, Md., sometime between October 2008 and March 2009." [ send green star]
Blue B.	May 19, 2009 8:04 PM Bob Graham Continues to Question Accuracy of CIA Briefing Records [ send green star]
Blue B.	May 08, 2009 1:01 PM Update: CIA can't vouch for exactly what they told Dems 19 Dems were briefed on torture, CIA claims [ send green star]
Blue B.	May 01, 2009 9:25 AM SCOTT SHANE and MARK MAZZETTI: In Adopting Harsh Tactics, No Look at Past Use The program began with Central Intelligence Agency leaders in the grip of an alluring idea: They could get tough in terrorist interrogations without risking legal trouble by adopting a set of methods used on Americans during military training. How could that be torture? In a series of high-level meetings in 2002, without a single dissent from cabinet members or lawmakers, the United States for the first time officially embraced the brutal methods of interrogation it had always condemned. This extraordinary consensus was possible, an examination by The New York Times shows, largely because no one involved — not the top two C.I.A. officials who were pushing the program, not the senior aides to President George W. Bush, not the leaders of the Senate and House Intelligence Committees — investigated the gruesome origins of the techniques they were approving with little debate. According to several former top officials involved in the discussions seven years ago, they did not know that the military training program, called SERE, for Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape, had been created decades earlier to give American pilots and soldiers a sample of the torture methods used by Communists in the Korean War, methods that had wrung false confessions from Americans. Even George J. Tenet, the C.I.A. director who insisted that the agency had thoroughly researched its proposal and pressed it on other officials, did not examine the history of the most shocking method, the near-drowning technique known as waterboarding. The top officials he briefed did not learn that waterboarding had been prosecuted by the United States in war-crimes trials after World War II and was a well-documented favorite of despotic governments since the Spanish Inquisition; one waterboard used under Pol Pot was even on display at the genocide museum in Cambodia. They did not know that some veteran trainers from the SERE program itself had warned in internal memorandums that, morality aside, the methods were ineffective. Nor were most of the officials aware that the former military psychologist who played a central role in persuading C.I.A. officials to use the harsh methods had never conducted a real interrogation, or that the Justice Department lawyer most responsible for declaring the methods legal had idiosyncratic ideas that even the Bush Justice Department would later renounce. The process was “a perfect storm of ignorance and enthusiasm,” a former C.I.A. official said. 4.21.09 http://www.nytimes.com/ [ send green star]
Blue B.	May 01, 2009 9:15 AM Porter Goss' Campaign Against Harman And Pelosi: It's About Torture It seems more likely than ever that the campaign against Rep. Jane Harman (D-CA) that we have seen unfold, day after day, principally in the publication CQ, is emanating from former CIA Director Porter Goss and his acolytes. Today Goss goes public with his campaign, and adds Speaker Pelosi to his list of targets. And now is revealed one of his principal motives - defending torture and his involvement in it.4.25.09 http://www.talkleft.com/ [ send green star]
Blue B.	May 01, 2009 8:50 AM CIA official: no proof harsh techniques stopped terror attacks The CIA inspector general in 2004 found that there was no conclusive proof that waterboarding or other harsh interrogation techniques helped the Bush administration thwart any "specific imminent attacks," according to recently declassified Justice Department memos. That undercuts assertions by former vice president Dick Cheney and other former Bush administration officials that the use of harsh interrogation tactics including waterboarding, which is widely considered torture, was justified because it headed off terrorist attacks. Mark Seibel and Warren P. Strobel 4.24.09 http://www.mcclatchydc.com/ [ send green star]
Blue B.	April 30, 2009 6:08 PM ABC News: The Architects Of The CIA's Waterboarding Program Quick Read \| Comments (34) [ send green star]
Blue B.	April 30, 2009 6:08 PM Yvonne, I'm interested in what "massive surveillance" reveals about the things the ReTHUGniCON$ are planning against the rest of us ... now that the Dumbocraps can listen in on the Repugs! [ send green star]
Yvonne W.	April 19, 2009 9:19 PM "Yvonne, if I walked into your household and changed EVERY SINGLE THING in 24 hours, would you be happy?" LOL! Changing Every Single Thing MIGHT be an Improvement.. but, no, I doubt I'd be happy. [ send green star]
Blue B.	April 19, 2009 7:00 PM WATCH: Bush CIA Chief Repeatedly Attacks Obama For Releasing Torture Memos Quick Read \| Comments (734) [ send green star]
Blue B.	April 19, 2009 6:59 PM Yvonne, if I walked into your household and changed EVERY SINGLE THING in 24 hours, would you be happy? [ send green star]
Yvonne W.	April 09, 2009 6:27 PM "...Authorities investigating the intrusions have found software tools left behind that could be used to destroy infrastructure components, the senior intelligence official said. He added, "If we go to war with them, they will try to turn them on.".. hmm, I agree with Susie, "..You'd think one of the benefits of massive surveillance would be the ability to identify these problems and fix them:"!!! Really, isn't that the Point?! It doesn't say that they're Fixing anything OR Stopping these Intrusions at all! [ send green star]
Blue B.	April 08, 2009 6:19 PM National Security Officials: Electrical Grid Penetrated By Cyberspies [ send green star]
Blue B.	April 03, 2009 10:08 PM * Attorney General Eric Holder wants to release classified Bush-era torture memos. Intelligence officials at the CIA and elsewhere are raising "holy hell" over the prospect. [ send green star]
Yvonne W.	March 12, 2009 3:41 PM Seymour Hersh Describes "Executive Assassination Ring" http://www.truthout.org/031209J Eric Black, MinnPost.com: "At a 'Great Conversations' event at the University of Minnesota last night, legendary investigative reporter Seymour Hersh may have made a little more news than he intended by talking about new alleged instances of domestic spying by the CIA, and about an ongoing covert military operation that he called an 'executive assassination ring.'" (Good stuff!..includes qoutes on Vietnam & Cheney & Reagan's Iran Contra crap!) At the end of one answer by Hersh about how these things tend to happen, Jacobs asked: "And do they continue to happen to this day?" Replied Hersh: "Yuh. After 9/11, I haven't written about this yet, but the Central Intelligence Agency was very deeply involved in domestic activities against people they thought to be enemies of the state. Without any legal authority for it. They haven't been called on it yet. That does happen. "Right now, today, there was a story in the New York Times that if you read it carefully mentioned something known as the Joint Special Operations Command -- JSOC it's called. It is a special wing of our special operations community that is set up independently. They do not report to anybody, except in the Bush-Cheney days, they reported directly to the Cheney office. They did not report to the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff or to Mr. [Robert] Gates, the secretary of defense. They reported directly to him. ... "Congress has no oversight of it. It's an executive assassination ring essentially, and it's been going on and on and on. Just today in the Times there was a story that its leaders, a three star admiral named [William H.] McRaven, ordered a stop to it because there were so many collateral deaths. "Under President Bush's authority, they've been going into countries, not talking to the ambassador or the CIA station chief, and finding people on a list and executing them and leaving. That's been going on, in the name of all of us. "It's complicated because the guys doing it are not murderers, and yet they are committing what we would normally call murder. It's a very complicated issue. Because they are young men that went into the Special Forces. The Delta Forces you've heard about. Navy Seal teams. Highly specialized. [ send green star]
Blue B.	March 09, 2009 7:41 PM Ray McGovern on Gov't Accountability A video of former CIA analyst Ray McGovern explaining why there must be accountability for Bush-era crimes. March 9, 2009 [ send green star]
Blue B.	March 02, 2009 11:36 PM DESTROYING EVIDENCE.... The New York Times reported in December 2007 that the CIA "destroyed at least two videotapes documenting the interrogation of two Qaeda operatives in the agency's custody" in 2005. The videos in question included the interrogation of Abu Zubaydah, and remain the subject of an ongoing criminal investigation. As it turns out, "at least two" was a dramatic understatement. New documents show the CIA destroyed nearly 100 tapes of terror interrogations, far more than has previously been acknowledged. The revelation Monday comes as a criminal prosecutor is wrapping up his investigation in the matter. The acknowledgment of dozens of destroyed tapes came in a letter filed by government lawyers in New York, where the American Civil Liberties Union has filed a lawsuit seeking more details of terror interrogation programs. "The CIA can now identify the number of videotapes that were destroyed," said the letter by Acting U.S. Attorney Lev Dassin. "Ninety two videotapes were destroyed." Destroying two interrogation videos is obstruction of justice. Destroying 92 interrogation videos is a systemic cover-up of widespread lawbreaking. As the ACLU noted, the U.S. Attorney's letter "provides further evidence for holding the CIA in contempt of court. The large number of videotapes destroyed confirms that the agency engaged in a systemic attempt to hide evidence of its illegal interrogations and to evade the court's order." And let's also not forget that the CIA's explanation for all of this has never made a lick of sense. —Steve Benen 12:40 PM Permalink \| Comments (12) [ send green star]
Blue B.	March 02, 2009 7:14 PM FBI warns of Mumbai-type terror attacks on US cities 24 Feb 2009 Extremists "with large agendas and little money can use rudimentary weapons" to sow terror, raising the spectre that the Mumbai attacks could embolden terrorists seeking to attack US cities, the top US investigation agency FBI warned. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is expanding its focus beyond Al Qaeda [al-CIAduh] and into splinter groups, radicals who try to enter the country through the visa waiver programme and "home-grown terrorists," FBI Director Robert S Mueller said at the Council on Foreign Relations on Monday. [See: Stock market "capitulation" needs shock trigger 26 Feb 2009 Are global stock markets set for "capitulation" after sliding to six-year lows and wiping out a stuttering recent recovery? So for capitulation to happen, markets will have to be hit by a big, negative news event, and for the rebound to be sustainable, the overall environment would have to improve.] [ send green star]
Blue B.	March 02, 2009 6:28 PM Does CIA Still Deserve a Medal for Destroying 100 Interrogation Tapes? [ send green star]
Blue B.	March 01, 2009 8:55 PM Serbian Intelligence Chief's Ties to CIA Revealed At Hague Trial By Susie Madrak Sunday Mar 01, 2009 6:00pm Such murky stuff, as is typical with the CIA. How do you begin to untangle criminal actions like this? When does spying for the opposition outweigh participation in genocide? Does one cancel out the other? These aren't rhetorical questions, because we have a web of similar interests all over the world: For eight years, Stanisic was the CIA's main man in Belgrade. During secret meetings in boats and safe houses along the Sava River, he shared details on the inner workings of the Milosevic regime. He provided information on the locations of NATO hostages, aided CIA operatives in their search for grave sites and helped the agency set up a network of secret bases in Bosnia. At the same time, Stanisic was setting up death squads for Milosevic that carried out a genocidal campaign, according to prosecutors at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, which was established by the U.N. Security Council in 1993 to try those responsible for serious human rights violations in the Balkan wars. Now facing a trial at The Hague that could send him to prison for life, Stanisic has called in a marker with his American allies. In an exceedingly rare move, the CIA has submitted a classified document to the court that lists Stanisic's contributions and attests to his helpful role. The document remains sealed, but its contents were described by sources to The Times. The CIA's Lofgren, now retired, said the agency drafted the document to show "that this allegedly evil person did a whole lot of good." Lofgren, however, doesn't claim to disprove the allegations against Stanisic. "But setting the indictment aside," he said, "there are things this man did that helped bring hostilities to an end and establish peace in Bosnia." Tags: Bosnia, CIA, Jovica Stanisic, Serbia, Slobodan Milosevic, Spying [ send green star]
Blue B.	February 27, 2009 7:19 PM * This should be interesting: "The Senate Intelligence Committee is preparing to launch an investigation of the CIA's detention and interrogation programs under President George W. Bush, setting the stage for a sweeping examination of some of most secretive and controversial operations in recent agency history." [ send green star]
Blue B.	February 17, 2009 8:29 AM US Intelligence Cheif Says Wall Streets Disaster Has Spawned Our Greatest Terrorist Threat. Dennis Blair,Director Of National Intelligence,has spoken of the looming threat of civil unrest,"extremism",and a breakdown in law and order,all caused by the Great Wall Street Swindle.Bush/Cheney's Axis of Diesel have a lot to answer for. [ send green star]
Blue B.	February 14, 2009 4:32 AM Waves of Anger and Fear? By: Christy Hardin Smith Friday February 13, 2009 9:10 pm Sign photo via slack13. Ready yourself for the shrieks, the cries of "patriotic to be unpatriotic," the dittohead fury...the wingnut run on Depends. Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair told Congress today that instability in countries around the world caused by the current global economic crisis rather than terrorism is the primary near-term security threat to the United States.... ...Blair also raised the specter of the "high levels of violent extremism" in the turmoil of the 1920s and 1930s along with "regime-threatening instability" if the economic crisis persists over a one- to two-year period. Oh, the horror. The horror. With thousands of fraud investigations under way, the FBI is considering shifting agents away from counterterrorism work to help sort through the wreckage of the financial meltdown. FBI Deputy Director John Pistole told the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday that the bureau may reassign some of the positions that were reallocated to anti-terrorism work after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Let's be honest here for a moment: counterterrorism and national security are important. Absolutely. Without question. And constant work and vigilance on these issues is essential. But it is not the sole thing on the nation's law enforcement plate. Nor should it be. Read the rest of this entry » 35 Comments [ send green star]
Blue B.	February 13, 2009 12:36 PM Senate Confirms Panetta as CIA Chief PANETTA SAYS 'NO' TO TORTURE! "We can protect this country, we can get the information we need, we can provide for the security of the American people and we can abide by the law," he told senators.... [ send green star]
Blue B.	February 07, 2009 10:19 PM STEP AWAY FROM THE BLACKBERRY.... Republicans appear anxious to demonstrate their new-found affinity for technology, web apps, and gizmos. A recent debate between candidates for RNC chair featured an argument over who had more friends on Facebook. It's all rather silly, but the minority party wants to demonstrate their ability to embrace new mediums. Once in a while, this goes a little too far. A congressional trip to Iraq this weekend was supposed to be a secret. But the cat's out of the bag now, thanks to a member of the House Intelligence Committee who broke an embargo via Twitter. A delegation led by House Minority Leader John A. Boehner , R-Ohio, arrived in Iraq earlier today, and because of Rep. Peter Hoekstra , R-Mich., the entire world -- or at least Twitter.com readers -- now know they're there. "Just landed in Baghdad," messaged Hoekstra, a former chairman of the Intelligence panel and now the ranking member, who is routinely entrusted to keep some of the nation's most closely guarded secrets. Before the delegation left Washington, they were advised to keep the trip to themselves for security reasons. A few media outlets, including Congressional Quarterly, learned about it, but agreed not to disclose anything until the delegation had left Iraq. Nobody expected, though, that a lawmaker with such an extensive national security background would be the first to break the silence. And in such a big way. Remember, Hoekstra chaired the Intelligence Committee. He deals with classified information on a daily basis, and has received extensive instructions on how to keep national security secrets under wraps. And yet, Hoekstra, who was told not to talk about this trip, not only shared its existence on Twitter, but "included details about their itinerary in updates posted every few hours on his Twitter page." —Steve Benen 8:50 AM Permalink\| Comments (16) [ send green star]
Blue B.	February 06, 2009 2:25 AM When asked whether extraordinary renditions will continue, Panetta answers without hestitation: ‘No.’» [ send green star]
Blue B.	February 05, 2009 4:09 PM Leon Panetta said exactly what needed to be said during his CIA confirmation hearing today. [ send green star]
Blue B.	February 03, 2009 7:46 PM * If you happened to miss Hilzoy's "Ask Dr. Rendition!" post from last night, go back and read it. It's important (and funny). [ send green star]
Gari A.	CIA, (intelligence agencies) FBI, NSA, FISA, etc. January 29, 2009 6:42 AM > CIA, (intelligence agencies) FBI, NSA, FISA, etc. all good examples of oxymorons. Another good one is Microsoft Works Gari the [ send green star]
Blue B.	January 28, 2009 9:33 PM Ugly American: CIA Chief In Algeria Allegedly Drugged Muslim Women, Made Secret Sex Videos Quick Read \| Comments (25) [ send green star]
Blue B.	January 23, 2009 9:30 PM Obama’s DNI nominee won’t say if waterboarding is torture.waterboading is torture.” But President Obama’s nominee to be Director of National Intelligence, ret. Adm. Dennis Blair, refused to call waterboarding torture in his confirmation hearing today. “There will be no waterboarding on my watch. There will be no torture on my watch,” Blair said, “refusing to go further,” according to Reuters. Sen Carl Levin (D-MI) told Blair, “If the attorney general designee can answer it, you can too.” Comments 30 Permalink [ send green star]
Blue B.	January 17, 2009 5:16 PM Veterans say CIA tested drugs, mind control on them 11 Jan 2009 ...The experiments have been the subject of congressional hearings, and in 2003 the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs released a pamphlet said nearly 7,000 soldiers had been involved and more than 250 chemicals used on them, including hallucinogens such as LSD and PCP as well as biological and chemical agents. Lasting from 1950 to 1975, the experiments took place at Edgewood Arsenal in Maryland. According to the lawsuit, some of the 'volunteers' were even implanted with electrical devices in an effort to control their behavior. [1950 to 1975. Imagine how much the CIA's mind control technology has grown, since then? See: NIU Shooting 'Oddities' and Virginia Tech Shooting 'Oddities'.] [ send green star]
Blue B.	January 16, 2009 4:49 PM ABOUT THAT 'VINDICATION'.... In light of the FISA Court's ruling yesterday on the Protect America Act, several far-right voices are patting themselves on the back. The Wall Street Journal's editorial page, which appears to be making a sincere effort to be even less accurate, has an item today with a boastful headline: "The Wiretap Vindication." Ever since the Bush Administration's warrantless wiretapping program was exposed in 2005, critics have denounced it as illegal and unconstitutional. Those allegations rested solely on the fact that the Administration did not first get permission from the special court created by the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Well, as it happens, the same FISA court would beg to differ. In a major August 2008 decision released yesterday in redacted form, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review, the FISA appellate panel, affirmed the government's Constitutional authority to collect national-security intelligence without judicial approval. I'm afraid the Journal's editorial board has been reading too many far-right blogs. Some aspects of the debate over warrantless searches are open to debate and legal interpretations, but the Wall Street Journal is simply, objectively, factually wrong. The court decision, released yesterday, refers to the Protect America Act; it does not "vindicate" supporters of Bush's NSA program. The case was not about "the government's Constitutional authority to collect national-security intelligence without judicial approval"; the case was about the authority of Congress to expand the executive's surveillance powers. It really isn't that complicated, and yet, conservative bloggers, the New York Times, and the AP got it wrong yesterday, and the Wall Street Journal is doing a victory dance today. A.L. tries to summarize this in a way that even the Journal's editorial board can understand: 1) From 1978-2006, there was a law in place that said "don't do X; if you do X, it's a felony." 2) The Bush administration secretly did X. 3) When it was caught doing X (a felony under existing law), it argued that it had the "inherent authority" to do X regardless of what the law says, a claim that has no support in constitutional case law. 4) This "inherent authority" argument was emphatically rejected by the Supreme Court in the Hamdan case in 2006 in a virtually identical context, causing widespread wailing and gnashing of teeth among right wing true believers (see McCarthy, Andrew). 5) The Bush administration, after a series of adverse court rulings, was finally forced to go to Congress in 2006, and Congress amended the law to expressly allow the Bush administration to do X. 6) Now the FISA Court of Review has ruled that Congress was within its authority to pass that law and so the Bush administration is free to do X. 7) Vindication! We can now all look forward to the Journal's correction, right? —Steve Benen 1:25 PM Permalink\| Comments (17) [ send green star]
Blue B.	January 08, 2009 10:59 AM Brennan Is Back: Obama Taps Controversial CIA Man To Scrap Bush Security Quick Read \| Comments (39) [ send green star]
Blue B.	January 06, 2009 10:08 AM Art Brodsky: Panetta Comments Should Remind Hill Dems: It's Not About You Communications Director for Public Knowledge Obama comes into office with a clear election mandate, and the last thing he needs is the public view of a bunch of squabbling Democrats (see: Burris, Roland) doing the GOP's work for it. Read Post \| Comments [ send green star]
Blue B.	January 06, 2009 9:41 AM Some thoughts on Obama's latest appointments [ send green star]
Blue B.	January 05, 2009 1:57 PM Dean Baker: Pssst, the Economy Is Collapsing -- Don't Tell Congress Co-Director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research This stimulus package should have been approved two months ago, but for whatever reason no action has been taken. There is no reason that the public should be forced to wait until mid-February. Read Post \| Comments [ send green star]
Blue B.	December 23, 2008 1:16 PM Amygdala: Dennis Blair has been named as Obama's National Intelligence Director. There are questions.. [ send green star]
Blue B.	CIA, (intelligence agencies) FBI, NSA, FISA, etc. (2) December 23, 2008 1:13 PM Discussion continues from CIA, (intelligence agencies) FBI, NSA, FISA, etc. which grew too large to load quickly. [ send green star]