Posted on 08/25/2010 7:30:18 PM PDT by markomalley
America has long been an exporter of terrorism, according to a secret CIA analysis released Wednesday by the Web site WikiLeaks. And if that phenomenon were to become a widely held perception, the analysis said, it could damage relations with foreign allies and dampen their willingness to cooperate in "extrajudicial" activities, such as the rendition and interrogation of terrorism suspects.
That is the conclusion of the three-page classified paper produced in February by the CIA's Red Cell, a think tank set up after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks by then-CIA Director George J. Tenet to provide "out-of-the-box" analyses on "a full range of analytic issues."
Titled "What If Foreigners See the United States as an 'Exporter of Terrorism'?," the paper cites Pakistani American David Headley, among others, to make its case that America is a terrorism exporter. This year Headley pleaded guilty to conducting surveillance in support of the 2008 Lashkar-i-Taiba attacks in Mumbai, which killed more than 160 people. The militant group facilitated his movement between the United States, Pakistan and India, the agency paper said.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
So none of this is earth shattering and I think I could have written the same paper using common logic.
See my reply #41. I agree with you.
This was no doubt an intentional leak by the Obama administration intended to undermine US foreign policy. The order to write this paper probably came from the top.
With due respect, I SO disagree. The more time he is partying the less damage he will do. That's what the Congresscritters need to do, also. Go party and quit oppressing us.
On my list of ways to restore our Constitutional heritage, that has been my second solution after term limits - REDUCED CONGRESSIONAL SESSIONS. The Texas legislature meets every 2 years. Get the professional politicians out of DC and State Capitols so they can do less harm! Then our Republic may have a chance.
When I was stationed at Bragg I was on a small three day leave camping and Marcinko and some other of his crew were a few sites over. I had to go over and meet the men( and his wife I think can't remember now). It was pretty funny, I challenged all of them to a swim contest and did okay except one person who happened to be world class. Of course he called me a limp dicked knuckledragging army puke and I called him a paint sniffing lower than pond scum guppie...only thing I really wish was having him sign my dog eared paperback copy of "Rogue Warrior." But alas, never happened. I always wondered if in my prime I could have made it as a SEAL, my cousin( 2nd cousin) as mentioned here is a SEAL( aka butterball) and he told me it was hard, very hard. So, now occasionally I wonder.
Red Cell uh? Maybe the pentagon took up where Marcinko left off. Doesn't Marcinko run a security business now?
I don't mean to minimize the training and expertise of the other spec-ops guys (Rangers, Delta Force, Special Forces, CIA units, et al). Respect them all, and I know I would have never pasted their training, except for probably Airborne. I went Aviation Navy just because it was a better fit for me having grown up around the beach.
Although, by now there are probably other Western nations (England?) who have similar training similar to SEALs.
SEALs are our very best. I was proud to call them "shipmates" during my time in the Navy while stationed at Coronado, San Diego.
Butterball? Is that a nickname for your cousin or a new name for SEALs. I've been out since 1986. Thank you for serving, ARMY.
oh soooo absolutely!!! yes we need to reign these critters in -too much money is being made off the backs of others and going into their pockets wouldn’t you say? also with term limits it restrains over-familiarity (which is good imho) .
The Wa. Poo is pro-terrorist so does this mean that they will now speak more kindly of the CIA?
...yeah, we’re going to beat al Queda. :(:(:(
What a stupid story, this is not anout the US Government “exporting terrorism” it is about home grown criminal terrorists. Big deal.
Well last first, we always called LT's Butterballs depending on first or second. Don't know what the navy calls them.
I was fortunate to be in a team with Airborne ranger training first, then Special ops where I did my OCS at Benning along with sniper training( a bit different than Bragg) then off to Coronado for some training( merely four weeks, then hopped to Camp Pendleton and back to Camp Peary where I went elsewhere( few forts in between All told it was about 13 months plus five more months training).
I figure to be absolutely honest I wouldn't have made the SEAL grade. My cousin( 1st lt) is sinewy, strong, and smarter than the average person. I watched him grow up and on the farm( lives to this day on the farm) he took up shooting well, then hunting and surfing(in the family, no cords[strap on legs]) so he was a great ocean swimmer and had a goal since early on in life to be a SEAL. He really was a talent others had to work for but came to him naturally and he has a penchant for languages also
So I'm NOT disagreeing with you, in fact I agree wholeheartedly, and they cross train with amazing SAS, French elite, israel Sayyeret Mhktal( sp?) which I was fortunate to train a little with, and well the SEAL's are awesome hands down. Don't have to look far( Somalia four shots four kills) to see their expertise.
I have a few fun stories( not on here though) about training with some of the very best, and me just getting knocked around, being waterboarded9 since i surfed a LOT also it's not all that bad...there's other types of torture and SERE training that I absolutely hated way worse than waterboarding).
Not the place for stories on a thread regarding a CIA" Red Cell" which I think is just a common name with Christians In Action. But I will say, once in country in a hole named "hell" we had a two SEAL's attached to our unit( this was rare, even had a couple marine recon scouts with us) and due to my medical training( enginneering in college, minored in nursing)I remained close to the corpsman. Most folks in out unit besides three of us( me and two others) were two tour nam guys with multiple ops) elsewhere; dang, I thank GOD for them, all of them.
So, I think I'd have done well in some SEAL stuff but I'd probably be a bell ringer. Like you I'm proud of my small opportuity to train with some, better still have to great SEAL friends to this day and some stories, well, like I said, I'd probably have been a bell ringer and back into the fleet building something, heck I don't know.
When I was a teen we were all partying and I told him about my desire to join and he had some nasty strong words( he was 30 years older than me). After which when he decided I was firm in my commitment he calmed down and told me this story( I'll have to paraphrase)
We trained continuously and some of those islands were a bastard. not many of the navy believed our charts, the currents and such and those stories of guys catching bullets when diving close to the beach, well some are true. And we did sometimes put up signs occasionally welcoming the marines
We were at this one island. It had another island adjacent to it( I can't remember the name sorry). And the currents were tremendous plus te coral for a landing made it not good for the LST's they had so we were planning to set chargeds and they could just roll up to the beach. But anyway we had to get in close and we could actually see the machine gun nests, sometimmes japs( what he called them) walking along smoking cigarettes. I was one of the few that got caught in the current, missed the scheduled time the boat was to pick me up
Plan B was to run across this island and a submarine would pick me up at a certain time. If I missed that time well, hell, that was it. So I get up on the beach and start running through the jungle to the other side. You know all we had was a knife, swim fins I had to carry and a knife strapped to my leg, I come around this bend and what do you know some jap kid in full gear,, even his samurai sword. I look at him, stop. he looks at me and stops dead. We both look crazy scared, I know I was and WHAM we just both yelled and ran the other way.
That was the closest I got throughout the whole war coming close to the enemy and I just scooted. Made it to the sub and that was the end of it. But that island was hell, they never listened and the beach was just a F***ing killing ground. I'm telling you this to let you know, war is hell and there just aren't no John Wayne's in the military. it's you, your buddy and fear. don't let anyone tell you different.
The pragmatic/relativistic side of me could put up with dirty tricks and worse during the Cold War - which by the way would never have happened had the US stuck by its core principles. After all, the Cold War was far more than an economic war—its very rationale was couched in language appealing to our core moral principles: individual freedom vs collectivism.
But since at least the end of Reagan's era we have been backsliding on morality and behaving badly in order to prop up our economic interests - not our Judaeo-Christian moral foundations.
That is the fast downhill spiral we find ourselves spinning in.
Road Trip ?.......:o)
Wikileaks needs to be taken out behind the woodshed.
Hear, hear!
No hero here. I’d rather the kudos go to the “navy vet” and the ‘nam guys that stuck it out after vietnam to train folks like me to survive, they’re the heros. Without them I wouldn’t be writing this.
That’s ok...I still think you’re a hero!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.