Intelligence

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Is Senator Feinstein today’s Frank Church?

A number of you will recall the “Church Committee.”  It was the familiar name given the Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities chaired by Sen. Frank Church (D-ID) in 1975 to look into illegal intelligence gathering by the CIA, NSA and FBI.

Frank Church (fenndaily.com)

In the mid-1970s, Sen. Frank Church chaired a committee designed to destroy the U.S. intelligence community. (fenndaily.com)

Fourteen reports on the operational activities of these intelligence agencies included alleged abuses of law they had committed along with recommendations for reform. It was said that they represented the most extensive review of intelligence activities ever made public.

“These last two months have placed American intelligence in danger … and has raised the question whether secret intelligence operations can be conducted by the United States,” testified acting CIA Director William Colby.

Determined to damage our country’s intelligence operations, Church referred to operators as “rogue elephants.”  Donald Rumsfeld, who was working for President Gerald Ford, along with diplomat Robert Ellsworth, were credited with preventing the committee from dismantling our intelligence community. Continue reading →

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The Left is in a hurry to bury Benghazi

Dead Americans

These four dedicated Americans lost their lives in the Benghazi attack. Hillary Clinton had five months of warnings and refused to provide increased security. The left wants to sweep it all under the rug.

“Benghazi debunked,” read the headline over a Washington Post editorial board piece on Saturday.  “All that wasted noise over Benghazi attack,” declared Rem Reider in Sunday’s USA Today.

Both accounts, triggered by the release of the House Intelligence Committee report on Benghazi, were designed to put to bed any attempt to place blame with the Obama administration, including then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. The president’s failure to act decisively following the attack, and Clinton’s failure to provide proper security for the ambassador and other Americans prior to the  Sept. 11, 2012 assault, are still in question.

The Washington Post criticized Republicans for “advancing a series of bizarre conspiracy theories intended to besmirch the Obama administration.”

“For the past three years,” wrote Reider, “the right has worked feverishly to turn Benghazi into a major scandal, a cudgel with which to batter President Obama and former secretary of state Hillary Rodham Clinton.” Continue reading →

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Know when it’s time to resign

“He (Panetta) is a guy who has had a long and storied career in Washington and has really served his country well. And it is kind of sad that in its twilight he’s done such a dishonorable thing by – at a time – by going after the president that he served at a time of a lot of different instabilities around the world.”

Bill Burton (reurters.com)

Former Obama spokesman Bill Burton was called upon to put down Leon Panetta. (Reuters.com)

 One would think the Obama administration could have provided someone with a bit of gravitas to appear on CNN to support the president amidst the latest attacks in Leon Panetta’s new book. The quote above, however, comes from Bill Burton, a former Obama spokesman, who left the West Wing more than three years ago.  Some say he left because he wasn’t picked to replaced former Press Secretary Robert Gibbs

While I am certainly not an admirer of Burton and his usual “shoot from the hip” remarks about Republicans, I must admit I agree with the first part of his statement about Panetta’s service. As I have previously written, however, I believe cabinet members, staffers and military officers, who disagree with their commander-in-chief’s positions, should do the honorable thing and resign.

The individual need not hang out all the dirty laundry in his resignation statement, but it shouldn’t be an “I’m retiring to spend more time with my family” cop-out either. It should be a clear statement that he/she opposes the president’s position on – subject – and, as a matter of integrity, I believe the president  deserves to fill my position with someone who fully supports him.

I’ve been following the political scene long enough to realize that most administration appointees simply hold down their desks until the next administration, hoping they’ll be selected for the next plum position.  And, there are those generals in the Pentagon looking for that next star, next chief-of-staff job, or joint chief slot. Continue reading →

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Obama: Making it up as he goes

“Obama’s incompetence is truly dangerous,” read the headline on a Washington Times op-ed written by Joseph Curl, I recently ran across while going through my tickler file as I prepared to write this post.

Coffe cup salute (usatoday.com)

The commander-in-chief shows outright disrespect for the military as he salutes with a Styrofoam cup in his saluting hand. (usatoday.com)

Recalling the bumbling of Jackie Gleason on the old “Honeymooners” show, “incompetence is funny, sometimes hilarious,” wrote Curl. “But in real life, incompetence can be dangerous, even life-threatening,” he added as he drew an analogy of a real-life Homer Simpson in charge of safety at a nuclear power plant.”

Curl reviewed the president’s long list of recent missteps in the Middle East beginning with his “impotent ‘red-line’ threat” that Syrian President Bashar Assad’s use of chemical weapons would prompt “enormous consequences.” Nothing. Continue reading →

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An unusual request for help at the UN

  “In a summer marked by instability in the Middle East and Eastern Europe, I know the world also took notice of the small American city of Ferguson, Missouri – where a young man was killed, and a community was divided.”

Unbelievably, those were the words of President Obama as he brought to a close his address to the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday intended to seek support for the war against – my words – Islamic extremists.

“So yes, we have our own racial tensions,” he went on to say, “And like every country, we have our racial and ethnic tensions.”

Can you believe it? Comparing the Ferguson shooting to the beheading and mass killings by ISIL, al Qaeda and other Islamist extremist spin-offs?

Courtesy elektroka

(Poster courtesy elektroka)

Nine paragraphs into his speech, he finally gets to the point. “There is much to be done to meet the tests of this moment. But today I’d like to focus on two defining questions at the root of many our challenges – whether the nations here today will be able to renew the purpose of the UN’s founding (he’s dreaming); and whether we will come together to reject the cancer of extremism (not likely).”  He left them with this less than memorable quote, “For America, the choice is clear.  We choose hope over fear.”  “Hope,” where have we heard that before?

We are facing the most barbaric, evil terrorists we could have imagined, and our president is talking “hope?”

I was also taken aback by an earlier statement in his speech. “I have made it clear that America will not base our entire foreign policy on reacting to terrorism. Rather, we have waged a focused campaign against al Qaeda and its associated forces – taking out their leaders, and denying them the safe havens they rely upon.”  Then he said, “At the same time, we have reaffirmed that the United States is not and never will be at war with Islam.  Islam teaches peace.  Muslims the world over aspire to live with dignity and a sense of justice.  And when it comes to America and Islam, there is no us and them – there is only us, because millions of Muslim Americans are part of the fabric of our country.”  Really, Mr. President?  How do you think Americans would respond to a poll on that? Continue reading →

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Lack of security in Benghazi points to Clinton

On March 28, 2012, U. S. Ambassador to Libya Gene Cretz sent a cable to then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton requesting additional security assets. The response, bearing Clinton’s signature, while acknowledging his request, instead articulates a plan to scale back security for the U. S. Mission in Libya, including the Benghazi Mission. – Source: INTERIM PROGRESS REPORT for the Members of the Republican Conference on the Events Surrounding the September 11, 2012 Terrorist Attack in Benghazi, Libya

Gowdy (LIBERTYNEWS.COM)

Rep. Trey Gowdy will chair the House select committee on Benghazi that gets underway on Wednesday. (LibertyNews.com)

In the two years following the attack, Congressional hearings and media reports have, for the most part, concentrated on the night of the attack. They questioned whether we could have dispatched air assets in time, if there was a stand-down ordered and if so who ordered it?

While answers to those questions are important, my effort since that fateful night has focused on the failure to provide proper security despite five months of warnings. I firmly believe Hillary Clinton is clearly responsible for placing Ambassador Chris Stevens and other Americans in jeopardy not only that night but in the preceding months. Continue reading →

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Yes, Bin Laden is dead, but …

Dr. Afridi (mohammed rauf AFP getty images

Dr. Shakil Afridi was imprisoned for helping the United States identify the location of Osama Bin Laden. Three years of quiet diplomacy has not helped to secure his release. (Mohammed Rauf photo/AFP/Getty images)

“Bin Laden is dead”…. “we took out Bin Laden” How often have we heard those words over the past three years in speeches by President Obama, Vice President Biden and members of the national security team?

But what about Dr. Shakil Afridi? “Who’s he?” would likely be the response from most Americans.  Using the cover of a door-to-door vaccination program, Doctor Afridi, was the key to our locating Bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

The doctor was first tried for “conspiracy against the State of Pakistan and high treason;” charges that carry the death penalty. He was later sentenced to 33 years in prison for lesser trumped up charges. Continue reading →

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Our community organizer is taking us into an “unwar” against an enemy of “non-Islamists”

In the hours leading up to any major presidential address, the media starts their countdown – we’re just six hours, five hours, four hours … from President Obama’s speech on the ISIS threat. It’s followed by the question posed to some member of Congress – what does the president have to say tonight?  Last night was no different.

The president missed his opportunity again, but I wasn’t disappointed because after six years of his presidency I no longer expect him to say the right thing.

obama (pool image, getty images)

President Obama again missed an opportunity to exhibit his understanding of the ISIS threat during his address to the nation. (pool photo, Getty images)

He started his speech with the usual “we took out Osama bin Laden” and reminded us of his mistake in bringing Americans home from Iraq and his plan to do the same win Afghanistan. Most military leaders say that a contingent of troops left in Iraq could have prevented the ISIS push across the Syrian border.

Some blame Obama’s failure to get a status of forces agreement in Iraq, but he didn’t really try to get one, because he didn’t want one. He sold his base on getting out of Iraq beginning in 2007 and has never wavered from that agenda. Continue reading →

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Obama has full confidence in lying CIA director

When the shoe is on their foot, Democrats want you to look the other way and pretend it didn’t happen.

Take the case of CIA spying on the Senate.  “As far as the allegations of CIA hacking into Senate computers, nothing could be further from the truth,” said CIA Director John Brennan, appearing before the Council on Foreign Relations on March 11, 2014.… read more