Congress is shocked – shocked – to learn that there are other players at the Washington power table:
Democrats charged Tuesday that the CIA has released documents about congressional briefings on harsh interrogation techniques in order to deflect attention and blame away from itself…
Intelligence Committee member Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) said it appears that “members of the committee or their staff were not in any way involved in [the release of the document]. It appears to come from the executive branch itself. … I think it’s unbelievable.”
It reminds me a bit about the Tailhook witchunt that took place just as the House check kiting scandal was occupying the news.
Meanwhile, congressional aides are responding like junior officers. Sometimes, under pressure? They have this nasty habit of blurting out the truth:
A source close to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi now confirms that Pelosi was told in February 2003 by her intelligence aide, Michael Sheehy, that waterboarding was actually used on CIA detainee Abu Zubaydah.
This appears to contradict Pelosi’s account that she was never told waterboarding actually happened, only that the administration was considering using it.
Any time the power center shifts in the capital there are re-alignments as power centers probe for weakness and strength. Power calculations are made and alliances are built. With seasoned and ambitious Democratic pols atop Congress and a freshman in the top seat at the White House, Congress was bound to attempt to re-assert the sort of policy dominance it had post-Watergate.
The federal bureaucracy always has a vote, although it must of necessity be a subtle one. For now at least, it looks as though CIA has thrown in for the other side.
Of course, this kind of thing never really ends and the process should be fun to watch.
Or it would be, were not so very much at stake.
Hey, maybe while he’s waiting to become a Senator, Al Franken could write his next book, “Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Left”
Navig8r/
GREAT snark!!
During those “formative years” at the hands of the Jesuits, I had one lesson never forgotten: the best way to lie is to tell half the truth. That way, even under severe duress imposed by an 18 inch ruler, one would not forget the truth-maybe details but not the truth. Seems Miss Nancy needs that lesson whacked or waterboarded into her.
In short order you will see the “one” seek private revenge on the CIA. The machine of the left is trying to hunt-and-kill dissent regardless of fact or freedoms.
Just saying.
Regarding your link to the SSA status, and to today’s AP story that “House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Wednesday that her chamber would have a sweeping health care bill on the floor by the end of July, an announcement that President Barack Obama hailed.”
No doubt in my military mind they’ll try anew to raise premiums for TricarePrime and such (because it’s so unfair we pay so little) and to offset Social Security benefits for military retirees by all or portions of their military retirement pay (because we really shouldn’t be double dipping; it’s so unfair, when so many have so little).
I just today had to go to DFAS and adjust my Fed Withholding thanks to the Adminisration’s shell game with my money. “See, Obabma gave us retirees a raise!” Yep, without asking, they directed DFAS to withhold less making it look like you earned more. The bill comes due in the form of what you owe at the end of the tax year. Smoke and mirrors, as though no-one is watching.
And lest the social do-gooders and trolls who periodically visit here try to assert that I’m simply unpatriotic and am looking out only for myself and my family, and not the greater good: you go pay your dues, meet the terms of your contracts, perform your service, earn your benefits, and get back to me.
That little shell game with withholding has conned a lot of people–most of the people I mention it to think their taxes are actually going down and have no idea that they’ll have paid just as much after they’ve filed.
bc/
Yeah, I love it when we’re accused of actually “hating” our country because we don’t totally back The Won. (I’ve ACTUALLY had someone with the gall to tell me that to my face–of course I’m sittin’ out here in Kalif in LA for the nonce–so why should I expect anything otherwise?)
Of course my reply is always like you–get away from my doorstep and peddle that patriotic “contribution” stuff somewhere else, ’cause I’m tapped out–I already gave at the office….
I’m sitting here this am watching the comments on the testimony of that disgruntled ex-FBI interrogator who is claiming that water-boarding was unnecessary and that HE got all the “really vital” info from Abu Zebada(sp?) using “normal” techniques; and the MSNBC types (know your enemy) are falling all over themselves saying this only confirms water-boarding is/was never needed, yadda yadda.
Of course, the thought never seems to occur to them (or they are careful never to point it out when doing so would hurt their cause) that not only are there always inter-agency rivalries, there are also intra-agency ones as well. Not to mention personal ones which have historically been known to be monumental.
The classic example that always comes to mind for me was the case of the Navy Intel Capt and his intel shop at Pearl Harbor HQ who broke the Japanese code that led to our victory at Midway. The big kids in intel at the Pentagon wanted to take all the credit for it and when this guy fought back and stuck to his guns and stood up for his people he was rewarded for his temerity at protesting the injustice–even if only via in-house comm.–by being assigned command of a dry-dock in SF bay for the rest of the war.
Think of the waste of brain-power and experience right in the midst of the all-time epic battle with mortal enemies with the issue still in doubt!
It wasn’t as if he could be easily replaced because we had a million experienced Intel officers with a proven track record or anything. But NOO00000oooo, bureaucratic infighting came before winning the war. Priorities, you know.
And it’s not as if there aren’t lots of other examples that could also be dredged up to add perspective to this Democrat-led dog & pony show that they’re calling hearings with all this slanted, one-sided testimony. No, the MSNBC types are eatin’ that shit with a spoon–every word of this guy is the gospel to them. Typical. Thanks God, thanks Big Guy for inventing rum….and making sure that there’s LOTS of it. (and bourbon, tequila, Irish Whiskey, Cognac and every other distilled spirit I can get my hands on–I’m needing it ALL in these days of the rule of the Obamassiah.)
VX, in my observation, CIA are close to rank amateurs when it comes to interrogation, and FBI, especially the experienced field agents, are very good at it. I don’t know who’s telling the truth about Abu Zubaidah, but just having seen what I’ve seen in the sandbox, I’d put my money on the FBI agent hands down. However, we should continue to waterboard Abu Zubaidah regularly, just on principle.
There’s a cartoon going around our circles right now, the difference between NSA and CIA. Two stick figures are holding a laptop. NSA: Oh no, he encrypted the laptop. We’ll need a million-dollar cluster to crack it. Arrgh, 4096-bit RSA, we’re foiled. CIA: Oh no, he encrypted the laptop. No problem, just drug him and hit him with this wrench until he gives us the password.
Finally, CAPT Taylor’s crew in Hawaii broke the Japanese codes, IIRC, and he certainly didn’t end up CO of a drydock. Might want to double-check that story.
From Wikipedia:
“Allied code-breaking
Admiral Nimitz had one priceless asset: American and British cryptologists had broken the JN-25 code.[40] Commander Joseph J. Rochefort and his team at HYPO were able to confirm Midway as the target of the impending Japanese strike, to determine the date of the attack as either 4 or 5 June, and to provide Nimitz with a complete IJN order of battle…………….
He ended up in command of a floating dry dock in San Francisco. He never worked on codes again.”
More:
““ Rochefort, meanwhile, proceeded to make “several mistakes in a great big hurry,” as he himself put it. Worn out, suffering from bronchitis, and made more prickly than ever by the Redmans’ attempt to steal the credit for his work, Rochefort said he would not accept any assignment in radio intelligence unless he was sent back to Honolulu as officer in charge. Failing that, he demanded combat duty. Cryptanalysts were forbidden to enter combat zones: they knew too much that they might give away if captured and tortured by the enemy. But Rochefort pulled every string he could think of and was offered command of a destroyer, only to turn it down because the ship was leaving at once from San Francisco and he had promised his wife they would visit their son at West Point that same weekend – “a very stupid thing for me to have done,” Rochefort later said. He ended up in command of a floating dry dock in San Francisco. He never worked on codes again. ”
I don’t see this as a power play. I think it’s a reaction to Congress’ known proclivity to send everyone else but themselves down with the ship.
Congress is busily placing the scuttling charges and the CIA is responding by cutting loose the life rafts. “If we’re going down you’re still going to be on board.”
I have to wonder if this might be a case of payback in the wonderful world of Democratic politics.
Nancy Pelosi has a well earned reputation of playing political hardball and screwing anyone who crosses her, regardless of party or place of origin. Look at what she did to Jane Harmon (D-CA) who was not only the senior Democrat on the Intelligence Committee when the Democrats took over the House, but was also from California. (And, by the way, is apparently the ONLY Democrat – or Republican for that matter – who raised questions about the appropriateness of water boarding at the time of the briefings.) Harmon, by rights, should have become Chairman of the Intelligence Committee, but Pelosi screwed her for a bozo who couldn’t even identify the difference between Sunni and Shia.
One has to wonder if perhaps she didn’t do something similiar along the way to Leon Panetta who is now in a position to return the favor. Isn’t it a old Italian saying that vengance is a dish best served cold?
It seems to me that there would be any number of reasons for CIA to have “misplaced” those memos for the record on who attended briefings and what was covered if they really wanted to protect the Chief Democrat in the House, unless, of course, you were just waiting for the opportunity to shove it in and twist it a little.
Since Pelosi, and her nutty friends of the far left, seem intent on doing a rehash of the McCarthy hearings, I can hardly wait to see who gets to appear on television and look her right in the eye and say “Madam Speaker, have you no shame?”
The Chinese have a saying: Before setting out for revenge, dig two graves; one for your enemy and one for yourself.
I actually think that the CIA might prevail over Obama and Pelosi. I’ll also admit to a bit of schadenfreude over this.
So now we have the facts as stated by two sources against the statements of Pelosi.
All I can say is it’s going to be awfully difficult to haul Bush Administration folks in front of Congress and make them testify under oath without also having Pelosi go through the same ordeal.
Which, were I a CIA staffer working for The Company and not necesarially the administration or the congress, would suit me just fine.
– Max
Pelosi lies when her lips are moving. Should that surprise anyone?
Never heard of this Taylor guy.
Joe Rochefort? AF short of water?
Smoking jacket? The basement in the shipyard? Yeah, we ALL heard of him.
Conclusion. Zane ain’t one of us.
Sorry Zane.