About Me

Name: EWRoss
Email: EWR@EWRoss.com Biography
Loading...

Create Your Own Blog Find Other Townhall Blogs

Comments

Blog Roll

 

DEMOCRATS ARE PLAYING POLITICS AGAIN WITH THE CIA

Posted by EWRoss on Monday, July 13, 2009 7:00:00 AM

According to Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee, Director Leon Panetta, in a classified briefing, told them he had terminated an eight-year-old program not previously briefed to them because former Vice President Cheney directed the CIA not to. They immediately demanded an investigation into the program and Cheney's role, making accusations they could not back up with out revealing classified information.

Former CIA Director Michael Hayden reacted angrily. He said that he personally kept "top members" of Congress well-informed during his tenure. House Republicans charged that all House Democrats were doing was trying to give Speaker Nancy Pelosi political cover for her accusations that the CIA routinely lied to Congress after she denied receiving a CIA briefing on waterboarding.

Also we learned that Attorney General Eric Holder is considering appointing a special prosecutor to investigate the Bush administration's CIA interrogation practices, in contradiction to President Obama's stated desires.

Because we don't know the details of the program Panetta briefed to Congress and we don't know if CIA interrogators broke any laws, it's appropriate for a bi-partisan group of investigators reporting to the House and Senate Intelligence committees to conduct a classified look into these matters. According to Senator Diane Feinstein on Fox News Sunday, they are. If they discover any wrongdoing they can refer it to the Justice Department.

Democrats are taking big risks at the CIA's and the nation's expense if they continue to make this a public political issue and if Holder appoints a special prosecutor. Americans want their CIA to protect them from terrorist attacks, not constantly deterred from doing their job for fear of recrimination. They also expect the CIA to conduct its activities within the law, but they don't want to see it handcuffed and fog-marched in public before it's convicted.

Read my weekly columns and my current daily comment at http://ewross.com 

Previous EWRoss Dailies http://ewross.com/EWRoss_Daily.htm

Previous EWRoss weekly columns http://ewross.com/archive.htm
Email ItEmail It | Print ItPrint It | CommentsComments (0) | TrackbacksTrackbacks (0) | Flag as offensiveFlag as Offensive

SHOOTING CRAPS WITH AMERICAN LIVES

Posted by EWRoss on Thursday, June 11, 2009 8:00:00 AM
Rep. Mike Rogers, ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee's Terrorism Subcommittee, recently returned from a trip to Afghanistan. He reports that FBI agents are reading high-value detainees their Miranda rights in an apparent effort to build cases against them that will stand up in US courts.

Coupled with a recent report in the Los Angeles Times about the DOJ’s “global justice” initiative, it demonstrates that the FBI is taking a greater role in managing terrorist detainees in Afghanistan. A DOJ spokesperson stated that Justice had issued no blanked guidance on Mirandizing terror detainees in Afghanistan; but, it acknowledged it had.

This, no doubt, is a reaction to CIA waterboarding, and many Americans may approve of it. But it’s a reversion to the pre-9/11 mentality of treating global terrorism as a law-enforcement problem rather than an intelligence and military problem. Reading captured top terrorists their rights and giving them access to lawyers may get them convicted in US courts, but it will seriously damage our ability to collect obtain critical and perishable intelligence that might prevent another horrific terrorist attack. It’s shooting craps with American lives.
 
Read my weekly columns and my current daily comment at http://ewross.com
Previous EWRoss Dailies http://ewross.com/EWRoss_Daily.htm
Previous EWRoss weekly columns http://ewross.com/archive.htm
Email ItEmail It | Print ItPrint It | CommentsComments (0) | TrackbacksTrackbacks (0) | Flag as offensiveFlag as Offensive

PELOSI VS THE CIA - 'All-In' High-Stakes Poker

Posted by EWRoss on Monday, May 18, 2009 8:00:00 AM
On May 14, 2009, when Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi in a press conference accused the CIA of lying to her in 2002 and routinely misleading the US Congress (a felony under US law), she went ‘all in’ in a high-stakes poker game rarely seen in Washington, DC. She opened herself to accusations that she was either incompetent or dishonest, and she cast her position as Speaker of the House of Representatives into the pot.
 
 
Email ItEmail It | Print ItPrint It | CommentsComments (0) | TrackbacksTrackbacks (0) | Flag as offensiveFlag as Offensive
« Previous1Next »