Friday, February 06, 2009
Obama's CIA Pick Insults Agency, Then Has To Retract..Not Good
It is definitely amateur hour at the White House.
It's not enough that Obama's pick to head the CIA is essentially a Democrat apparatchnik with absolutely no experience in intelligence. Leon Panetta just proved he's not the sharpest tool in the shed as well.
Yesterday, Panetta shot his mouth off in an AP interview, saying that the CIA under the Bush administration transferred prisoners for the purpose of torture and that a witch hunt special investigation and possible prosecution was planned.
Today in his senate confirmation hearings, Panetta retracted those statements, essentially admitted he had no clue about what he was talking about and said that no government action against any CIA interrogators was planned by the Obama Administration:The United States will continue to hand foreign detainees over to other countries for questioning, but only with assurances they will not be tortured, Leon Panetta told a Senate committee considering his confirmation as CIA director.
.
That has long been U.S. policy, but some former prisoners subjected to the process — known as extraordinary rendition_ during the Bush administration's anti-terror war say they were tortured.
"I will seek the same kind of assurances that they will not be treated inhumanely," Panetta said Friday in his second day before the Senate Intelligence Committee. "I intend to use the State Department to be sure those assurances are implemented and stood by, by those countries."
Panetta formally retracted a statement he made Thursday that the Bush administration transferred prisoners for the purpose of torture.
"I am not aware of the validity of those claims," he said.
Sen. Kit Bond, R-Mo., chastised Panetta for careless words. "You cannot be making statements or making judgments based on rumors and news stories," he said
Let's recap for a minute. We have a prospective CIA director who apparently either has no problem tossing off politically motivated statements he isn't sure of or is more than willing to make those statements and shade what he knows to be the truth to make partisan political points.Either way, it's not what I'd call encouraging in someone that's supposed to head our intelligence.
Wasn't it the Democrats who made such a huge deal of 'cooked intelligence statements' during the Bush Administration?
Not only that, but Panetta,a man with little to no intelligence experience has just angered the people he's supposed to lead at the CIA before he's even started.
In addition, it turns out that Panetta has a number of troubling conflicts of interest...but then again, that should make him a natural to fit in with the Obama Administration should he be confirmed.
This reminds me a great deal of how Jimmy Carter appointed Admiral Stansfield Turner, a total outsider to run the CIA. Turner promptly gutted a majority of our field intel agents, crippling US security and engendering a poisonous climate in the agency that did not exactly enhance its efficiency and effectiveness, to say the least. And Turner at least was career military with some idea of how intel works and without Panetta's ethics baggage.
Like I said, amateur hour...
Rogue Nuclear Scientist AQ Kahn Freed
Pakistan freed rogue nuclear scientist AQ Kahn from his ongoing house arrest today.
Kahn is an extremely dangerous man. He's been dubbed 'The Father of the Islamic bomb', and after he developed nuclear weapons for Pakistan, he essentially set up a supermarket that sold to customers like North Korea, Iran and Libya, a gross violation of the IAEA's nuclear non-proliferation treaty Pakistan signed.
Of course in Pakistan, Kahn is a national hero.
Pakistan's former president Pervez Musharraf put Kahn under house arrest,but never allowed him to come to trial or to be interrogated as to who he sold what to..which leads me to believe that Kahn was not exactly operating on his own and the Pakistani government had full knowledge of what he was up to and likely shared in the swag.
However, as a concession to the Bush Administration, Musharraf at least kept Kahn under house arrest so he couldn't do any overt mischief.
Musharraf is gone, and so is the Bush Administration, and it's Obama time now.I don't think it's any coincidence that Kahn has been freed mere weeks into Obama's term.
', 'Sink Obama's 'Spendulus' Bill!!
Democrat Senate majority leader Harry Reid reportedly wants a Friday vote in the Senate on Obama's 'Spendulus' bill. They're trying to shove it through because people are taking a good look at it with every day that passes and realizing how awful it is.
Even the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office is on record as saying that not only will shoveling trillion tax payer dollars to grow governmentnot help the economy, but will actually do more harm than if Obama did nothing.
This isn't about 'stimulating the economy.' It's about HUGe government and socialism, about changing the basic fiscal direction of this country for a generation or two.
YOU KNOW WHAT TO DO......GET ON THE PHONES AND CALL!!!
Here are the phone numbers -- including for senators' local offices, which you can call if you can't get through on their DC lines.
Do it now!
', 'Thursday, February 05, 2009
President Hope N'Change Now Wants To Delay Afghanistan Troop Buildup
That was quick:ABC News has learned that Defense Secretary Robert Gates has decided to delay a decision to send additional troops into Afghanistan until after the Obama administration concludes its ongoing review of the strategy for Afghanistan.
The surprising decision comes after the much anticipated proposal to send three additional combat brigades to Afghanistan -- or 17,000 troops as reported by ABC News last week -- was presented to Secretary Gates for his approval this afternoon. The Pentagon troop proposal anticipated a large Marine brigade to be followed by two Army Brigade Combat Teams, including a Stryker Brigade. The top US general in Afghanistan , Gen. David McKiernan favors using the armored vehicles as a way of extending his troops' presence to remote regions of Afghanistan.
Gates told Congress last week that he anticipated that should a decision to send additional brigades be made, "we could have two of those brigades there probably by late spring, and potentially a third by mid-summer."
It's unclear how long the decision will be delayed given that the reviews are expected to go on for at least another few weeks and possibly a few months.
Now, forgive me if I misheard,but it seems to me that a certain presidential candidate made a huge deal of attacking President Bush for 'taking his eye off the ball' and not devoting proper attention to what this candidate called 'the real war, in Afghanistan.'
Dare I mention his name?
Actually as little as ' 5 days ago, President Obama was saying he wanted to add troops to turn back the Taliban, but hey..things change.
The real story likely has to do with some of our European NATO allies telling the One that hell will freeze over before they commit any combat troops....and with what I see as the Administration's real desires, which isa major troop drawdown in both Iraq and Afghanistan so the defense budget can be cut substantially and the money spent on 'more important things' like the gimmees in Obama's so -called stimulus package.
That would also explain the stories of a major rift between Generals Petraeus and Ordiano and the Obama Administration ( a commendation for that one to Joshua's Army member Ymarsakar).
Is the delay will going to be used to come up with a plausible exit strategy? I wouldn't be at all surprised.
', 'Olmert Sends Cash To Hamas
Believe it or not....
I'll say one thing about this idiot, he's consistent:Just hours after a top Hamas official was caught by Egyptian authorities trying to smuggle millions of dollars and euros into the Gaza Strip, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert gave permission for the Palestinian Authority to transfer NIS 170 million from the West Bank to Gaza to pay government officials there.
The Prime Minister's Office said it agreed to transfer the funds in accordance with a request by PA Prime Minister Salaam Fayad. {...}
The report further stated that Olmert defended the transfer, saying that the funds were tax money which Israel had collected on behalf of the Palestinian Authority, and it was theirs to distribute.
Olmert agreed to Fayad's request following pressure from the United States, Israel Radio further stated.
Meanwhile, the Hamas delegation which was charged with trying to secure a ceasefire with Israel was stopped when it tried to leave Egypt with $9 million and 2 million euros in their suitcases, an Egyptian security official said.
The Egyptians confiscated the cash, which is suspected to have come from Iran.
Now an actual leader would have told Fayad and his American backers that he was holding this money against claims by Israelis in the south of the country who've lost homes or had loved ones killed or injured by Hamas attacks....but then, Israel has Bozo the clown as a prime minister, and Fayed and the Obama Administration knew whom they were dealing with. They were able to get him to sell out Israel for hopefully the last time.
There's a rumor going around that some elements in Israel proposed a straight across swap to Hamas of Olmert for Israeli hostage Gilad Shalit, but the greenhats replied "Shalit's one thing, but how much are you gonna pay us to take Olmert?"
I may have made that last part up....Wednesday, February 04, 2009
JoshuaPundit's Headlines, 2/05/09
All the links you need and nothing you don't... make sure to check back for updates.
'500 MILLION AMERICANS LOSE JOBS EVERY MONTH'... Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House, dumb as a rock.
Obama Pushes Congress to Complete Stimulus Package quickly, ignore debate over details... I'll just bet he does.
What Is Congress Stimulating? - Daniel Henninger, Wall Street Journal
President Obama whineswrites in the Washington Post - Summary: "It ain't my fault!! It wuz Bush! We gotta do this quick without looking at it too closely, or the sky will fall, and anybody who says different is just a partisan, un-American GOP thug!" That's pretty much it, although you can certainly waste time reading the long version....if you're a masochist.
Rasmussen Reports: Support for Stimulus Package Falls to 37% — Proof the American people haven't entirely lost their sanity!
The Cable: General Zinni gets undiplomatic treatment from Obama team— How the Obama White House does business...
Media Research Center: Bozell to ABC President: You Must Publicly Address Stephanopoulos' Apparent Conflict of Interest — It appears that ABC's George Stephanopoulos was participating in daily phone strategy sessions with now White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel throughout his tenure at ABC. This,of course is a major breach of journalistic ethics, and Brent Bozell has written to ABC president David Westin to find out whatg ABC intends to do about it.
Victor Davis Hanson / The Corner:The Impending Obama Meltdown
Obama Declares Major Disaster in Kentucky Over Ice Storm - Only took him what..2 weeks to get his act together while 60 people froze to death? Hope n'change!
Moscow Moves to Counter US Power in Central Asia
NEWS.com.au: ‘Jihad Mom’ had 80 women raped for suicide missions — The deal was, Samina Jassam of Iraq has confessed to the Iraqi police that she would target the victims and organize the rapes,pretend to offer sympathetic counseling and then talk the victims into being homicide bombers, since ' martyrdom 'was the only way to escape the shame...or keep their famiies from honor killing them.
Iran says USA must accept nuclear program...
Russia to start Iran nuclear plant by year end...
New Gaza study: Extreme NGO anti-Israel bias
Analysis: The political logic of Erdogan's attacks on Israel
India says Pakistan's intelligence agency behind Mumbai terrorist attack ...
Saturday, 7 February 2009
Posts
