Posts Tagged “CIA”
These are my links for March 16th from 20:49 to 20:55:
- C.I.A. Security Officer Is Freed in Pakistan as Redress Is Paid – A C.I.A. security officer jailed for killing two Pakistanis on a crowded Lahore street was released Wednesday after weeks of secret negotiations between American and Pakistani officials, a pledge of millions of dollars in “blood money” to the victims’ families, and quiet political pressure by Pakistani officials on the courts.
The fatal shootings by Raymond A. Davis, who was immediately flown out of the country to Kabul, Afghanistan, had ignited a furor here and brought relations between the C.I.A. and Pakistan’s spy service to perhaps their lowest ebb since the Sept. 11 attacks.
Mr. Davis’s release appears to have temporarily cooled frictions between the two wary allies, but it left unresolved many of the irritants that strained ties in the first place. American officials insisted on Wednesday that the C.I.A. made no pledges to scale back covert operations in Pakistan or to give the Pakistani government or its intelligence agency a roster of American spies operating in the country — assertions that Pakistani officials disputed.
======
Davis or whatever his name is should have been flown out of Pakistan weeks ago.
- There’s More to Birthright Citizenship Than You Think – The debate over birthright citizenship has focused on children born here to illegal aliens. Admittedly, this is a big deal, with more than 300,000 births a year to illegal-immigrants mothers, though I’m on record as skeptical that changing our citizenship rules should be a high-priority objective for immigration hawks.
But there’s a whole other part of the problem — children born here to legal, but temporary, visitors. Not green card holders, who as permanent residents are best seen as candidate-members of the American people and whose children should definitely be citizens at birth. The issue, rather, is about “non-immigrants,” foreigners here temporarily as tourists, students, workers, whatever. In this regard, the issue of birth tourism has gotten attention lately, as has the citizenship status of terrorists like Anwar al-Awlaki and Yaser Esam Hamdi, both born in the U.S. to visitors but raised entirely abroad, who’ve tried to use their nominal citizenship to protect themselves from justice.
======
First, E-Verify and then secure the border.
Civil rights organizations go wild over this issue of birthright citizenship and frankly is too difficult to change with a Constitutional amendment.
Tags: birthright, CIA, citizenship, illegal, immigration, Pakistan
1 Comment »
Please Eric do it.
Four knowledgeable sources tell NEWSWEEK that he is now leaning toward appointing a prosecutor to investigate the Bush administration’s brutal interrogation practices, something the president has been reluctant to do. While no final decision has been made, an announcement could come in a matter of weeks, say these sources, who decline to be identified discussing a sensitive law-enforcement matter. Such a decision would roil the country, would likely plunge Washington into a new round of partisan warfare, and could even imperil Obama’s domestic priorities, including health care and energy reform. Holder knows all this, and he has been wrestling with the question for months. “I hope that whatever decision I make would not have a negative impact on the president’s agenda,” he says. “But that can’t be a part of my decision.”
And, then, President Obama can declassify a whole bunch of CIA and NSA materials that may shed some light on the entire 9/11 enhanced interrrogation technique’s flap. Of course, this may endanger American national security but Eric Holder, the Attorney General who encouraged President Clinton to pardon Marc Rich, a known criminal, knows best.
Now will it be suprising that after this piece in Newsweek that Obama or Rahm calls Holder in for a little chat?
I say put Leon Panetta, Dick Cheney, Porter Goss and George Tenent on the stand under oath and let the chips fall where they may.
But, it won’t happen.
Technorati Tags: Eric Holder, Barack Obama, CIA, Dick Cheney, George Tenent, Leon Panetta
Tags: Barack Obama, CIA, Dick Cheney, Eric Holder, George Tenent, Leon Panetta
Comments Off
CIA Director Leon Panetta laughs while attending a National Italian-American Foundation luncheon on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, June 11, 2009
Well, you cannot play it both ways, Panetta.
A CIA spokesman is sharply downplaying Director Leon Panetta ‘s recent comments that appear to question whether former Vice President Dick Cheney is hoping for another terrorist attack against the United States.
“The Director does not believe the former Vice President wants an attack,” CIA spokesman Paul Gimigliano said in a statement to CNN. “He did not say that. He was simply expressing his profound disagreement with the assertion that President Obama’s security policies have made our country less safe. Nor did he question anyone’s motives.”
The statement comes days after the New Yorker published an interview with Panetta during which he said Cheney’s recent criticism of Obama – including the decision to close the detention center at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba – show the ex-vice president “smells some blood in the water on the national security issue.”
“It’s almost, a little bit, gallows politics,” said Panetta. “When you read behind it, it’s almost as if he’s wishing that this country would be attacked again, in order to make his point.”
Cheney’s office released a terse statement from the vice president Monday responding to the comments, saying “I hope my old friend Leon was misquoted.”
Exit question: Was CIA Director Panetta misquoted or did he commit a gaffe?
Technorati Tags: CIA, Leon Panetta, Dick Cheney
Tags: CIA, Dick Cheney, Leon Panetta
Comments Off
WLS Radio talk show host subjects himself to waterboarding
How do you spell MORON? Oh Yeah MANCOW.
Mancow admits that waterboarding is torture after lasting what 6 or 7 seconds but he could have discovered the same without the moronic exhibition from the journalists who went before – especially Vanity Fair’s Christopher Hitchens. Hitchen’s waterboarding is directly below.
Journalist Christopher Hitchen’s is waterboarded
Here is a reporter from Playboy, Mike Guy who was waterboarded.
See if Mike Guy from Playboy can win his bet he can last 15 seconds?
But, what is the real question for debate here? Is waterboarding torture, like having a red hot poker stuck up your ass or being boiled in oil or being stretched senseless on the rack?
Or is it: whether waterboarding is a valid or moral means of reliable information extraction?
And, to what limits and under whose authority would waterboarding EVER be used? Watch this video where these questions are explored.
So, is torture an impermissible evil? Or are there exceptions?
Rather than having these moronic and horrific displays of the technique itself, let’s move onto exploring what the actual results of the enhanced interrogation methods, including waterboarding were, what works and doesn’t.
President Obama can start the debate by releasing the classified CIA memos for the public to evaluate. No more hiding the ball.
Tags: CIA, Mancow, Waterboarding
6 Comments »
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of Md., second from right, gestures during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, May 19, 2009. Joining him, from left are, Rep. Xavier Bacerra, D-Calif., Rep. John Larson, D-Conn. and House Majority Whip James Clyburn of South Carolina
A good catch of the nuance of Steny Hoyer defending Nancy Pelosi on CIA enhanced interrrogation techniques, including waterboarding by Jim Geraghty of National Review.
In an effort to help out Nancy Pelosi, the number two Democrat in the House, Steny Hoyer, asserts that CIA Director Leon Panetta doesn’t know what he’s talking about: “As I understand, Mr. Panetta’s notes don’t reflect that. Mr. Panetta was not there and he wasn’t the director. I haven’t seen the notes.”
Hoyer has now effectively doubled down on Pelosi’s claim, arguing that Panetta is lying when he wrote, “our contemporaneous records from September 2002 indicate that CIA officers briefed truthfully on the interrogation of Abu Zubaydah, describing “the enhanced techniques that had been employed.”
Read the entire piece in which Hoyer asserts: “I believe the Speaker.” Yet…………
Asked by CNSNews.com Tuesday whether he agreed with Pelosi’s more general statement that the CIA misleads Congress all the time, Hoyer said: “You guys want to hang on to this like a laser. I think that’s unfortunate. What the speaker said was she was not specifically advised as to the specific enhanced interrogation techniques that were being utilized. I believe her when she says that. I’m not going to go into every other facet of this that you — I’m not going to go into every facet of this. I made my statement. I think it’s pretty clear. I hope nobody here misinterprets what I just said.â€
So, what the hell does that mean?
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer has essentially said that CIA Director Leon Panetta does not know what he is talking about, insists that Speaker Pelosi has a great memory and doesn’t want to committ to the proposition that the CIA misleads us all of the time, as Pelosi maintains.
Typical POL DOUBLESPEAK – but watch him stick the knife in Pelosi’s back, if she appears wounded.
Technorati Tags: CIA, Nancy Pelosi, Steny Hoyer, Leon Panetta
Tags: CIA, Leon Panetta, Nancy Pelosi, Steny Hoyer
Comments Off
This poll result is hard to fathom but here it is.
And, it is split pretty much along partisan lines.
In typical partisan fashion, 62% of Democrats give Pelosi the benefit of the doubt while 62% of Republicans hold the opposite view. As for those not affiliated with either major political party, 38% say the CIA may have misled the current House speaker, but 48% say it’s not likely.
The ideological divide is similar: 70% of liberals take Pelosi’s side, but just 24% of conservatives agree.
Looks like Pelosi will survive for a while and Flap bets there will be NO truth commission on Bush era enhanced interrogation techniques lest it drudge up Pelosi’s lies and sins again.
For the GOP Pelosi becomes the new Hillary of fundraising opportunities as the CIA continues undermine her authority as Speaker.
Technorati Tags: Nancy Pelosi, CIA
Tags: CIA, Nancy Pelosi
1 Comment »
|
Entries (RSS)