Posts Tagged CIA
Going to War With Iraq Was “A Done Deal”
Posted by Lance Haley in 9/11, Congress, Conservatives, Dick Cheney, Government, How and Why We Get Screwed, National Security, Politics, War on Terror, al Qaida, foreign policy on March 17th, 2010
Former CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) agent John Kiriakou has just released his new book, “The Reluctant Spy“.
According to reviews, the book reveals the inner-workings of the U.S. intelligence agency, and regales it’s readers with stories from the front lines in the War on Terror. Kiriakou’s participation in the capture of Abu Zubaydah, one of Al Qaeda’s senior commanders, as well as his prior support of the use of water-boarding as a legitimate means for acquiring intelligence, are just two of the many highlights in the book.
However, the most poignant experience of his career may well be the day he was called into a top-secret meeting while working at CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia in the summer of 2002. During that briefing, he was told that the Bush Administration had already made the decision to go to war with Iraq the following Spring (2003). His job was to support the decision.
In other words, it was “A Done Deal”.
Kiriakou was stunned that the question of going to war with Iraq was already pre-determined by the Bush Administration in spite of the fact that Congress and the public were still undecided over the basis for invading another country that posed no serious imminent threat to our national security:
“Here was someone at the CIA, obviously plugged into the plans of the executive branch, telling us that the public debate in Congress, reflected almost daily in the press, meant nothing.”
Approximately seven years later, George Bush’s “Mission Accomplished” is anything but. Those elusive WMD’s are yet to be found. And brave young American men and women are still fighting and dying over there.
As Paul Harvey would say, “and now you know the rest of the story”.
The Seminal Moment of the War in Afghanistan
Posted by Lance Haley in Government, How and Why We Get Screwed, Politics, War in Afghanistan, War on Terror, foreign policy on December 1st, 2009
If you really want to understand the truth as to what happened in the war in Afghanistan shortly after 9/11, please watch this Youtube video clip from a PBS Frontline documentary and read the report released yesterday from the Foreign Relations Committee of the U.S. Senate.
As citizens of the United States, we owe it to ourselves, the men and women who place themselves in danger each day, and most importantly to those who have sacrificed their lives in the line of duty these past eight years.
Dick Cheney, I Have Been Patiently Waiting For This Day . . .
Posted by Lance Haley in Conservatives, Government, How and Why We Get Screwed, Politics, Uncategorized, War in Afghanistan, War on Terror, foreign policy on October 22nd, 2009
Did you really just tell President Obama to stop “dithering”?
For years I have relished the day that Dick Cheney would step forward and comment about the war in Afghanistan – The Right War. You know, the war that was precipitated by 9/11 and the murder of approximately 3000 innocent Americans. The war that was declared as President Bush stood upon the rubble of the World Trade Center towers and emphatically stated that the men who tore those buildings down would be brought to justice (see post in screwedus.com – Sept 27, 2009, Conservatives have Audacity to be Critical of Obama regarding the War in Afghanistan?). The war that was “thrown under the bus” within a matter of months so you, Dick Cheney and Company, could go after those elusive WMD’s (Weapons of Mass Delusion, a.k.a OIL) in Iraq.
“Stop Dithering on Afghanistan Troops“? Really, Dick Cheney? “Dithering?”
You have a lot of audacity to criticize President Obama for giving careful consideration to send in more troops in a war YOU never finished eight years ago. Shame, Shame, Shame on you!
Let’s look at the facts:
You and your pathetic lackeys at the Pentagon had the opportunity in early December 2001 to finish the job in Tora Bora, and kill Osama bin Laden, as well as the remaining the remnants of al Qaeda and the Taliban. You know exactly what I am talking about. Operation Jawbreaker, led by CIA Operative Gary Berntsen. Rumors leaked out of the Pentagon that not only did you know about the decision by CentCom not to insert a team of American Special Forces at the top of that valley so bin Laden and the terrorists who orchestrated the attack on America could not escape, you were primarily responsible for making that decision “in order to limit American casualties”, along with Donald Rumsfeld, former Secretary of Defense. But you failed to do so, because you did not know what you were doing. You never did.
And the U.S. lost the opportunity to kill bin Laden, and destroy al Qaeda and the Taliban eight years ago. Now that would have deserved the moniker of “Mission Accomplished”. But for you, in part, there would not be anymore than a modest U.S. military presence in Afghanistan today.
What a colossul failure.
All because you and your brethern, Dick Cheney, DITHERED in December 2001.
“In war, truth is the first casualty,”
– attributed to Greek writer/poet Aeschylus (525BC – 456BC).
Message to any “FED” – Hang ‘Em High!
Posted by Lance Haley in Anti-government sentiment, Congress, Cultural Issues, Government, How and Why We Get Screwed, Politics, crime on September 24th, 2009
Beck and Bachmann on fear of government intrusion
First, let’s acknowledge how irresponsible it is to accuse any particular group for U.S. Census worker Bill Sparkman’s death.
However, the peculiar circumstances surrounding him being hanged from a tree – which law enforcement investigators in Kentucky have preliminarily ruled as a homicide – beg the question, why would anyone scrawl the word “FED” across his chest, and what would be their motive?
One could easily infer that it is possibly fear of government intrusion - see the video at the bottom of an article published today.
Are Glenn Beck and Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann (R-Minn.) really that distressed over government invasion into our privacy?
Well, recall back in 2005 when the story broke regarding the fact that the National Security Agency (NSA), operating under the directives of the Bush Administration, had wiretapped millions of American citizens’ private phone conversations under the guise of investigating possible links to terrorism. This led to an investigation by Congress into the extent of the wiretaps, whether they were legal, and whether they were being properly targeted in order to protect national security as asserted by the Bush Administration.
In order to assure the American public that the wiretaps were not directed at innocent citizens, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, in a White House press briefing, stated that these intercepts were only authorized when the government “has a reasonable basis to conclude that one party to the communication is a member of al Qaeda, affiliated with al Qaeda, or a member of an organization affiliated with al Qaeda, or working in support of al Qaeda.” and that one party to the conversation is “outside of the United States” [emphasis added].
When General Michael Hayden, former head of the NSA and then-acting Director of the CIA, was eventually called to testify before the Senate regarding allegations of unwarranted government intrusion into the lives of innocent American citizens, he unconditionally denied that the government was listening to private conversations that were not reasonably related to terrorist activity. General Hayden stated, “[w]e are narrowly focused and drilled on protecting the nation against al Qaeda and those organizations who are affiliated with it,”
FACT: some of the conversations were between American couples (even servicemen and their spouses/girlfriends) engaging in the most intimate communications that had nothing to do with national security. That this is a gross invasion of privacy, and the most egregious form of governmental intrusion is beyond a shadow of a doubt.
Former NSA employee Adrienne Kinne, who was awarded an NSA Joint Service Achievement Medal in 2003, along with one of her fellow NSA peers, came forward in 2008 and pointedly criticized the NSA’s continued targeting of obviously innocent American citizens. She proudly stated that sometimes the intercepts did result in information that may have interrupted potential terror attacks in Iraq, and therefore saved American lives.
Yet, Kinne noted the problem was all of the wasted time and resources spent focusing on these innocent Americans, when it could have been directed towards finding the proverbial “needle in the haystack”. As Ms. Kinne so poignantly stated, “[b]y casting the net so wide and continuing to collect on Americans . . . it’s almost like they’re making the haystack bigger and it’s harder to find that piece of information that might actually be useful to somebody,” she said. “You’re actually hurting our ability to effectively protect our national security.”
So Glenn Beck and Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann. . . where was the outrage regarding government intrusion back then?