Wednesday, December 10, 2014

CIA FIFTH COLUMNISTS REMIND ME OF DEFIANT, PETULANT COPS

Ed Kilgore thinks John Brennan is being shockingly insubordinate:
Remind Me Who It Is the CIA Works For?

So the redacted summary of the "torture report" is out.... But it seems the CIA has decided it doesn't have to take it (per a report from The Telegraph's Raf Sanchez):
In the moments before the Senate's report into torture by the CIA was released, the agency's director, John Brennan, released a statement of his own.

... on the fundamental point - was America right to brutalise these terror suspects in an effort to extract information that could prevent the next September 11? - Brennan refuses to give ground.

"Interrogations of detainees on whom [enhanced interrogation techniques] were used did produce intelligence that helped thwart attack plans, capture terrorists, and save lives." He also disputes the Senate’s claim that America’s spies misled the public about the torture program....
... does the current leadership of the CIA get to have its own position on the basics that contradicts the president's?

If Brennan issues another such statement, it really ought to be quickly followed by a letter of resignation.
It's not just the current director, of course -- six former directors and deputy directors have written a Wall Street Journal op-ed titled "Interrogations Saved Lives" and asked us to visit ciasavedlives.com; the most visible of them is an angry, defiant Michael Hayden, who's all over the media. Also highly visible is former top CIA official Jose Rodriguez, a Limbaugh and Hannity favorite.

It seems to me that the members of the CIA community are acting like law enforcement in America's racial hot spots: they're not ashamed of what they do, they're going to fight to keep things the way they are, and they're impervious to criticism.

Under Bush and Cheney, this community was like law enforcement for Ferguson residents -- rotten all the way up to the prosecutor's office, and beyond. Now the members of this community are like the cops here in New York, as represented by their union -- they insist that they're right, and they response to criticism from Mayor de Blasio with defiance. De Blasio, for his part, walks a fine line, tempering criticism of cops with praise. He knows he has to work with these guys. He knows, and they know, that he'll be gone after one or two terms, but they'll still be here. They're part of the permanent government. He's not.

That's where we are in Washington with regard to the CIA. We want to believe that the Agency will be stung by this report -- from a congressional committee! But they're the CIA. They think we owe them.





(Source; source.)

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

So some nasty CIA men slapped around a few terrorists = shlock-horror! In the meantime, President 'Goody Two Shoes' executes American citizens by drones without benefit of a trial.

When can we expect a Democrat Senate report on that?

SW1 said...

The troll has a point. Although, "democrat" as a pejorative? Bite me.

Victor said...

Yes, it does.

"Stopped-clock," and all of that...

PurpleGirl said...

Yesterday morning NY1 had a clip of Dubya saying that all CIA agents are patriots.

Philo Vaihinger said...

Oh, I suppose torture works quite well, thank you very much.

And you have to remember that gathering information is only one purpose of the use of torture.

Like punishment, torture also satisfies a desire for vengeance.

And also like punishment it sends a message.

Sort of like like hanging people from lampposts or putting the severed heads of your enemies up on the city walls.

ISIS, after all, did not invent the idea that savagery is a useful tool of warfare.

Think of anti-personnel mines that take off your legs but don't necessarily kill.

Or flame throwers.

Or even old-fashioned bayonets.

ladyblug said...

Oh BOO FUCKING HOO! They all need to be locked in as my grandma used to say the "hoosgow" and the k fucking key thrown away! Whinners!!!

Ten Bears said...

Where was the outrage when Dick Cheney outed an undercover operative working in the counter prolification of weapons of mass destruction?

Steve M. said...

So some nasty CIA men slapped around a few terrorists = shlock-horror!

Round-the-clock waterboarding, forced "rectal feeding," 180 straight hours of sleep deprivation (hallucinations set in after a couple of days as a rule), and forced standing in stress positions for people with broken legs are not the same as being "slapped around," you asshole.

In the meantime, President 'Goody Two Shoes' executes American citizens by drones without benefit of a trial.

Obama's policy exactly parallels the rules nations that think of themselves as civilized follow with regard to uniformed soldiers in wartime: You're free to kill them on the spot; you're free to grievously and horrifically wound them, but if you capture them alive, you can't torture them. Drone attacks offend me because innocent civilians are killed. They don't bother me because people who've effectively declared war on America are killed, even if they are U.S. citizens.

SW1 said...

I'm going to have to disagree on the drone issue. Bad because of dead innocents and bad because, when it comes to citizens at least, due process should mean a little more than a few like minded dudes in the executive branch deciding who to missle murder.

mlbxxxxxx said...

Wouldn't it be great if they actually threw the CIA "under the bus." I'd buy a ticket to see that.

KenRight said...

If you believe the US should continue as an Empire with hundreds of world-strewn bases, occupying Europe and the Mideast working in tandem with Israel then you've got to believe in torture for all the enemies you are guaranteed to make and keep.
Or you could opt to return to being a nation and dismantle the Empire voluntarily before it goes the way of Rome, but much quicker.