Obama Won’t Rule Out Prosecution of ‘Torture’ Memo Authors

B. McLeod
Apr 21, 2009 1:33 PM CST

I think the President has now realized how difficult it is going to be for him to continue to waffle on the question of whether he has moral values or supports the rule of law.  Hence, a cynical decision to “distance” himself from the planned non-action, by pushing this off on Eric Holder.

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B. McLeod
Apr 22, 2009 12:31 AM CST

The whole “intelligence” community is just covering its own backside over the ongoing failure to track down Osama Bin Laden.  Somebody at the top level needs to get busy planting boots on backsides of CIA staff until they can manage to get motivated and get this done.  After eight years, the American people need some results instead of lameass excuses and bullshit stories from these damnable bureaucrats.

As far as the “significant information” story, that is bullshit too.  For any military, paramilitary or intelligence force, it is standard operating procedure to nullify, with 48 hours of an officer’s capture, all value in the information known to the captured person.  This means that all the assets and operatives known to them will be moved, and all plans known to them will be discarded, within that 48-hour period.  We do it, and everyone else does it too, because the presumption must be that the capturing force has the information once they have the captive.  This is why the Cheney story of a “thwarted attack” on Los Angeles is particularly incredible bullshit.  What really stands out is that the normal counter-measure to delay the 48-hour information cleanup (i.e., the commonsense step of not announcing to the whole world that you have the prisoner) was also totally bungled by the CIA in each case.  Simply put, it was more important to them to announce the captures for their public image than to protect whatever intelligence they might otherwise have obtained.  Once again, it was amateur hour at the CIA.  This septic tank of bumbling morons is going to need to be cleaned up, if the President cares about national security.  If we have reached the point where we have to borrow someone frm Britain or Israel that knows their ass from siccum about intelligence, so be it.  We can ill afford to keep sending in the clowns.

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B. McLeod
Apr 22, 2009 10:16 AM CST

Gosh, yes.  In the sense that attacks did not happen, they must’ve been “stopped.”  But this was done by an old guy in Minneapolis, not the CIA (same quantum of evidence supports either theory).  Oh wait, Reid, the would-be shoe bomber, was stopped by airline passengers, after the CIA utterly failed to detect the plan or take any action to stop it.  I guess they are waiting to see if some airline passengers will track down Bin Laden, too.

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B. McLeod
Apr 24, 2009 11:36 PM CST

No.  My plan is that the government should engage in more and smarter protective conduct, and spend less effort on creating false appearances that they are doing something when they are not.  In a conflict, analysis should be upon defeating the enemy, and not upon creating false appearances of progress.  More action.  Fewer lies.  Real progress.  Get Bin Laden.  (Let me know if I still need to use simpler, shorter words).

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