Obama White House v. CIA; Panetta Threatened to Quit

[andymays]

Tensions Lead to CIA Director's "Screaming Match" at the White House
By MATTHEW COLE, RICHARD ESPOSITO and BRIAN ROSS
August 24, 2009

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=8398902

Excerpt:

A "profanity-laced screaming match" at the White House involving CIA Director Leon Panetta, and the expected release today of another damning internal investigation, has administration officials worrying about the direction of its newly-appoint intelligence team, current and former senior intelligence officials tell ABC News.com.

Excerpt:

According to intelligence officials, Panetta erupted in a tirade last month during a meeting with a senior White House staff member. Panetta was reportedly upset over plans by Attorney General Eric Holder to open a criminal investigation of allegations that CIA officers broke the law in carrying out certain interrogation techniques that President Obama has termed "torture."

[andymays]

Go Leon! :ThmbUp:

A lot of this crap is about Nancy Pelosi and here vendetta against the CIA! :eek:

[lsbets]

How convenient for Obama that the CIA thing distracts people from healthcare while he is on vacation.

I'm sure its just another coincidence.

[andymays]

How convenient for Obama that the CIA thing distracts people from healthcare while he is on vacation.

I'm sure its just another coincidence.


You're right. :ThmbUp: There will be more diversions to come!

[lamboguy]

as far as penetta goes, i really liked the guy before he took the job with this administration.i could care less if he stays or leaves, he lost me.

as far as pelosi goes, she is just one bonified koo-koo clock that i would want to hang up over my fireplace and pull the string. whatever she says don't even matter, she must be on lots of drugs because she seems to be deranged.

alot of people don't like this harry reed, to tell you the truth i have not been able to figure him out as of yet, i am sure he is like the rest of them, but it will take me a little more time to get him right.

stay here for further thoughts

[delayjf]

alot of people don't like this harry reed

You may not know this, but the city counselman who was accepting comped hotels and hookers played by one of the Smothers brothers in the movie "Casino" was based on Harry Reid.

[BlueShoe]

How convenient for Obama that the CIA thing distracts people from healthcare while he is on vacation.
Perhaps it is the other way around.The nation has many,many other issues to deal with,and while all eyes are fixated on the health care matter,the situations worsens and our freedoms erode.

[Tom]

Where are the vacation police?
They were all over Bush every time he left DC? :D

[andymays]

Holder to Appoint Prosecutor to Investigate CIA Terror Interrogations

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/24/AR2009082401743_pf.html

Excerpt:


Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. has decided to appoint a prosecutor to examine nearly a dozen cases in which CIA interrogators and contractors may have violated anti-torture laws and other statutes when they allegedly threatened terrorism suspects, according to two sources familiar with the move.

Holder is poised to name John Durham, a career Justice Department prosecutor from Connecticut, to lead the inquiry, according to the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the process is not complete.
Durham's mandate, the sources added, will be relatively narrow: to look at whether there is enough evidence to launch a full-scale criminal investigation of current and former CIA personnel who may have broken the law in their dealings with detainees. Many of the harshest CIA interrogation techniques have not been employed against terrorism suspects for four years or more.

[ArlJim78]

another example of my maxim.

Obama on Meet The Depressed in Jan 2009:

"On the other hand I also have a belief that we need to look forward as opposed to looking backwards. And part of my job is to make sure that for example at the CIA, you've got extraordinarily talented people who are working very hard to keep Americans safe. I don't want them to suddenly feel like they've got to spend all their time looking over their shoulders and lawyering."

Of course today he has Holder announce a special prosecutor to look back into possible torture violations by currrent and former CIA agents.

So much for his belief that we should look forward and that these talented people shouldn't have to look over their shoulders and lawyer-up.

A more truthful comment would have been, "as long as my popularity remains high and I'm able to pass my reforms without any major objections, we'll be looking forward. If however I run into serious trouble and my popularity wanes, you can bet your ass that we're going to prosecute every last one of them. I don't care how much secret information we have to leak or if it demoralizes the CIA. Our agenda must pass come hell or high water, so if we must resort to prosecuting these poor saps who did their duty it will be a small price to pay."

[kenwoodallpromos]

You're right. :ThmbUp: There will be more diversions to come!
I thought health care WAS the diversion program for libreral bill-passing junkies!!

[andymays]

I thought health care WAS the diversion program for libreral bill-passing junkies!!


That's not going so well so they need another diversion!

[andymays]

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0809/King_on_Holder_You_wonder_which_side_theyre_on.htm l

Excerpt:

King on Holder: 'You wonder which side they’re on'

A "furious" Rep. Peter King, the hawkish, maverick Long Island Republican, blasted a "disgraceful" Eric Holder for opening an investigation of CIA interrogators and chided his own party for what he described as a weak response to the move in an interview just now with POLITICO.

"It’s bulls***. It’s disgraceful. You wonder which side they’re on," he said of the Attorney General's move, which he described as a "declaration of war against the CIA, and against common sense."

"It’s a total breach of faith, and either the president is intentionally caving to the left wing of his party or he’s lost control of his administration," said King, the ranking Republican on the House Committee on Homeland Security and a member of the House Select Committee on Intelligence.

[ddog]

I would remind of a quaint(i know) belief from olden times.

The Justice Dept. was not ran by the WH.

I know, foolish anymore in this sea of slime, but any slim chance of that making a come back would be ok by me.

As to the CIa, they are not going to be hurt by this, they didn't want the job and they won't have it now.

The pandering and thundering of the political class on almost everything these days is a sick sight to behold.

Someday there will be a return to law and order, just hope it's not too late.


If people acted outside the guidance given by the WH and the former Justice Dept then they should be brought to account.

Sorry, but you have law and order or you don't.

As I said many many times in the past, if you wish activities to go on that are outside the law then you change the law.

If you do them before the law is changed then you take your medicine.

It's really ALL that stands between us and Nazi Germany.

[ArlJim78]

the justice department already has looked into this, its a done deal. some people were fired. to bring on board a special prosecuter now, is only partisan. it's complete BS and outrageous for the president to allow this. he said the right thing when he said we need to look forward not back. to backtrack now shows what a reckless partisan hack he is. there is not a SINGLE good outcome for the country that can come from this. of course when ones goal is to dismantle the country it makes perfect sense.

[riskman]

[QUOTE=andymays

Excerpt:

"It’s a total breach of faith, and either the president is intentionally caving to the left wing of his party or he’s lost control of his administration," said King, the ranking Republican on the House Committee on Homeland Security and a member of the House Select Committee on Intelligence.[/QUOTE]

King has it right. The "progressives" are upset with Bammy. He has to throw them a few crumbs before they have a nervous breakdown.

[andymays]

http://www.weeklystandard.com/weblogs/TWSFP/2009/08/the_socalled_cheney_documents.asp

Excerpt:

Those documents offer detailed evidence of the effectiveness of detainee interrogation, including the use of enhanced interrogation techniques. So most news accounts have concluded that these are, in fact, the so-called Cheney documents. But that's only half right.

One document, entitled "Khalid Shaykh Muhammad: Preeminent Source on al Qaida," is the precise document Cheney requested. The other, entitled, "Detainee Reporting Pivotal for the War Against al Qaeda," is not. The document declassified and released by the CIA is dated June 3, 2003. The version of the document requested by Cheney was dated June 1, 2003.

Are there substantive differences, too? One intelligence source with knowledge of the memos says that the second report, the June 3 document releasing by the CIA, does not include the same level of detail as the June 1 document, the one requested by Cheney. So what aren't we seeing? It's hard to say. The explanation could be simple and innocent. Perhaps someone just conveyed the wrong request and the differences between the two versions of the "pivotal" report are not significant. But given that the purpose of the document is to describe the effectiveness of the interrogations, it's also possible that information supporting Cheney's position -- and contradicting that of the Obama administration -- was not released to the public.


So will the most transparent administration in history release the June 1 version that Cheney requested?