• Barack Obama,  Day By Day,  Hillary Clinton,  Leon Panetta,  Valerie Jarrett

    Day By Day May 4, 2011 – Choice



    Day By Day by Chris Muir

    Speaking about choices. Did you read about how the Obama Administration knew about the location of Osama Bin Laden for three years and how the President was conflicted on what to do?

    Looks like the good choices President Obama made was to hire Hillary Clinton and Leon Panetta. A bad choice was Valerie Jarrett.

    And, release the Bin Laden photos already. Talk about delayed decisions – sheesh…..

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  • Barack Obama,  CIA,  Dick Cheney,  Eric Holder,  George Tenet,  Leon Panetta

    Attorney General Eric Holder to Appoint Prosecutor for Bush Administration Crimes?

    Obama and Holder

    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.


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  • CIA,  Dick Cheney

    CIA Downplaying Director Leon Panetta’s Comments on Dick Cheney Rooting for Terrorist Attack on America

    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?


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  • CIA,  Leon Panetta,  Nancy Pelosi,  Steny Hoyer

    Steny Hoyer Defends Nancy Pelosi on CIA Flap – Says CIA Director Leon Panetta Was NOT There

    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.”

    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.


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  • Dianne Feinstein,  Leon Panetta

    California Senator Dianne Feinstein Now on Board With Leon Panetta Appointment to be Director of the CIA

    Michael Ramirez on Leon Panetta

    Political Cartoon by Michael Ramirez

    The incoming Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committe, California Senator Dianne Feinstein has caved and now supports the appointment of former Bill Clinton Chief of Staff and former California Congressman Leaon Panetta as the the next Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, despite the fact he has NO intelligence community experience.

    Obama wants a loyalist as DCIA so he does not get stabbed in the back by CIA career bureaucrats like President Bush did his entire time in office.

    But, is political loyality enough when you are fighting two wars and international terrorism?

    If the United States suffers another failure in intelligence like 9/11, Obama will be heavily criticized for this risky and rookie appointment.


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  • Dianne Feinstein,  Jay Rockefeller,  Leon Panetta

    Obama Picks Leon Panetta as CIA Director – Democrat Senators Feinstein and Rockefeller Choke on His Lack of Intelligence Experience

    Leon Panetta

    US president-elect Barack Obama has chosen former lawmaker and White House chief of staff Leon Panetta, pictured in 2006, to head the Central Intelligence Agency, US media reported Monday

    Guess POTUS – Elect did not consult with two senior Democrat Senators on the Senate intelligence Committee before he appointed “OUTSIDER” former Bill Clinton Budget Director and California Democrat Congressman, Leon Panetta as the Direcotr of the Central Intelligence Agency. Panetta has extensive government experience but virtually none in the intelligence community.

    Both Senators Feinstein and Rockefeller were nonplussed and may oppose Panetta’s confirmation.

    • Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), who this week begins her tenure as the first female chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said today that she was not consulted on the choice and indicated she might oppose it.
    • “I was not informed about the selection of Leon Panetta to be the CIA director,” Feinstein said. “My position has consistently been that I believe the agency is best served by having an intelligence professional in charge at this time.”
    • A senior aide to Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.), outgoing chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said that the senator “would have concerns” about a Panetta nomination.
    • Rockefeller “thinks very highly of Panetta,” the aide said. “But he’s puzzled by the selection. He has concerns because he has always believed that the director of CIA needs to be someone with significant operational intelligence experience, and someone outside the political realm.”

    Panetta would report to the Director of National Intelligence, Retired Admiral Dennis Blair who is also an Obama nominee and also faces confirmation by the Senate.

    In the meantime, if the President-elect does NOT afford senior California Senator Dianne Feinstein the respect that she feels she is earned, Di Fi may very well return the favor by leaving the Senate Intelligence Committee Chairmanship to run for California Governor in 2010. Her term in the Senate expires in 2012.

    Look for increasing crticism of this Obama nomination and its eventual withdrawal. The wrong man for the wrong job here.


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