Sunday, July 12, 2009
Wapo:Four months after he was sworn in, CIA Director Leon E. Panetta learned of an intelligence program that had been hidden from Congress since 2001, a revelation that prompted him to immediately cancel the initiative and schedule a pair of closed-door meetings on Capitol Hill.
The next day, June 24, Panetta informed the House and Senate intelligence committees of the program and the action he had taken, according to Democratic and Republican members of the panels.
Kudos to Panetta for acting with alacrity, but why did it take 4 months for him to be informed about this secret program?
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That's a great question. I also wonder why AG Holder has chosen now to relay his interest in appointing a special prosecutor. I'm a little nervous about speculating the following:
President Obama was very clear during the transition and right after the inauguration that he was all about moving forward and not looking back. Many believed this to be a gesture of goodwill to the GOP, tacitly in exchange for some amount of cooperation on pieces of the President's policy agenda.
Now that the GOP has proven unwilling to even entertain compromise on well, ANYTHING... there's no longer a compelling reason to delay moving forward toward the pursuit of justice.
Now that's not to say that the prosecution of bush-era crimes or the release of bush-era records is politically motivated... but perhaps early delays in that regard or lags in time in that regard were...
Just to be clear, that's meant to be kinda half-baked and even conspiratorial... but it's where my mind went as I read the news this weekend.
Perhaps its because the President is out of town?
Health Care, Climate Change, & economic landshaping debates coming up, and all of the sudden Holder's talking about Special Prosecutors for possible warm crimes investigations on previous Administrations? As well as lifer CIA agents.
Say what you like, but he's proven masterful at being a most decidedly shrewd & razor sharp adversary that uses every bit of that "post partisan" partisanship to his advantage.
Ratchet up the "Blame Bush" crowd again to hide the ball on the real concern.
Anyone seen this guy's poll numbers? Any connection with this crap getting "Drudged up"?
Spin away, folks...
Reading more stories implying that possible investigations by Holder would center only on abuses beyond the parameters of Yoo's torture memos and not on actually holding accountable people that actually authorized a policy of torture leads me to retract my above comment.
4 months is not all that long especially since Leon "crispy" Pancetta put in a whole new management team. Once they "discovered' the problem you are talking quite a bit of time to pull paperwork from old files, get reports and reports of reports run it past the people who decide if it is safe to go public with, run it past the legal department, and through the is it ok to do politically department. Then you have to brief the Prez who runs it past his people and then select members of the intelligence committees of congress so 4 months seems to be ok by me timewise.
On a side note they do this and the rank and file members those who do the dirty work will not take it well and I think that there will be huge stone walling of upper management mass "retirements" and that our intelligence gathering will be severely compromised all for the sake of a few poll points and to stick it in a few republicans eyes. No one is going to win on this. it is better in my opinion to retire forceably and remove all clearances so they cant be consultants for a few key guilty parties at the CIA/NSA during in house meetings/speeches call them out on the red carpet in house and tell people that illegal activities will not be tolerated. and let it go at that.
