rssThe Takeaway From Leon Panetta’s Op-Ed
Monday, August 03, 2009 at 9:15 am
- 3 Comments
Read Marcy Wheeler for a blistering takedown of CIA Director Leon Panetta’s Washington Post op-ed yesterday. The short version of Panetta’s argument is that he proved his good faith by informing Congress about the “significant actions” he shuttered, but Congress reacted with “a fresh round of recriminations about the past.” Stop the violence!
The op-ed itself is a jumble of different points, from the idea that Congress and the intelligence community need to come to a “balance” over the role of each to a plea not to investigate or prosecute “public servants who did their duty pursuant to the legal guidance provided” on — he doesn’t specify, but — torture or warrantless surveillance or other stuff. Rep. Rush Holt (D-N.J.) may have Panetta shook. So what to make of this?
All of Panetta’s mishmash of points go in one direction. It’s all stuff CIA wants to hear in an era of tumult and possible criminal investigation. Just count all the chest-puffing references to how rad the agency is. “Our present tools are effective, we use them aggressively to go after our enemies, and Congress has been briefed on them. … The men and women of the CIA truly are America’s first line of defense. … The time has come for both Democrats and Republicans to take a deep breath and recognize the reality of what happened after Sept. 11, 2001.” If there remains doubt that Panetta could be a forceful advocate for an agency that he didn’t really have much experience with, the op-ed ought to remove it. It reads like an attempt to stick up for his troops against a particularly annoying Democratic Congress.
Except for one thing. Read this paragraph:
The time has come for both Democrats and Republicans to take a deep breath and recognize the reality of what happened after Sept. 11, 2001. The question is not the sincerity or the patriotism of those who were dealing with the aftermath of Sept. 11. The country was frightened, and political leaders were trying to respond as best they could. Judgments were made. Some of them were wrong. But that should not taint those public servants who did their duty pursuant to the legal guidance provided. The last election made clear that the public wanted to move in a new direction.
That’s not sticking up for the frontline interrogators who carried out the abusive treatment of, say, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed. That’s Panetta sticking up for the CIA senior leadership under George Tenet who helped design, implement and protect it. And that’s much different from what Panetta’s said in the past.
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3 Comments
Comment posted August 3, 2009 @ 1:27 pm
Tenet got a Medal of Freedom
It is obvious- it is more than Congress Mr. Panetta- with all due respect.
Dick Cheney is not allowed to come out and have his evil agenda un opposed.
It was DIck's CIA – Mr. Panetta.
How many times has Joe Biden been to CIA Headquarters?
Maybe Dick should have shut his mouth.
Maybe Dick should not have colluded in the exposure of Valerie Plame to achieve his agenda-
Whatever that was- Shall we forget it all? Halliburton- KBR – Killing our soldiers with egregiopus no bid contracting- Black Water- More pitiful milestones for 8 years of their actions!
The man with five deferments is the best to advise our military and security.
9-11 happened on Mr. Cheney's watch.
Spain is coming Dick keep talking! Now after Liz- UK is also!
In the 2009 during his appearance on Face the Nation – Cheney would not agree to testify 'UNDER OATH’. Why is this acceptable, we the people, for the people, by the people?
9-11 happened on Mr. Cheney's watch. We seem to bypass this fact- why?
After years of analysis – Tom Kean, the Republican co-chair of the 9-11 Commission, has said the attacks could have been prevented.
Before they took office, senior Bush administration officials were briefed repeatedly about the al Qaeda threat.
Clinton National Security Adviser Sandy Berger told incoming National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice,
“I believe that the Bush administration will spend more time on terrorism in general, and on al Qaeda specifically, than any other subject.''
All the Republicans were screaming about Sandy Berger stealing papers and Clinton’s BJ.
Yet Cheney 'knew relatively nothing'
When Dick went on the Fox clown show stating Al Qaida was “relatively” unknown on September 11, 2001 “one must wonder- where the hell he was?
I guess he really was too busy with the country’s ENERGY policy- BEHIND a closed door! Halliburton- KBR and Backwater and God only knows what else-
9 Billion Dollars in Iraq is still UN accounted for- You think that could help with our deficit the people who lost it are screaming about?
Central Intelligence Agency initiative terminated by Director Leon Panetta
How do you terminate an initiative that never began?
Is that an 'oxymoron'?
8+ years of the 'C' crowd – what did we get?
Attacked on September 11, 2001- the worst ever in our history!
The world warned us not to invade Iraq- What did we do?
We renamed French Fries and invaded Iraq.
8 years ago – MOST AMERICANS would not condone TORTURE
John McCain claimed that he “believes” no other POTUS would ever do this. (Torture)
This is absurd- what happened to trust but verify Reagan mantra?
Surely- a country that has declined in educating themselves- Worldwide Americans do not even rank in the top 25 for education “will now re-define what torture is and rely on John McCain’s belief?
Feb ’08 it was revealed that Al-Qaeda suspects 'plotted attack on Britain' from behind bars
Italian police have arrested two alleged al-Qaeda terrorists suspected of planning attacks on Britain and France from inside prison.
They have been in prison in Bari, a port town in southern Italy, since November, when they were arrested on suspicion of smuggling five illegal immigrants into Italy aboard a camping trailer.
Yet we cannot educate the American people enough to house Gitmo detainees.
Joe Scarborough on MSNBC revealed that the CIA is speaking to Cheney daily.
Dick can still speak with CIA but American People cannot?
This is the Problem Mr. Panetta- a real problem!
Comment posted August 3, 2009 @ 4:48 pm
It always goes back to “mistakes were made,” passive voiced hand wringing.
And of course, “[t]he last election made clear that the public wanted to move in a new direction,” isn't a new low in D.C. cynicism, but it's still revolting.
Comment posted August 3, 2009 @ 4:51 pm
George W. Bush (The Corporal of Industry) and the C.I.A.
George W. Bush. (The Corporal of Industry), used the people's and the congresses belief that all presidents have the integrity to separate defense of country, from defense of politics. He bullied the congress into accepting his viewpoint. The congress would back down, believing that no one who had been elected president could so blatantly lie and distort the facts. Bush's lies are still being defended to this day.
The CIA has problems and they should be addressed, but Congress must accept that it was deceived and made a fool of by George W. Bush. Congressional oversight of the CIA really became CIA oversight of the CIA during the Bush Administration. Porter Goss, a former CIA operative, was the head of the House Intelligence Committee before becoming head of the CIA. The CIA's man in the U. S. Senate (Bill Nelson D-Fl), in a rare show of non-partisanship, immediately supported the republican Goss's nomination,. The CIA penetration of the House and and Senate allowed it to disrupt, divide, and lie to the Senate and Congressional committees. With the blessings of the Bush administration the CIA wouldn't have to worry about any non-Bushies looking over their shoulders.
Most of the CIA leadership was smart enough not to have anything to do with the Bushies, but a few did come forward and offered up their souls to the Bushies. These are the people who are fighting any investigation within the CIA. All the power that they had accumulated during the Bush administration would be lost. They could find themselves at the mercy of the laws and the people that they had stepped on in getting to their present positions.
Congress must face the fact that they had been fooled and that the soldiers in intelligence community were doing what they were told to do. Congress must now take the difficult road of investigating the prosecuting the people who gave those orders. Some suggestions: George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, David Addington, Alberto Gonzales, Douglas Feith, John Yoo and Jay S. Bybee.
P.S. Did I mention that the CIA's man in the U. S. Senate (Bill Nelson D-Fl) said Leon Panetta was a close friend.
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