Why POTUS at the CIA?
By John Batchelor on April 20, 2009 at 10:30 PM in CIA, President Barack Obama, Torture
There is a super spook administrator, the DNI, Dennis Blair, whose job description includes supervising and corraling the seventeen or so institutions that make up US intelligence gathering.
Bypassing the merits and demerits of the Obama adminstration squabble over the Torture Memos, why is the POTUS not delegating the embassy duty to Blair? My best guess is that the White House is anxious that it made a political decision for short-term gain, the memos, and later realized that it had created a fresh problem that didn’t exist before. This would explain the defensiveness in the faces of David Axelrod and Rahm Emmanuel as they took to the Sunday coffee hours on TV to explain, explain, explain.
The problem? The spooks don’t trust the Obama administration. This was a big issue for the Carter administration. There are anecdotes of fist-fights at the DoD and CIA over Carter policies of what at the time were called timid, even defeatist, thinking. Too early for the Obama administration to worry about defeatism. But still. The POTUS visit is not the conduct of a confident administration.
(Release: November 13)
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Does ANYONE, anyone at all, have any idea WTF they are doing in the Obama SADministration? Good God.
Oops, forgot Hillary. Okay there’s one person who has a clue. Whew do I feel better.
There are anecdotes of fist-fights at the DoD and CIA over Carter policies of what at the time were called timid, even defeatist, thinking. Too early for the Obama administration to worry about defeatism. But still. The POTUS visit is not the conduct of a confident administration.
Yup, Carter II. But I don’t get why it’s “too early to worry about defeatism.”
HE’S EVERYWHERE!!! We risk seeing his face or hearing his voice every time we turn on the television. THE BARRY SHOW plays everyday, everywhere, even at CIA HQ.
I’ve been wondering daily why he even bothers to have a Press Secretary. Just as I did with Bush, I have to turn the station every time I hear BHO’s voice or any one of his mouthpieces.
LOL – How could the great Barrister pass up the chance to use his immense force of personality and persuasion to induce the greatest MKULTRA trance on the black op friendly mibs at CIA ?
I’m certain at this point they are absolutely mesmerized with their new leadorious god of the way of change and hope, and deeply, inside, are affected beyond their mental capacities to comprehend.
Brilliiant move by The One.
The CIA will spend decades trying to reproduce the “Barry technique” when they finally figure out what hit them.
Perhaps he was just getting the nickel tour.
I would say “stay tuned” on this one.
[...] Larry Johnson’s most recent rant Published April 21, 2009 Obama , national security , war crimes 0 Comments Tags: CIA One of the saddest parts of the 2008 primary was the online melt down of Larry Johnson. Today he has a curious rant about Obama’s visit to CIA HQ. [...]
POTUS/TOTUS probably doesn’t know Mr. Blair exists or what his job is.
He thinks he’ll charm them at CIA with his bs. Besides, it keeps him from having to do any real work. :/
It’s getting annoying how much Obama is on TV. But, it sure is keeping our channel changing abilities up.
Obama>zapper>push buttons>ah, relief!
Thanks for the thumb workout, President Uh-blah-meh.
Why did they make the decision to release the info if they had no intention of prosecuting? Did he go to Langley to reassure them no one would be held accountable for the crimes? I was surprised he got what appeared to be a warm welcome there when the reception at State was much cooler.
I read somewhere it was to vindicate his decision plus boost morale.
He should at least have made it worth their while with an address on a vision for the agency a la Bill Clinton.
Excellent post. Thank you. I was wondering when folks would bring up the obvious. This was his political effort to feed red meat to his supporters unhappy with his continuation and expansion of Bush’s policies and refusal to go after what he claims was illegal or wrong. And now what does he have?
This is Obama. Unless his hand holders are with him daily to interrupt or feed him his lines, he’s screwed and then this, constantly playing partisan campaigning.
Even now, I am cracking up with him again, making now the budget political, asking for Congress to ccut a meesly 100 mil from the budget. Didn’t even Obama laugh off his 1 Billion dollar earmark spending that that much wouldn’t do anything to the Budget? But now, tossing some crumbs after the Tea Parties is supposed to make folks rollover. But funnier is that he now put it on Congress, so if they don’t give him this token, he will put the blame on them as he continuously is doing. He will throw ANY BODY UNDER THE BUS for his own personal benefit. 2010 Midterms will be interesting. Will the Democratic wave of them finally coming in to power be enough, or will people say, ENUF is ENUF and we gave you all a chance, but you’re out of here!
Speaking of realeasing memos about CIA interrogaters and interrogations and methods for political gain, can LJ get Valerie Plame and Joe Wilson’s take on this?
Oooh! Good question. I’d be interested to hear what they think. I’m tending to think he visited Langley because he just wanted another photo-op of looking Presidential. Hah! I never thought anyone could make GWB look like a leader.
I have to add my voice to those sick of seeing that jug-eared mug everywhere. Anybody gonna buy the new mag with the bare-chested TOTUS on the cover? Yuck!
So, I guess we can safely say that releasing these memos was more a political decision than some deep moral conviction that the Prez wrestled with.
More theater in the round. But when the polls on the matter didn’t match the expected result, 0bama runs to Langley for a rah-rah and photo-op session.
A small question: when does the real work get done? You know those hours of reading, considering the issues, discussing the finer points with staff and advisors? Or has TV time, foreign appearances, speeches and photo-ops replaced the boring stuff. Just asking.
Do you think the release of the documents was just a crumb for supporters to hope 0bama will prosecute. And the release of the Harmon info is diversionary so people can blame Congress when nothing happens. A shot accross the bow. The trip to the CIA was to assure them Nobama wasn’t going to do any real prosecuting. Not for the wiretapping, the torture or the plundering of the treasury. Nobody need sweat. Just pay homage to “The One” and all will be fine…NOT!