Clinton’s Grandstanding, US Overreaction on Times Square

[tekisui]

Source: Views Times

WASHINGTON: Senior US officials “jumped their gun” on the Times Square suspect Faisal Shahzad when they claimed that he was a trained member of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, The Washington Post wrote on Tuesday.

In a regular column titled ‘Spy Talk,’ which reports on the activities of the US intelligence community, the Post named two senior officials, Attorney General Eric Holder and White House terrorism adviser John Brennan, who it believed rushed to judgment on this issue.

“The attorney general’s remarks, echoed by White House terrorism adviser John Brennan … smack of politics,” wrote columnist Jeff Stein.

He recalled that Gen David Petraeus, who, as the top US commander for the Middle East, “presumably possessed the best intelligence on the area”, declared that Shahzad acted as a “lone wolf” who was “inspired by militants in Pakistan but didn’t have direct contact with them”.

Yet Gen Petraeus’s “judgment has gotten far less traction than a week’s worth of White House-supplied leaks, and now outright declarations, that Shahzad was an agent of the TTP, and by extension Al Qaeda — the original reason for invading Afghanistan”, he wrote.

Former CIA Middle East counterterrorism operative Robert Baer agreed.

“The TTP knows how to make car bombs, set off explosions,” he told the Post. “So why didn’t they teach him ? And why didn’t they give him some scratch to pull this off?”

“Petraeus,” Mr Baer said, “seems to be the only one these days feeling secure enough to tell the truth.”

Mr Stein noted that “conspiracy sells so much better on TV than lone-wolf” and that’s why the US media ignored the general’s assessment.

The columnist also blamed internal US politics for “jumping the gun”.

“It’s also an irresistible narrative for a White House that has to constantly fend off posturing critics and right-wing nuts on Fox News.

Message: We know who they are. We’re on the case.”

more: http://www.viewstimes.com/?p=39

[aquart]

1. Clinton did what...precisely?

For a headline, the subject seems uncovered.

[tekisui]

2. She warned Pakistan of consequences if attacks are linked back to them.

I agree the article didn't adequately address the headline.

[aquart]

6. That wasn't "grandstanding,"

It was the idiotic "standing tall" required these days. I have to assume that Pakistan understood the "if" meant "ignore this."

[EFerrari]

3. John Brennan. Wasn't he a nominee for CIA director who had to step down

because he was a torture advocate? Is that right?

[tekisui]

4. You have a great memory:

Brennan withdraws name for top spy

Brennan was thought to be the leading candidate for the job. He was the former chief of staff to then-CIA Director George Tenet, former executive assistant to Tenet and former station chief in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Reporters and others were asking questions about what role Brennan played in the decision to "torture" high value targets. (Full letter here.)

NBC's Savannah Guthrie adds this statement from Obama transition spokeswoman Stephanie Cutter:

"John Brennan has served our nation with honor and is a man of talent and integrity. The President-elect accepts his decision to withdraw from consideration for a position in the intelligence community but he is grateful for John's contining assistance as a valuable member of our transition team. "

http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/11/25/1688701.aspx



John Brennan, Torture-Tainted CIA Prospect, Alarms Obama Supporters

Marc Ambinder reported Thursday evening that former National Counterrorism Center head John Brennan is Barack Obama's "favorite to be nominated director of the Central Intelligence Agency." According to Ambinder's sources, Brennan has been vetted and even begun recruiting his team.

The news has alarmed Obama supporters who remember Brennan best for his role in both faulty pre-war intelligence and agreement with Vice President Dick Cheney on torture.

Glenn Greenwald writes, "I'm both entirely unsurprised and basically undisturbed by the fact that Obama's most significant appointments thus far are composed largely of standard Washington establishment figures and pro-Iraq-War hawks." But Brennan is "a different matter."

To appoint someone as CIA Director or Director of National Intelligence who was one of George Tenet's closest aides when The Dark Side of the last eight years was conceived and implemented, and who, to this day, continues to defend and support policies such as "enhanced interrogation techniques" and rendition (to say nothing of telecom immunity and warrantless eavesdropping), is to cross multiple lines that no Obama supporter should sanction. Truly turning a page on the grotesque abuses of the last eight years requires both symbolism (closing Guantanamo) and substantive policy changes (compelling adherence to the Army Field Manual, ensuring due process rights for all detainees, ending rendition, restoring safeguards on surveillance powers). Appointing John Brennan to a position of high authority would be to affirm and embrace, not repudiate, the darkest aspects of the last eight years.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/11/21/john-brennan-torture-tain_n_145517.html

[EFerrari]

5. My memory gets messed up by trying to stay positive

AND stay on top of the facts at the same time. Thanks.

I'll never understand why this administration kept so many of these people around, even unofficially, unless they had no choice.

[frylock]

7. knr