Category: CIA
By Mel Goodman on Sep 18, 2009 in CIA, Intelligence, Mel Goodman | 8 Comments
The prestigious Brookings Institution has joined the ranks of various government and public institutions to suggest reform steps for the Central Intelligence Agency and the intelligence community (IC).
Unlike previous reform proposals, the Brookings study manages to overlook the serious systemic issues that face the world of intelligence analysis and to propose a full slate of [...]
By Mel Goodman on Sep 4, 2009 in CIA, Mel Goodman | 16 Comments
David Broder, the senior op-ed writer at the Washington Post, has joined his colleagues (Fred Hiatt, David Ignatius, and Richard Cohen) in condemning Attorney General Eric Holder’s decision to name a special counsel to examine possible law-breaking by CIA interrogators. And like his colleagues, Broder has put forth a list of irrelevant reasons for turning [...]
By Mel Goodman on Sep 3, 2009 in CIA, Mel Goodman | 13 Comments
CIA Inspector General John Helgerson (left) announced his retirement seven months ago. A successor has not yet been named.
President Barack Obama is permitting CIA Director Leon Panetta to weaken the Agency’s’s Office of Inspector General (OIG). The OIG has produced the only official and authoritative study of the abuses of the CIA detentions and [...]
By Mel Goodman on Aug 30, 2009 in CIA, Mel Goodman, Washington Post | 71 Comments
Editor: This op-ed was first published Aug. 29th at The Public Record, and is reprinted with the express permission of Mel Goodman.
Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, was photographed shortly after his capture during a raid in Pakistan on March 1, 2003.
The lead story in today’s Washington Post, headlined “How a [...]
By Mel Goodman on Aug 27, 2009 in CIA, Mel Goodman, Washington Post | 22 Comments
Editor: This op-ed was first published Aug. 25th at The Public Record, and is reprinted with the express permission of Mel Goodman.
The Washington Post’s David Ignatius simply cannot get off the wheel he spins for the Central Intelligence Agency. Only two days after the release of the 2004 CIA study of the detention [...]
By Mel Goodman on Aug 26, 2009 in CIA, Mel Goodman, Washington Post | 9 Comments
Editor: This op-ed was first published Aug. 25th at The Public Record, and is reprinted with the express permission of Mel Goodman.
The Washington Post continues to campaign against any accountability for the detentions policies of the Central Intelligence Agency, using its own editorials and oped writers as well as outsiders who support the efforts of [...]
By Ani on May 20, 2009 in Barack Obama, CIA, DNC idiocy, Hillary Clinton, John McCain, New York Times, Obama's Broken Promises | 28 Comments
Lord knows I miss no opportunity to take Maureen Dowd to task for her near criminal Hillary bashing, but today her column is a scathing satire entitled “Cheney’s Third Term” which depicts the former Vice President and Don Rumsfeld sharing a fancy Washington dinner while gamely bragging they are controlling President Obama on national security. [...]
By Rabble Rouser Reverend Amy on May 13, 2009 in CIA, California, Popular Vote, Voter Enfranchisement, Voter Fraud, Voting & Voting Rights | 23 Comments
DISCLAIMER: We do not personally endorse BlackBoxVoting and, while we are aware of the complex stories behind the controversies, we are not focusing on those stories during this presentation and haven’t any inclination to get into those stories via e-mails or blog posts. What we are concerned about is the legitimacy of voting methodologies in [...]
By Mel Goodman on Apr 28, 2009 in CIA, President Barack Obama, Torture | 73 Comments
(bumped up from Monday)
To: The President of the United States
Fm: Melvin A. Goodman
Date: April 25, 2009
Subj: Recommendations for Dealing with the CIA on Issues of Torture and Abuse
President Obama is displaying ambivalence in handling the issue of torture and abuse. He clearly wants to do the right thing and, as [...]
By SusanUnPC on Apr 27, 2009 in CIA, Congress (House & Senate), Elizabeth Warren, Intelligence, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, TARP, Torture | 120 Comments
(bumped up and updated extensively)
HOT UPDATE: John Boehner is taking it right to Nancy, proving that “what goes around comes around,” and that Obama just did NOT think through the torture memo “blowback.”
Politico’s Glenn Thrush reports that Rep. Boehner is “asking the Obama administration to release CIA notes taken during a 2002 briefing session [...]
By SusanUnPC on Apr 25, 2009 in CIA, Congress (House & Senate), House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, Intelligence, President Barack Obama, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Torture | 115 Comments
Now that President Obama has teed her up — by releasing documents before he thought out all the possible repercussions (except, he thought, to make his MoveOn crowd happy [as if]) — Nancy Pelosi is yowling loudly no way no how, no siree, au contraire, that she was aware that she and lead Congressional members [...]
By SusanUnPC on Apr 25, 2009 in Bush/Cheney, CIA, Current Affairs, Intelligence, Torture | 41 Comments
Tyler Drumheller had a distinguished career in the CIA and was chief of the CIA’s covert operations in Europe at the time that the Bush administration was cooking the facts to justify going to war against Iraq. Since he was in Europe, he had intimate knowledge of the infamous “Curveball,” being held in Germany, and [...]
By John Batchelor on Apr 22, 2009 in Bush/Cheney, CIA, NQR Live Chat, Nocturnal Warrior, President Barack Obama, Torture | 18 Comments
Is it a coincidence that Joe Lieberman of Connecticut opens fire on the Torture Memos imbroglio at the same time as Dick Cheney? No. Both unchained pols were given a free shot by the POTUS trip to the CIA yesterday in order to explain, explain, explain the release of [...]
By John Batchelor on Apr 20, 2009 in CIA, President Barack Obama, Torture | 15 Comments
The POTUS visit to the CIA HQ this news cycle is mysterious. The case is presented that the White House decision to release the so-called Torture Memos, over the counsel of former DCIs (left, Mike Hayden of the Bush administration) and even the present DCI, Leon Panetta, has caused a rift that the POTUS [...]
By SusanUnPC on Apr 18, 2009 in CIA, Larry Johnson, Torture | 14 Comments
Larry is joined on ABC News by his good friend, Jane Mayer, whose book is featured in our middle column:
By Mel Goodman on Apr 17, 2009 in Bill of Rights, CIA, Guantanamo, Intelligence, Rendition, Torture, U.S. Constitution, Unitary Executive Powers/Signing Statements | 70 Comments
Some countries never acknowledge their crimes. It has been 95 years since the Turkish genocide against its Armenian population, but the Turkish government will not confess to any role in crimes that were committed. The Japanese have never admitted the terrible crimes committed throughout Northeast and Southeast Asia during World War II. And Israel has [...]
By Philip Giraldi on Apr 13, 2009 in 9/11, Al Qaeda, Bill of Rights, CIA, FBI, Homeland Security, National Security, Obama's Broken Promises, Patriotism, President Barack Obama, Terrorism, Torture, U.S. Constitution, Unitary Executive Powers/Signing Statements | 102 Comments
(Susan’s April 13th Note: I AM PISSED OFF. This essay is bumped up because, dammit, I need to restore my FOCUS on the ELEPHANTS in the room! While it’s fascinating to debate the pirate crisis, it is foremost VITAL to focus on the dangerous stories such as Obama’s power-hungry expansion of executive authority, known in [...]
By Rabble Rouser Reverend Amy on Feb 15, 2009 in Backtrack Obama, Bamboozling, Barack Obama, CIA, Current Affairs, George Bush, Media Bias, Rachel Maddow | 40 Comments
Well, Leon Panetta has been confirmed as the new CIA Director. He has confirmed the position of this White House, same as the last White House, on rendition. And he has added this little bonus tidbit:
Obama has signed an executive order limiting interrogation techniques to the 19 outlined in the Army Field Manual, [...]
By Rabble Rouser Reverend Amy on Feb 14, 2009 in Backtrack Obama, Bamboozling, Barack Obama, CIA, Current Affairs, FISA, Ted Kennedy, Torture | 17 Comments
And I don’t mean the movie. Well, yeah, I kinda do mean the movie, at least the theme of it. I received the following email from the ACLU the other day (and yes, I am a card-carrying member of the ACLU. Have been for years.):
Dear ACLU Supporter,
Yesterday, ACLU lawyers encountered a recurring — [...]
By SusanUnPC on Jan 13, 2009 in Admiral Denis Blair, CIA, Intelligence, National Security, Obama Administration | 20 Comments
i found this discussion on Charlie Rose, on Friday night, especially helpful in understanding the dynamics of the imposition of a “parent” national intelligence director over the CIA and other intelligence agencies, as well as the reasoning behind Obama’s selections of former Clinton chief of staff Leon Panetta to head the CIA and retired Admiral [...]
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By Sarah Palin (Release date: November 17. 2009)
