rssWho Wields The Power In Obama’s Intelligence Community?
Monday, January 12, 2009 at 9:08 am
- 3 Comments
Remember how I wondered on Friday if soon-to-be-White House counterterrorism chief John Brennan and CIA Deputy Director Steve Kappes would be the the real power brokers in President-elect Barack Obama’s intelligence community, despite the announced appointments of Adm. Dennis Blair (Ret.) as director of national intelligence and Leon Panetta as CIA director?
Mark Hosenball of Newsweek, one of the best intelligence reporters there is, has more in this week’s issue about an additional twist in that emerging drama, one that gets at something Daphne blogged yesterday. Progressives in Congress see Panetta as an ally for congressional inquiries into torture:
Officials familiar with the views of Obama’s team insist there’s no massive probe coming. But a senior Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, Oregon’s Ron Wyden, told NEWSWEEK he will push to declassify top-secret CIA interrogation files outlining how the agency came to use methods such as waterboarding; what its legal authorizations were for doing so; and what (if any) evidence exists to demonstrate that such techniques actually worked.
Former acting CIA general counsel John Rizzo, you may want to lawyer up.
Wyden’s proposal is something short of a full-fledged congressional probe into torture. But here’s another thing worth considering. Clearly Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), the incoming chairwoman of the Senate intelligence committee, is close with Kappes. Kappes is highly esteemed by the National Clandestine Service — the CIA operatives who’d prefer not to spend the next however-many years under investigation for torture. (Not that this makes Kappes a torturer; this is just the lay of the land as best as I can perceive it.) Will Kappes reach out to Feinstein to block or slow-walk a probe? What does Feinstein seek to do with her committee when it comes to investigating the torture regime of the past seven years? I’ve put the question to her staff.
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3 Comments
Comment posted January 12, 2009 @ 12:26 pm
Nobody is interested in punishing the lower level CIA operatives – even those operatives that poured water down men's faces.
Yesterday President-Elect Obama said “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 (ph).”
As the present Deputy Director of the CIA, and earlier as the Associate Deputy, then Deputy Director, of the DoO, Kappes is one among a fairly small pool of officials whose job it seems to me SHOULD'VE been looking over their shoulders, and lawyering, and making sure that what they were doing was sound practice and legal. Esp. for the sake of their staff. Did Tenet look at the torture memo in 2002 and ask for a second opinion? Or did he blissfully say “let's do it!” and act in the same bad faith shared by many other Bush officials? Why do Bybee's memos read “You have asked”? How did all of that happen?
I really want the CIA held accountable for being one of the primary players in our torture regime. At the very least Tenet deserves to have his ass handed to him. One of the reasons I didn't want Brennan to be the CIA Director was his personal connection to Tenet. I figured he would shield Tenet the way he has in the past (defending his memoir, etc.).
Feinstein doesn't care. She thinks the CIA just carries out orders. No concept of command responsibility. I don't see how it could possibly be that simple.
Pingback posted January 12, 2009 @ 4:57 pm
[...] Who Wields The Power In Obama’s Intelligence Community?The Washington Independent, DC - 3 hours ago… be the the real power brokers in President-elect Barack Obama’s intelligence community, despite the announced appointments of Adm. Dennis Blair (Ret. …Video: Spies from outside the fold ReutersVideoBarack Obama’s counterterrorism will be counter to George Bush’s Chicago TribuneObama gives Panetta strong vote of confidence in announcing CIA pick San Jose Mercury News San Francisco Chronicle - Detroit Free Press all 3,801 news articles [...]
Comment posted January 12, 2009 @ 8:26 pm
Nobody is interested in punishing the lower level CIA operatives – even those operatives that poured water down men's faces.
Yesterday President-Elect Obama said “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 (ph).”
As the present Deputy Director of the CIA, and earlier as the Associate Deputy, then Deputy Director, of the DoO, Kappes is one among a fairly small pool of officials whose job it seems to me SHOULD'VE been looking over their shoulders, and lawyering, and making sure that what they were doing was sound practice and legal. Esp. for the sake of their staff. Did Tenet look at the torture memo in 2002 and ask for a second opinion? Or did he blissfully say “let's do it!” and act in the same bad faith shared by many other Bush officials? Why do Bybee's memos read “You have asked”? How did all of that happen?
I really want the CIA held accountable for being one of the primary players in our torture regime. At the very least Tenet deserves to have his ass handed to him. One of the reasons I didn't want Brennan to be the CIA Director was his personal connection to Tenet. I figured he would shield Tenet the way he has in the past (defending his memoir, etc.).
Feinstein doesn't care. She thinks the CIA just carries out orders. No concept of command responsibility. I don't see how it could possibly be that simple.
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