Posted on 05/15/2006 12:39:01 PM PDT by LSUfan
Now we know. The Sunday morning CNN program hosted by Wolf Blitzer provided an explanation for at least some of the bizarre behavior in evidence lately in Washington.
In response to a video clip of Senator Jon Kyl (Republican of Arizona) making the sensible point that it is "nuts" in a time of war to be disclosing our intelligence sources and methods, former Carter National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski declared that "we are not at war." While he acknowledged that there are serious threats, he suggested that it was fear-mongering to talk about being in a war, a practice used to justify otherwise insupportable infringements on the privacy and equanimity of Americans.
Breaking the Code
This is a useful prism through which to view this week's hearings on the nomination of Air Force General Michael Hayden to become the next director of the Central Intelligence Agency. We can expect Democratic Senators and even some Republican ones to showboat as they take the nominee to task for his work in a previous incarnation as the head of the National Security Agency (NSA). In that role and at presidential direction, the general strove to use NSA's powerful and exceedingly sensitive computing and eavesdropping tools to protect us against another terrible attack by enemies bent on our destruction.
Specifically, Gen. Hayden will be excoriated for having used warrantless wiretaps to try to monitor the battlefield communications of such foes. Battlefield signal intercepts in time of war are the stock-in-trade of the National Security Agency and, indeed, of military intelligence more generally. That such intercepts involve phone calls, faxes and e-mails to or from people inside the United States simply underscores the fact that we are, indeed, at war, one that amounts to a global conflict that is different - and potentially far more dangerous - than any we have fought before.
Legislators will also assail the general for having sought phone records - not wiretaps - for millions of Americans. Such information could allow the NSA to establish links between terrorist operatives and cells in this country based on calling patterns or connections between known targets and unknown associates. Again, this is the sort of activity the public would expect our government to be doing in time of war. Indeed, polling suggests the American people overwhelmingly support the NSA's efforts on our behalf.
Still, the denunciations of such eminently sensible and legal practices as unacceptable invasions of our privacy, as illegal activity and possibly as impeachable offenses are an important foretaste of what could happen if the critics get to run one or both house of Congress after November's elections: Instead of prosecuting the war for the Free World, official Washington will be consumed with prosecuting George W. Bush.
Confirmed: There is an Anti-Bush 'Camp' at the CIA
A front-page article in Sunday's Washington Post confirms what many have long believed: Those who disagree with the President's view that we are at war with a very dangerous, state-sponsored Islamofascist ideology include "a camp within the Central Intelligence Agency that considers the war to be a diversion from counter-terrorism activity." With no hint of irony, one of the Post reporters who won a Pulitzer Prize for publishing classified information apparently leaked to the paper by one of those CIA operatives, Mary McCarthy, refers to such a cabal within the ostensibly objective, non-partisan ranks of the Agency by way of trying to rehabilitate Ms. McCarthy - who had been fired by former director Porter Goss.
Mr. Goss was subsequently dismissed by President Bush at the insistence of Director of National Intelligence (DNI) John Negroponte. Now, Mr. Bush seems about to accede to another, no less ill-advised recommendation by the DNI. Mr. Negroponte wants to rehire another member of the anti-Bush "camp," former senior CIA official Steve Kappes, to be the Agency's Number 2. Such an appointment would be, to use Sen. Kyl's term, "nuts."
After all, Kappes was reportedly removed from his previous post as CIA Deputy Director for Operations when Goss discovered that he and his deputy were engaged in unauthorized disclosures of classified information to members of the press and Congress - then defiantly refused to desist when called on it. Fortunately, members of the congressional leadership have indicated strong opposition to the Kappes candidacy. They may insist that he be subjected to the sort of polygraphing about Kappes' alleged backchanneling of information to critics of the Bush Administration that resulted in Ms. McCarthy's confession to having done the same thing.
The Bottom Line
The fate not just of this presidency but control of Congress and the security of the country may depend on whether the public is clear that we are at war - and with whom and the exceedingly high stakes associated with losing. Toward this end, the President must make a redoubled effort to drive that message home, starting with assuring that his own staff and that of the Nation's intelligence agencies share his understanding of the nature of this war and his determination to win it - both of which seem to be true of Michael Hayden.
Those who feel otherwise are certainly entitled to their view. They are even entitled to work to advance it - just not from a vantage point inside the executive branch, especially by masquerading as objective, non-partisan intelligence analysts and operatives.
Consequently, [A.S. Hudson -- administrator of the Fort Lincoln Detention Station] sought authorization to bring in a full-time German-speaking intelligence officer to eavesdrop on the detainees and to gather information on the nearby populace.Some of the citizenry, he feared, might assist in escape attempts. Intelligence work, he argued, should also include examination of the detainees' incoming and outgoing mail in order to determine their attitudes.
... Hudson and his staff set up index cards for each detainee, recording on them the names and addresses on all outgoing mail and the writers' names, addresses, and dates of arrival on all incoming mail. This practice would soon become standard procedure at all the INS camps.
A sampling of mail was to be opened and read. In addition, the chief patrol inspector ordered incoming packages inspected for unspecified contraband prior to delivery to the Germans.
"The twin towers looks more and more like an aberation, a lucky shot. Al Qaeda talks big, but hasn't struck again in America. Even the strikes in Europe, while horrific, were not of the size of 9/11."
On 9/10/2001 everyone thought Al Queada could not do any damage to us on our soil. Those who forgot the lesson of the first WTC bombing had a wakeup call on 9/11/2001. Don't be one of those the next time.
I think that regardless of what many here on FR think it will take another big AQ attack on the USA to give us the ammo to fight The Enemey Within. That includes, in no particular order, much of the Democratic Party leadership, the ACLU, the NY Times, CNN, a bunch more media, the entire left-wing ANSWER nutcase movement, govt of Mexico, and many more. Oh, yeah the Mohammadens in our midst.
It will be interesting to hear the "religion of peace" talk post, say, losing DC to a nuke.
Now I think I understand where you are coming from. I didn't before.
My mistake.
Sorry.
I said what I said. "FANTASY DECLARATION" - ooh, lets start impeachment (sarc.) Perhaps you think it is illegal to declare war?
So you admit no war declaration was made. Thank you.
NO I DONT ADMIT THAT WAR WASNT DECLARED.
(and take deep breaths first so you don't have a coronary)
A CORONARY ! more likely 2 dy laffin . PLEZ refer to your own tag
Do you always get this excited when you are wrong?
do you always have to change your tag? Actually I just pretend I'm talking to my 82 yr old mother. She gets confused too.
I change my tag regularly. Is it too hard for you to keep up with?
I have a whole list of them on my profile page in case you missed any.
Actually I just pretend I'm talking to my 82 yr old mother.
Living in a "pretend world" is troublesome from a mental health perspective.
She gets confused too.
Now, do you think that your mother's dementia is hereditary? Perhaps you should be examined. You certainly have some telling symptoms.
WHY YOU.........!!gasp, gasp NNNURSE!!
Bear in mind that I have not had a single anti-war Freeper actually answer this question.
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