Posted on 07/17/2007 8:57:58 PM PDT by SeafoodGumbo
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Dissident U.S. intelligence officers angry at former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld helped a European probe uncover details of secret CIA prisons in Europe, the top investigator said on Tuesday.
Swiss Senator Dick Marty, author of a Council of Europe report on the jails, said senior CIA officials disapproved of Rumsfeld's methods in hunting down terrorist suspects, and had agreed to talk to him on condition of anonymity.
"There were huge conflicts between the CIA and Rumsfeld. Many leading figures in the CIA did not accept these methods at all," Marty told European Parliament committees, defending his work against complaints it was based on unnamed sources.
The report issued last month said the Central Intelligence Agency ran secret jails in Poland and Romania, with the complicity of those governments, and transported terrorist suspects across Europe in secret flights.
Poland and Romania have repeatedly denied hosting CIA prisons on their soil.
"People in the CIA felt these things were not consonant with the sort of intelligence work they normally do," Marty said.
He said he had based his findings largely on conversations with "high officials of the CIA (and) highly placed European office-holders, who for different reasons, often honorable reasons, were ready to explain what had happened."
Since he had no power to summon witnesses, subpoena documents or search buildings, he was forced to rely on such evidence, Marty said.
"ADMISSIONS"
"The Americans themselves admitted there were secret prisons, that they abducted people from the streets, that people were handed over to countries like Syria, Yemen, Egypt where they were tortured," he said.
U.S. President George W. Bush acknowledged last year that the CIA had held top al Qaeda suspects in secret overseas detention centers but did not say in which countries.
"The president of United States made a very important statement..., I think we can all expect ... in the near future further admissions," said Marty.
He also said he would not remove name of former Polish and Romanian government officials from the report, although they threatened on Tuesday to take legal action against the senator.
The report said former Polish national security adviser Marek Siwiec and former Romanian Defense Minister Ioan Pascu knew their countries had hosted secret CIA detention centers.
"I have no reason to withdraw his name. I would certainly not be prepared to apologies. He knew exactly what was happening as did his president," Marty told a news conference, referring to Siwiec and former Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski.
"I am not shaking in my shoes," he said of the libel suit that Siwiec vowed to launch in a Polish court unless Marty removed his name from the report within seven days.
Pascu challenged Marty in the hearing to substantiate his allegations or withdraw them, but the Swiss legislator did not respond directly.
This is huge. Drastic reform is need at the CIA — immediately. This is f’in outrageous...it’s treason.
But the liberals will claim he’s a hero.
Anyone who participated in this should hang or face a firing squad.
Unfortunately, they will probably make the rounds on the network news shows, giving TV interviews. Next comes the book deal.
In a country that believed in something, these people would be facing capital charges.
And yet another example - this one clearly stated and apparently cited - of the ongoing war between the CIA and the duly elected U.S. government.
This is outrageous (though I am not surprised at all).
Where are the Sedition laws in this country.
I’m so sick of Bush and his pathetic leadership.
Yeah, right. There’s nothing to believe at this point about their stories.
This is not huge. This is stupid.
If outing a desk clerk at the C.I.A. gets you 3 years then outing a covert operation in war time should get you at least 25 years in Leavenworth!
Hard labor! :(
These people need to be sought and informed permanently of their vow to the United States and to keep secrets no matter how much they disagreed with those secrets.
“When I drove out to the CIA, I thought we would be a team,” Maloof recalled ... By October, it was open warfare. They began leaking and making accusations and accusing us of setting up an operation to bypass the agency."
Is it any wonder why the MI5 considers the CIA to be useless?
ANY operative, ANY person sworn to secrecy needs held to the fire and fined, jailed or terminated based on the extent at which they have betrayed our country. It is NOT up to them to blab to the media. If something is going on, they can blab to watchdog groups but if it ends up on the Times, they need some time.
These leaks were all partisan. They were intended to smear Bush. While my regard of him is at an extreme low due to Jorge’s amnesty, position, the Potus should NOT have to deal with leaks on this level by AMERICANS! There are channels to solve these issues..those were bypassed to make political hay.
These actions, by the CIA employees, can be characterized in various ways: insubordination, espionage, treason, mutiny, anarchy, bad hair day.
ping
In Sabotage, you'll learn:
* How CIA analysts repeatedly leak details about classified intelligence programs with the dual intent of ending them and damaging the president
* How, on at least eight occasions, intelligence officials have made serious allegations of wrongdoing against the president's men--which turned out to be false
* Why, contrary to popular belief, the CIA has become predominantly liberal
* How a CIA turf battle prevented special operators from pursuing and capturing a notorious Taliban leader
* How current and former CIA officers fueled conspiracy theories that President Bush orchestrated the 9/11 attacks on America
* How a CIA leak to the New York Times deprived the U.S. of critical information in the War on Terror
* How press leaks by the CIA have damaged relations with our foreign allies in the War on Terror
* How a CIA analyst worked with Democrats to sabotage the nomination of John Bolton to the UN
* How Clinton's downsizing of the CIA led to the closing of stations in scores of jihadist breeding grounds--including Hamburg, Germany, where the 9/11 plot was hatched
From amazon's page on that book.
Notice the total disconnect between the Plamegate "crime of the century" rhetoric and the glorification of other leaks of classified secrets.
There is a guy name Pollard who is spending twenty years in jail for illegally giving secret information to our ally (israel).
This treason is equally as bad.
Bush needs to start doing the right thing for a change. If he had dealt properly and harshly with the NYT for their first disclosure of a classified program to catch terrorists, maybe there wouldn't have been a second disclosure.
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