Posted on 04/24/2006 7:03:57 AM PDT by Diddle E. Squat
I substantially agree with Jonah’s point that the extraordinary amount of money at issue here is relevant but not dispositive when it comes to divining Mary McCarthy’s motives. But I do think it’s highly relevant – not just another fact in a firmament of facts.
That’s because McCarthy’s situation cannot be considered in a vacuum. Even with McCarthy considered alone, we are not talking about a single leak – the reporting indicates that she may be a serial leaker, the black-sites story being only the most prominent instance. But the broader context here is an intelligence community that was, quite brazenly, leaking in a manner designed to topple a sitting president. A big question here -- maybe not for purposes of guilt under the espionage act, but for the more important policy issue of a politicized CIA -- is whether she was part of a campaign that was grossly inappropriate for the intelligence community to engage in.
Remember Michael Scheuer, aka “Anonymous.” It is simply dumbfounding that, as an intelligence officer heading up the bin Laden team (i.e., the unit targeting the number one, active national security problem facing the country) he was permitted by the CIA to write books about what he was doing. He has indicated, though, that it was fine with the agency as long as he was slamming the Bush administration.
Valerie Plame Wilson thought the whole Bush administration notion that Saddam was trying to arm up with nukes was crazy. She maneuvered to have, not an objective analyst, but her husband – with no WMD expertise but an enemy of the president’s policy – sent to Niger, whence he returned and wrote a highly partisan, misleading and damaging op-ed in the NYTimes about the Bush administration’s case for toppling Saddam … which op-ed he was permitted by the self-same CIA to write notwithstanding that his trip was (and should have been) classified.
All the while, there has been a steady drumbeat from the former intelligence officers – who anonymously fill Seymour Hersh books when they are not venting their spleens on the record – attacking every aspect of the administration’s handling of the war on terror.
This has all been steady since 9/11. But it was especially frenetic in the run-up to the 2004 election (and the flavor of it ran throughout the 9/11 Commission hearings and, to a somewhat more muted extent, in the Commission’s final report). The transparent purpose of it was to get Senator Kerry elected.
Now we find that an intelligence officer who was leaking information very damaging to Bush was a Kerry backer to a degree that was extraordinary for a single person on a government salary, and, even more extraordinarily, gave $5K of her own money to Democrats in the key swing state (Ohio) that, in the end, did actually decide the election.
From where I sit, that’s pretty damn relevant.
Yes, he needed to fire thousands. It still needs to happen. Now ask yourself which one of the mild mannered "leaders" of the GOP would take that action in his first 100 days if elected (unlikely) in 2008? Romney? Allen? McCain? Dream on.
Will we now begin to see the fruits of Porter Goss's internal review or is this it? The dragging on of the Libby-Wilson-Plame affair makes me skeptical that we will ever get to the bottom of this cess pool.
Please FReepmail me if you want on or off my ‘miscellaneous’ ping list.
"Yes, he needed to fire thousands. It still needs to happen. Now ask yourself which one of the mild mannered "leaders" of the GOP would take that action in his first 100 days if elected (unlikely) in 2008? Romney? Allen? McCain? Dream on.'
Allen, maybe. Then again maybe not.
What I can almost say with certain is if one Hillary Clinton or probably any other Rat wins in 2008, every Bush appointee will be sent to the unemployment line the minute they take the oath. I think Bill Clinton did that in 1993.
When the GOP(Congress and White House) grows a pair, the Rats will become the minority party for a very, very long time.
We need to plug the fact that the 'victim' here is the American people and our government.
As I sit here, the drums are beating - every 5 minutes - on the Halloway case in Aruba! - 10 months of daily saturation. And now it switches back and forth to the very murky 'rape' case of the Duke team....
I'm sorry, but is there not something very wrong here? Are not such incidences as this CIA leak, the John Paul case against the Clintooons, the fake case against Libby, the docs that disclose Saddam's complicity with the terrorists and his hiding of WMD from the inspectors, etc, at least as important?
I am beginning to smell the very foul and dangerous breath of some deep controlling entities that are hell bent to take over this country - with the very effective aid of their henchmen puppets, the libs in government and the MSM.
How else do people like Delay and Libby and Lott, Gingrich, - on and on - get railroaded and their reputations and careers scuttled while the libs skate on thru real crimes untouched. For ex: in just the past two weeks - Why does McKinney not only not get arrested for breaking the law, but is not even brought up on ethic charges? (The Victoria's Secret model that slugged the airlines steward - not a law enforcement officer, even -got her hiney arrested right quick)
Why is this CIA traitor not behind bars where she cannot continue to divulge classified information? Why is the media not connecting the dots of her connections and who they are - big time enemies of this country.
The "NEWS" is saturated now - STILL _ with the Halloway case, the Duke case and the Enron case. While Rome burns in the background...
"We need people who don't give over their souls and consciences to their employer."
Vicevich slappin' her down with the FACTS... explaining why these overseas prisons needed to be kept secret, and how McCarthy's leaks are putting people's lives in danger. Becky continuing to let emotion rule over reason... she's spouting off (and is becoming louder and more "upset") about how dare the "the US can use any means necessary to extract information... that's creepy!" *barf*
Is Mary McCarthy from Massachusetts?
Does anyone know how much money a person at her (government) level/in her CIA position would be paid in a year?
THAT, mr clinton, is intellectual honesty.
And as far as your suggestion that he behave more like x42..........it's not even worth a comment.
Mary McCarthy (D, CIA)
"There is potentially a lot more exposure than is being reported. The IG is more than a watchdog group for the director. The have the authority to perform a QA type function on the quality of an assessment, rewriting a specific finding they believe to be poorly sourced. They can define the minimum source/document threshold that determines if an intelligence finding is actionable."
The influence McCarthy potentially had is frightening.
"To really get an idea if this person had an agenda would be to examine any rewrite of assessments or her personal analysis of data."
I'm with you and hope that a review is performed ASAP.
Thanks for the informative post, btw.
From where I sit, that’s pretty damn relevant.
Wow! Five grand! That's what I call dedicated to the socialist Democrat cause.
Very dedicated.
I agree. Maybe we can resurrect Beria to conduct the purge because more than a few of these traitors in the CIA and the State Department desperately need to be tortured and shot for betraying their nation for short-term political gain.
Purge? How 'bout an enema?
I'm sorry, I thought most here were capable of abstract thought and could connect the dots that allowed such a person to exist and feel comfortable leaking classified info. Evidently it's pretty rampant at the CIA, so once again...who's fault is this?
Oh, and it looks like Rush started his show up by agreeing with me :-) Great minds think a like!
That was probably the biggest blunder of his first term. And now we are reaping what we have sown by not playing hardball out of the gate. "
Once again, Bush hasn't done a good job of speaking over the heads of the media. It's funny the two items that I think Bush has screwed up are brought up in one thread. Typically I support him, but I'll call a spade a spade.
Of course the liberal media and history/teachers will bash the republicans. GW tried to change the tone in Washington and all he got was a more rabip media and democracric party (but that's redundant).
I hope his WH shake-up will get him back on track, because he has done a good job not losing congress while he's in office...and that is truly remarkable. I'd love to stick it to the rats one more time.
rabip = rabid
I'm listening to Rush, and he did NOT say that Mary McCarthy's crimes were Bush's FAULT. He made a connection between the error of the 'new tone' and what is going on, which is legitimate.
But he did not lay the blame of this on Bush. (An abstract thought for you to muse on). I am making a distinction that you are apparently not 'getting.'
I believe that Bush should have ridded all clintonistas he could from the ranks (in as much as it was legal.......remember that your namesake made many political appointees civil employees making it illegal for Bush to get rid of them).
That does add up to saying that this treason is his 'fault.' You may call it nitpicking to make the distinction, but IMO, it is an important nit to pick, if one is interested in accuracy.......which I am.
Back to Rush. Good bye, mr clinton.
Exactly the stench on America breath is from the bowels not the tongue.. Its deep.. The list of malefactors grows, the list of good guys shrinks.. Some "republicans" better do something (while they CAN, if they can) because its the republic that has a "leak".. And I wish that was merely hyperbole.. it is not.. Sandy Burgluar was/is a wake up call.. McCarthy set off the smoke alarm..
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