Of the seven former CIA directors clamoring to stop Holder's investigation, start with Porter Goss.

[seafan]

This guy is as dirty as they come.

WASHINGTON — Seven former CIA directors are asking President Barack Obama to quash Attorney General Eric Holder's investigation into harsh CIA interrogations of terror suspects during the Bush administration.

..... LINK

The letter was signed by former directors Michael Hayden, Porter Goss, George Tenet, John Deutch, R. James Woolsey, William Webster and James R. Schlesinger.

.....LINK

Why was I inserted as CIA chief? Heh, heh, it's just one of those mysteries.




Heckuvajob, Georgie. Slam dunk!





Who, ME??

A former intelligence officer for the National Security Agency (Russell Tice) said he plans to tell Senate staffers next week that unlawful activity occurred at the agency under the supervision of Gen. Michael Hayden beyond what has been publicly reported, while hinting that it might have involved the illegal use of space-based satellites and systems to spy on U.S. citizens.

..... LINK

I'm hoping y'all don't remember that I'm one of the PNAC founders and I tried to blame Iraq for September 11, ON September 11, 2001.





John M. Deutch

But, but, President Clinton pardoned me!

In 1995, President Bill Clinton appointed him Director of Central Intelligence (cabinet rank in the Clinton administration). ..... Soon after Deutch's departure from the CIA in 1996 it was revealed that classified materials were being kept on several of Deutch's laptop computers designated as unclassified. In January 1997, the CIA began a formal security investigation of the matter. Senior management at CIA declined to fully pursue the security breach. Over two years after his departure, the matter was referred to the Department of Justice, where Attorney General Janet Reno declined prosecution. She did, however, recommend an investigation to determine whether Deutch should retain his security clearance.<4> President Clinton pardoned Deutch on his last day in office.<5>

William H. Webster

I was Reagan's man at the CIA from 1987-1991.

In reference to the September 11, 2001 attacks, Webster praised President George W. Bush for not acting rashly. “He did not launch seven ballistic missiles,” Webster said. “He didn’t even launch one.” However, Webster also stated a need for harder work in what he called public diplomacy in the following statement. “We need to work harder at getting our values out to those parts of the world that are most hostile to us,” he said. “You can call it propaganda if you want. I call it public diplomacy.” <3>

James R. Schlesinger

"I'm here to make sure you don't screw Richard Nixon."

On February 2, 1973 he became Director of Central Intelligence, after Richard Helms, the previous director, had been fired for his refusal to block the Watergate investigation. Schlesinger's first words upon becoming DCI were, reportedly, "I'm here to make sure you don't screw Richard Nixon." Although his CIA service was short, barely six months, it was stormy as he again undertook comprehensive organizational and personnel changes.

......

'And we demand that Barack Obama stop any and all investigation into our "stay-behinds" at the CIA.'




Democrats, the truth still matters

[lapfog_1]

1. start what? Waterboarding them? 'cause I'd be in favor of that! - n/t

[Kahuna]

2. They are all neocon enablers. That's why they want the investigation stopped..

Bunch o' damned rat finks.

[ejpoeta]

3. so, if i do something wrong... illegal.... what would happen if i sent a letter

asking please don't investigate?? wtf. that takes balls, i gotta say.

[opihimoimoi]

4. The GOP outted a CIA SPY just to punish her husband...and not a PEEP...WTF?

[robertpaulsen]

5. I wonder what George Herbert Walker Bush's motive was for NOT signing this.

Very strange. Is it possible none of them bothered to ask him? :shrug:

[DCKit]

7. Doesn't need to raise public awareness of his idiot son any more than necessary.

No, the OTHER idiot son, the one who can't run for Resident in 2012 and couldn't find a Thai hooker if his Sekrit Surface agents put him in the same room with one.

[inna]

27. he can't (run for pres in 2012)? why?

[DCKit]

32. Um, because he already had two terms?

I was trying to make the point that H.W. and Babs have no shortage of idiot sons.

[inna]

33. oh, i thought you were referring to another idiot son, Jeb or Marvin or whoever...

i guess it was the Thai connection that threw me off.

[glitch]

6. Great post K & R nt

[Orwellian_Ghost]

8. K&R

Quite a tight circle in the DC cesspool. Looks like a one-party system to me. Am I missing something?

[annabanana]

9. k & r . .. . . . .n/t

[G_j]

10. paying attention

:applause:

K&R

[Octafish]

11. ''...we demand that Barack Obama stop any and all investigation into our 'stay-behinds' at the CIA.'

Thank you for another outstanding post, seafan.
It certainly does bring up many very, very interesting avenues of inquiry.

Operation GLADIO

There's more for the interested:

Operation Gladio: CIA Network of "Stay Behind" Secret Armies

Anyone who doubts the Secret Government at CIA wouldn't do the same thing here needs to have their head examined.
What do you think's been chewing out the heart of American democracy and the constitution of the United States?

[seafan]

23. Thanks for those links, Octafish.

Have you yet read JFK and The Unspeakable: Why He Died and Why It Matters?


I'm looking forward to reading it. Poppy's losing his grip on this, every day that passes.

[Octafish]

25. An essential book for understanding how the United States got to where we are.

James Douglass may have saved democracy with that book. It chronicles how a Cold Warrior came to understand his role in keeping world peace and was almost utterly alone in that course of action. I'm about 2/3 through...reading a few pages a day...rereading them the next...amazed at what we now know. While Poppy isn't mentioned in the work, his footprints are all over.

BTW: A, um, good part of his story can be found in Family of Secrets by Russ Baker.

[seafan]

29. Family of Secrets and the JFK book are essential to understanding what we lost as a country in 1963.

And Poppy plays the doddering old man to the hilt, but it's more than just a passing interest that he still receives his CIA daily briefings as an ex-prez is entitled to do.






The torrent of information about this era that has been buried, suppressed, ignored, belittled and ridiculed is coming, Octafish.

[MinM]

37. Conspicuous by his absence is Admiral Stansfield Turner...

from that list of past CIA Directors. Of course part of what brought down President Carter, was his effort, along with Adm. Turner, to reshape the CIA. Much like JFK had intentions of doing some 15-years earlier.

Russ Baker reflects on this period beginning at the 47-minute mark of this interview here or here.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=209&topic_id=7010&mesg_id=7861

:dem: & R

[malaise]

12. Where's Poppy Bush

By the way Health Care is not in the Constitution, but is the CIA??

[Octafish]

14. Poppy may not want to be asked about the FBI memo which records his whereabouts on November 22, 1963

It's interesting that Poppy doesn't mention warning the FBI BEFORE the assassination of President Kennedy.

[malaise]

16. No surprise

I remember his comments at Ford's funeral -strange and suspicious.

[seafan]

18. Yes, that was VERY creepy.

GHWB at Ford's eulogy refers to Warren Commission as the final say (so stop saying those things about me...), January 2, 2007

[leftstreet]

13. K&R

[kentuck]

15. Where's the present CIA Director, Leon Panetta?

??

[noise]

17. The sick way it works

Tons of pressure is exerted to ensure that the architects of the torture program are not investigated. Instead the investigation focuses on CIA personnel who exceeded the "good faith" OLC guidelines. The architects (and their many political/media enablers/apologists) then point to the extremely unfair investigation which appears to scapegoat low ranking personnel.

Why did the torture architects subject CIA personnel to criminal liability in the first place? Why did they order CIA personnel to follow the Saddam Hussein playbook?

[seafan]

21. I think the answer lies in just how much Dick Cheney hated the CIA.

Right now, he is denouncing any investigation over there, because, golldangit, it just might end up implicating him.

The Scooter Libby non-pardon by Bush is the same sort of thing that sets Cheney off--- without that pardon, Cheney is still vulnerable himself.



Cheney hated the CIA.


These recent exchanges over at Kos caught my eye: "WaPo Cites Blackwater's Krongard on Low CIA Morale":

No, morale is down in every branch of the CIA. I know this by the fact that every work day my husband walks in the door and barks about how much he hates going to work there. He and his fellow blue badgers want to feel like they've done something that contributes to providing honest factually based information for use in providing the executive branch with the tools they need to protect this country. The blue badgers (the actual Federal Employees) are ashamed of being connected to this kind of shit by proxy of simply being employed there. And only 30% of the people who work there are actual federal employees. The other 70% are contractors who've taken no oath to support the laws and treaties of our nation. And those contractors keep showing up as the responsible party in every report of violations to those laws and treaties.

They hate the politics that control every freaken' decision and the management who can't make any decisions because they are scared stiff. Cheney, who hated the CIA and wanted to destroy it, took many functions and gave them away to the contractors and other agencies by setting them up as the fall guy for not seeing the pending events of 9/11.

Who can we thank for the massive employ of contractors? It goes straight back to Reagan's downsizing of the Federal Government. Those Federal positions did not go away, they were replaced by contractors who cost nearly double what a Federal employee costs for salary, pension and healthcare.

by ferallike on Sun Aug 30, 2009 at 12:44:58 PM PDT

I agree there is now way private companies should even be involved in government work they are not accountable for what they do, and leave a mess for federal employees to clean up SAIC is nothing but ex heads of NSA, CIA, Defense Intelligence Agency doing the same jobs they did for their federal agency except now they walk out the door after 20 years and make millions at SAIC doing the job that we the taxpayers trained them to do it is just flat wrong it is time for all federal work to be brought back in house....or do away with the job altogether.....

by testvet6778 on Sun Aug 30, 2009 at 01:20:00 PM PDT

Very concise and exactly worded in fact, testvet! If the CIA is ever going to be restored to a useful agency (can I say that?) it must be staffed with people who learn through time and experience the very most intricate details of their job. These jobs should never have been staffed by someone who is expendable by choice of which defense contractor made the most donations to a politician's campaign.

They have a need to return to the use of real HUMINT and less SIGINT and other remote surveillance techniques. These jobs need to be staffed by people like Bob Baer and Valerie Plame who were committed to following leads and not violating Exec Order 12333 and murder for hire statutes. Using brainwashed/extremest ex mil defense/ intel employees by a group that is not only acting as a shadow army but also a shadow intel org is dangerous. They a massive threat to not only our own military and intel personnel, but also a threat to our beloved Constitution!

The problem is that turning the CIA around is going to be like turning a battleship around in a bathtub. The only way will be by carefully planned and systematic dismantling of its current dysfunctional state with a concurrent rebuild 180 degrees from its current path. And that may or may not be happening as we comment but I cannot confirm or deny as I'm sure you know. ;^P

by ferallike on Sun Aug 30, 2009 at 02:05:19 PM PDT

The impetus for privatization was mainly to get out from under the FOIA and other government accountability requirements, including the equal protection clause. The autonomy of public officials is the core issue. They need secrecy to keep from being answerable to the public. That's all.

by hannah on Sun Aug 30, 2009 at 02:19:17 PM PDT

It all comes back to Richard B. Cheney.

He wanted to destroy the CIA, and he tried to scapegoat the CIA for *botched intelligence* in the months before September 11, 2001. He used that cynical wedge as a reason to stock the CIA with large numbers of contractors to create Cheney's private army, with the intent to do Cheney's bidding, outside the knowledge of Congress, and beyond the reach of those who would hold them accountable for what they were doing.


That 70-30 breakdown of contractors to federal employees at the CIA, I wouldn't doubt at all. Pretty scary to think that only 30% of CIA actually might care what happens to us as a country. The national loyalty of the other 70% is unknown. That should keep us all awake at night.




Bush and Cheney knew.

The *botched intelligence* was shoehorning these two traitors into power on December 12, 2000.

Tenet and his loyalists also settle a few scores with the White House here. The book's opening anecdote (Ron Suskind's THE ONE PERCENT DOCTRINE) tells of an unnamed CIA briefer who flew to Bush's Texas ranch during the scary summer of 2001, amid a flurry of reports of a pending al-Qaeda attack, to call the president's attention personally to the now-famous Aug. 6, 2001, memo titled "Bin Ladin Determined to Strike in US." Bush reportedly heard the briefer out and replied: "All right. You've covered your ass, now." LINK

(Richard) Clarke characterized for Russert the state of readiness against terrorism in June 2001.

'Hair on fire'
Clarke said that “on June 21, I believe it was, George Tenet called me and said, 'I don't think we're getting the message through. These people aren't acting the way the Clinton people did under similar circumstances.' And I suggested to Tenet that he come down and personally brief Condi Rice, that he bring his terrorism team with him.

“And we sat in the national security adviser's office. And I've used the phrase in the book to describe George Tenet's warnings as ‘He had his hair on fire.’ He was about as excited as I'd ever seen him.

“And he said, ‘Something is going to happen.’” LINK

Cheney On Two-Thirds Of The American Public Opposing The Iraq War: ‘So?’, March 19, 2008

This morning, on the fifth anniversary of the Iraq invasion, ABC’s Good Morning America aired an interview with Vice President Cheney on the war. During the segment, Cheney flatly told White House correspondent Martha Raddatz that he doesn’t care about the American public’s views on the war:

CHENEY: On the security front, I think there’s a general consensus that we’ve made major progress, that the surge has worked. That’s been a major success.

RADDATZ: Two-third of Americans say it’s not worth fighting.

CHENEY: So?

RADDATZ So? You don’t care what the American people think?

CHENEY: No. I think you cannot be blown off course by the fluctuations in the public opinion polls.

For the members of the CIA who care about our country, Dick Cheney's protestations about investigations of your agency do not reflect a concern of his for your future ability to do your jobs without fear of reprisal. It IS out of his single-minded concern for protecting his own ass from exposure for what he has done in systematically destroying your work in safeguarding our national security.



To The Big Dick:

Hurry and recover from that back surgery, hear? We want to see you walk into court, shackled, under your own steam.


For Richard B. Cheney, the chickens are coming home to roost.

[inna]

26. WHY am I not able to recommend this?? wtf?

outstanding post, Seafan.

[bobthedrummer]

19. K&R + a related archived thread

"CIA Domestic Operations Division: DU thread #3" (started 8-5-09 with hyperlinks to the other two CIA Domestic Operations Division threads in OP)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x6225784

[bobthedrummer]

20. The National Security Archive has a special section that these 7 know alot more about than anyone

it is a primer for all of US that want the beginning of some justice against the criminals that committed the most depraved acts imaginable in our name, in secret, as part of "national security"

The Torture Archive (National Security Archive)
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/torture_archive/index.htm

[seafan]

30. Great additions to this thread, thanks, bob.

Depraved is what these people are.

[Indigent]

22. Glen Greenwald wonders why they sent the letter to Obama and not Holder

As Holder is the decider in this instance:
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/09/19/cia/index.html

[Name removed]

24. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Overseas]

28. K&R. //nt

[omega minimo]

31. .

:kick:

[bobthedrummer]

34. Let's take a closer look at this former member of the Operation 40 death squad program

Porter Goss profile (Source Watch)
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Porter_Goss

[bobthedrummer]

35. "CIA Torturers Running Scared" by Ray McGovern (9-21-09 Truthout)

http://www.truthout.org/092109C?n

[mod mom]

36. too late to rec but kicking anyway.

[MinM]

38. CIA Mobsters Raise Pressure on Obama to Exonerate War Crimes

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x6580378

[MinM]

39. Seven CIA directors are suborning obstruction of justice.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x6584321