Category: Intelligence

Tenet and Other CIA Officials Lawyer Up

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It’s been known for some time that Jose Rodriguez has retained Bob Bennet, and now George Tenet has retained Howard Shapiro, a former FBI general coundil.

Additionally, Roy Krieger, who has represented a large number of CIA employees is getting inquiries.

These folks are experiencing the prisoner’s dilemma, and assumign that this investigation runs past January 21 of next year, the one who rolls to the prosecutor first wins.

It’s clear that these tapes were destroyed to prevent an investigation.

Heads of the 911 Commission Claim That the CIA Deliberately Obstructed Their Investigation

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The money quote is, “As a legal matter, it is not up to us to examine the C.I.A.’s failure to disclose the existence of these tapes. That is for others. What we do know is that government officials decided not to inform a lawfully constituted body, created by Congress and the president, to investigate one the greatest tragedies to confront this country. We call that obstruction.

Tom Kean and Lee Hamilton have just made a specific allegation of a crime, obstructing a federal investigation.

There are people in the Bush Administration, and among the professional staff in the intelligence agencies, who

More on CIA Tapes Coverup

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This article shows that it was pretty clear that the goal was to prevent future prosecutions. It appears that the CIA was less concerned about what would happen in congress or a future administration than being hung out to dry by Bush and His Evil Minions™.

One half of the definitive word, however, comes from former C.I.A. deputy director, John C. Gannon, “To a spectator it would look like torture and torture is wrong.”

The other half is that it was torture, and these men did the wrong thing.

Your TortureGate Update

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It all comes down to the tapes. It always does.

First, we have reports that the White House discussed whether or not to destroy the torture tapes. Harriet Miers, John Bellinger, Alberto “Abu” Gonzales and David Addington engaged in extensive discussions over a long period as to whether or not to destroy the tapes.

Furthermore, some White House officials were lobbying hard for these tapes destruction.

No big surprise, but there is a surprise, and a good one, the C.I.A. has agreed to share relevant documents with congressional investigators, which means that at least part of the Bush Admin coverup is now over.

Judge Tells DoJ Not To Tell Him What to Do, Holds CIA Tapes Hearing

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U.S. District Judge Henry H. Kennedy rejected calls from the Justice Department to stay out of the matter, and told lawyers to appear before him this Friday.

Kennedy as you recall was the judge who ordered the government to preserve, “all evidence and information regarding the torture, mistreatment, and abuse of detainees now at the United States Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay.”

The tapes were destroyed a couple of months later.

Even if the destruction technically complied with the letter of his order, they could still be on the hook for obstruction or spoliation, a legal term for the destruction of evidence in “pending or reasonably foreseeable litigation.”

Mr. Dodd Goes To Washington

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Dodd promised to filibuster teleco immunity, and he has kept his word.

Unfortunately, the Senate voted 76 to 10 to stop his filibuster.

As I predicted, Obama did not show up for the vote, and neither did Clinton or Biden.

Obama issued a statement to Firedog Lake:

“Senator Obama unequivocally opposes giving retroactive immunity to telecommunications companies and has cosponsored Senator Dodd’s efforts to remove that provision from the FISA bill. Granting such immunity undermines the constitutional protections Americans trust the Congress to protect. Senator Obama supports a filibuster of this bill, and strongly urges others to do the same. It’s not clear whether he can return for the vote, but under the Senate rules, the side trying to end a filibuster must produce 60 votes to cut off debate. Whether he is present for the vote for not, Senator Obama will not be among those voting to end the filibuster.”

I understand the basic mechanics of cloture, but I would like to see him a reason to bloody show up for work.

This applies to Biden and Clinton too.

Harry Reid Betrays the Constitution. Chris Dodd Calls in Markers to Try to Preserve It

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Harry Reid has announced that he will put forward the FISA bill from the intelligence committee, the one with few protections and teleco immunity.

I don’t know why he is choosing George W. Bush over the constitution of the United States, though I think it may have something to do with the fact that he’s gotten a lot of campaign donations from them.

He is also refusing to recognize Chris Dodd’s hold on the bill, which means that Dodd will have to actually filibuster.

I’m not sure why. After all he allowed Neanderthal Tom Coburn to block an investigation of the brutal racist murder of Emmett Till and other unsolved racial crimes.

In any case, Chris Dodd is reminding Senators Clinton and Obama of their promise to support his filibuster.

A Letter from Dodd Campaign:

Dear Tim, Today, that FISA fight we’ve all been waiting for begins — and it’s time to separate the leaders from the capitulators.

In a few hours, Majority Leader Harry Reid will ask for something called a “motion to proceed” on FISA, effectively disregarding Chris Dodd’s “hold” on the bill.

It’s unfortunate that he chose to go this route, to introduce a bill including retroactive immunity when another route could have been chosen just as easily.

So … that means Chris Dodd will start by introducing an amendment to strip retroactive immunity out of the bill.

But if that doesn’t work, he will do all he can to stop this bill that threatens our security, and that may include a “filibuster.”

Remember when this all started playing out? A lot of people rushed to send out strongly worded press releases about how committed they were to “supporting a filibuster.”

They’ll have a chance to show they are true to their word.

Call or email the Senators that pledged their opposition to this bill to support the Dodd Amendment and a filibuster if necessary. And ask them to be there with Dodd when it counts.

http://chrisdodd.com/filibuster

You don’t demonstrate leadership in the footnotes of a press release, or parroting responses from focus groups.

Leadership is demonstrated through action.
Tim Tagaris
Chris Dodd for President

Hillary I expect to stick to her word, Obama, I expect him to miss the vote.

Telco Immunity: Reid to Choose Which Surveillance Bill to Send to Senate Floor

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It makes a big difference if it’s the Senate intelligence committee or the Senate Judiciary Committee version.

The former has retroactive Telco immunity for the illegal wiretaps that the Telcos did for Bush and His Evil Minions™.

Senators are aggressively lobbying Senate Leader Harry Reid on this.

Chris Dodd has already made it clear that he will filibuster, and because Reid won’t extend the courtesy that he does to the obstructionist Rethuglicans, this will mean him talking, and talking, and talking, and talking on the floor of the Senate.

It would take Dodd off the campaign trail, but the spectacle would be the best thing that could possibly hit his candidacy.

The following letter was sent to him:

Dear Majority Leader Reid:

We understand that the Senate will shortly be considering amendments to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. As you know, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and the Senate Judiciary Committee have reported very different versions of the FISA Amendments Act, S. 2248, and it is up to you, as Majority Leader, to decide how the Senate considers this legislation.

We urge you to make the version of S. 2248 reported by the Senate Judiciary Committee the base bill to be considered by the full Senate. While the structure of Title I of both bills is the same, and both make improvements over the Protect America Act, the reasonable changes to Title I made in the Judiciary Committee ensure that the FISA Court will be able to conduct much-needed oversight of the implementation of these broad new surveillance authorities, and help to better protect the rights of innocent Americans. While we appreciate the hard work that the Intelligence Committee has done on this legislation, the process by which the Judiciary Committee considered, drafted, amended and reported out its bill was an open one, allowing outside experts and the public at large the opportunity to review and comment. With regard to legislation so directly connected to the constitutional rights of Americans, the results of this open process should be accorded great weight, especially in light of the Judiciary Committee’s unique role and expertise in protecting those rights.

We also believe that the Judiciary Committee bill is preferable because it does not provide immunity for telecom companies that allegedly cooperated with the administration’s warrantless wiretapping program. As this is such a controversial issue, we feel it would be appropriate to require the proponents of immunity to make their case on the floor.

Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

Russell D. Feingold (D-WI)

Christopher J. Dodd (D-CT)

Barack Obama (D-IL)

Bernard Sanders (I-VT)

Robert Menendez (D-NJ)

Joseph R. Biden, Jr. (D-DE)

Sherrod Brown (D-OH)

Tom Harkin (D-IA)

Benjamin L. Cardin (D-MD)

Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY)

Daniel K. Akaka (D-HI)

Jim Webb (D-VA)

Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA)

Barbara Boxer (D-CA)

For your convenience, I have highlighted the presidential candidates who have objected.

Here’s How it Works, We Take Iraqi Officers to the US For Training, and They DESERT

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Big surprise there, bombs are not going off daily, nor are death squads roaming the street. All we have is an occasional mall shooter.

So, we train them there, then take the most promising back to the US for more estensive training, and they go missing.

They desert, they seek asylum, or they seek asylum in Canada, as a brigadier general did earlier this year.

Things have to be going swimmingly there.

Mike Huckabee Calls for Investigation of Bush Over Plame Leak

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I think that Huckabee has been tacking a bit against Bush, he unfavorably compared Bush and Musharraf, but his latest statement, calling for an investigation of Bush on the Plame affair, is kind of stunning.

I think that Huckabee believes that he can win by tacking against Bush. There is a significant enough plurality of Republicans who are sick of Bush to put him over the top in a multi candidate field.

FISA Bill Update: House Passes, Senate Telco Immunity Up to Harry Reid

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The house passed their, not quite so nauseating version 227-189, which sounds like an almost party line vote.

As to the senate version, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted out a version without telco immunity, but did not formally strip it from the version from the Intel Committee, so Harry Reid gets to decide which one hits the floor.

Call Harry Reid’s office: (202) 224-3542.