Sam Smith – While
driving yesterday I happened to turn on a CSPAN program that discouraged me
more about my country and its future than anything in recent times.
It was a conference
at the conservative American Enterprise Institute featuring three former CIA
officials commenting on the movie “Zero Dark Thirty" a film that depicts
the capture of Osama bin Laden as well as the torture that preceded
it.
The ex CIA
officials spoke in a bland, technocratic manner that eerily brought to mind
another conference whose minutes the Review published some years back. As a
preface to these minutes I wrote:
John Ralston Saul gives a devastating example of the limits of
technocracy: "The Holocaust was the result of a perfectly rational argument
- given what reason had become - that was self-justifying and hermetically
sealed. There is, therefore, nothing surprising about the fact that the meeting
called to decide on 'the final solution' was a gathering mainly of senior
ministerial representatives. Technocrats. Nor is it surprising that [the]
Wannsee Conference lasted only an hour -- one meeting among many for those
present -- and turned entirely on the modalities for administering the
solutions . . . The massacre was indeed 'managed,' even 'well managed.' It had
the clean efficiency of a Harvard case study."
Marshall Rosenberg, who teaches non-violent communication, was struck in
reading psychological interviews with Nazi war criminals not by their
abnormality, but that they used a language denying choice: "should,"
"one must," "have to." For example, Adolph Eichmann was
asked, "Was it difficult for you to send these tens of thousands of people
their death?" Eichmann replied, "To tell you the truth, it was easy.
Our language made it easy." Asked to explain, Eichmann said, "My
fellow officers and I coined our own name for our language. We called it
amtssprache -- 'office talk.'" In office talk "you deny
responsibility for your actions. So if anybody says, 'Why did you do it?' you
say, 'I had to.' 'Why did you have to?' 'Superiors' orders. Company policy.
It's the law.'"
The three former
CIA officials likewise spoke of their illegal, inhuman and disgusting behavior as
though it was just another Harvard case study. Reported the WashingtonExaminer:
The three, including a former CIA director and his top spy, said that
without so-called "enhanced interrogation," which President Obama
killed in his third day in office, the nation's security is at risk.
"I fear for the safety of our national security because of
that," said Jose Rodriguez, a 31-year CIA veteran who headed the National
Clandestine Service from 2004-2008.
At an American Enterprise Institute forum to discuss the movie about the
hunt for Osama bin Laden, former CIA Director Michael Hayden added that the
administration has made capturing terrorists for interrogation such a
"third rail" that it's better for soldiers and CIA operatives to kill
their targets rather than face a "legally difficult and politically
dangerous" climate.
"It's a ridiculous assertion when a report says that enhanced
interrogation program had no value or produced nothing. Frankly it's
disturbing. Because in my view it is an attempt to rewrite history. The
narrative of this administration is that the enhanced interrogation program was
torture and nothing came out of it, but in fact we were able to destroy al
Qaeda because of it," said Rodriguez, who added that the committee never
interviewed any of the three ex-CIA officials about their program.
Yet, even if you
ignore the overwhelming immorality of their approach, not even their justifications
hold water. The agents had only killed a symbol but not a movement. Two of the most establishment institutions
you can find said as much last year:
Rand Corporation -
Even
as they debate the appropriate U.S. military role in Afghanistan and Pakistan,
the presidential candidates need to address the fact that al Qaeda has expanded
its global presence. Since its establishment in 1988, al Qaeda’s strength has
risen and fallen in a series of waves. Despite the death of Osama bin Laden,
the Arab Spring has ushered in a fourth wave as al Qaeda has tried to push into
North Africa and the Middle East.
One significant trend is the expansion of al Qaeda’s global network. The
leaders of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, al Shabaab in Somalia, al Qaeda
in Iraq, and al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (in North Africa) have sworn bayat,
or loyalty, to al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri and provided him with funding,
global influence, and a cadre of trained fighters. None of these affiliate
organizations existed a decade ago. But, over the past several years, attacks
by these affiliates have increased.
In Yemen, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has established control over
some areas in the south as the central government faces a leadership crisis and
multiple insurgencies. From this sanctuary, al Qaeda plots attacks against the
U.S. homeland. In Somalia, militants of the al Qaeda affiliate al Shabaab are
trying to expand their foothold. With a growing number of American citizens
from cities such as Minneapolis and Phoenix traveling to — and from — Somalia
to fight alongside al Shabaab, there is a possibility that radicalized
operatives could perpetrate an attack in the United States.
Al Qaeda has also established relationships with a growing number of allied
groups, such as the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, Pakistan’s Lashkar-e-Taiba, and
Nigeria’s Boko Haram. While these are not formal affiliates of al Qaeda, a
loose arrangement allows them to cooperate with al Qaeda for specific
operations or training when their interests converge. Several of these groups
have been actively recruiting in the United States.
Seth G Jones, Foreign Policy, April 2012 - Qaeda's bloody fingerprints
are increasingly evident in the Middle East. In Iraq, where the United States
has withdrawn its military forces, al Qaeda operatives staged a brazen wave of
bombings in January, killing at least 132 Shiite pilgrims and wounding hundreds
more. The following week in Yemen, fighters from al Qaeda in the Arabian
Peninsula seized the town of Radda, while expanding al Qaeda's control in
several southern provinces. "Al Qaeda has raised its flag over the
citadel," a resident told Reuters.
Beyond these anecdotes, several indicators suggest that al Qaeda is
growing stronger. First, the size of al Qaeda's global network has dramatically
expanded since the 9/11 attacks. Al Qaeda in Iraq, al Qaeda in the Arabian
Peninsula, al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, and Somalia's al-Shabab have formally
joined al Qaeda, and their leaders have all sworn bayat -- an oath of loyalty
-- to bin Laden's successor, Ayman al-Zawahiri.
These al Qaeda affiliates are increasingly capable of holding territory.
In Yemen, for example, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has exploited a
government leadership crisis and multiple insurgencies to cement control in
several provinces along the Gulf of Aden. Al Qaeda's affiliates in Somalia and
Iraq also appear to be maintaining a foothold where there are weak governments,
with al-Shabab in Kismayo and southern parts of Somalia, and al Qaeda in Iraq
in Baghdad, Diyala, and Salah ad Din provinces, among others.
The number of attacks by al Qaeda and its affiliates is also on the
rise, even since bin Laden's death. Al Qaeda in Iraq, for instance, has
conducted more than 200 attacks and killed more than a thousand Iraqis since
the bin Laden raid, a jump from the previous year. And despite the group's
violent legacy, popular support for al Qaeda remains fairly high in countries such
as Nigeria and Egypt, though it has steadily declined in others. If this is
what the brink of defeat looks like, I'd hate to see success.
One thing that is
not clear about all this is the extent to which the movie was directly
influenced by the agency. In August 2011, Maureen Dowd of the NY Times
suggested the effort was not minor:
While Obama takes the high road, his aides have made sure there are proxies to exuberantly brag on him.
The White House clearly blessed the dramatic reconstruction of the mission by Nicholas Schmidle in The New Yorker — so vividly descriptive of the Seals’ looks, quotes and thoughts that Schmidle had to clarify after the piece was published that he had not actually talked to any of them.
“I’ll just say that the 23 Seals on the mission that evening were not the only ones who were listening to their radio communications,” Schmidle said, answering readers’ questions in a live chat, after taking flak for leaving some with the impression that he had interviewed the heroes when he wrote in his account that it was based on “some of their recollections.”
The White House is also counting on the Kathryn Bigelow and Mark Boal big-screen version of the killing of Bin Laden to counter Obama’s growing reputation as ineffectual. The Sony film … will no doubt reflect the president’s cool, gutsy decision against shaky odds. Just as Obamaland was hoping, the movie is scheduled to open on Oct. 12, 2012 — perfectly timed to give a home-stretch boost to a campaign that has grown tougher.
The moviemakers are getting top-level access to the most classified mission in history from an administration that has tried to throw more people in jail for leaking classified information than the Bush administration.
It was clear that the White House had outsourced the job of manning up the president’s image to Hollywood when Boal got welcomed to the upper echelons of the White House and the Pentagon and showed up recently — to the surprise of some military officers — at a C.I.A. ceremony celebrating the hero Seals.
And that same month, Politico reported:
Dylan Byers, Politico - Newly available CIA records obtained by Judicial
Watch, the conservative watchdog group, reveal that New York Times reporter
Mark Mazzetti forwarded an advance copy of a Maureen Dowd column to a CIA
spokesperson — a practice that is widely frowned upon within the industry.
Mazzetti's correspondence with CIA spokeswoman Marie Harf, on Aug. 5,
2011, pertained to the Kathryn Bigelow-Mark Boal film "Zero Dark
Thirty," about the killing of Osama bin Laden, and a Times op-ed column by
Dowd set to be published two days later that criticized the White House for
having "outsourced the job of manning up the president’s image to
Hollywood."
According to Judicial Watch, Mazzetti sent Harf an advance copy of
Dowd's column, and wrote: “this didn’t come from me… and please delete after
you read. See, nothing to worry about!”
More recently – as CIA criminals are getting over an hour on CSPAN and an CIA manipulated movie gets broad critical praise, an agency official who told the truth is off to prison.
Charleston Gazette, WV - A former CIA officer was sentenced Friday to 30
months in federal prison for disclosing classified information to journalists
in a case that underscored the Obama administration's harsh crackdown on
national security leaks.
John Kiriakou, a 14-year CIA veteran, pleaded guilty in October to
identifying an undercover operative who was involved in the use of severe
interrogation techniques, including waterboarding, on terrorism suspects during
the George W. Bush administration.
While the Justice Department has said it won't prosecute CIA officials
who approved or conducted those interrogations, Kiriakou becomes the sixth
current or former government official charged with revealing classified
information since 2009.
Kiriakou's lawyers and civil rights advocates portrayed the 48-year-old
former counterterrorism officer as a whistle blower who helped expose CIA
torture of detainees then held in secret prisons. The CIA and its defenders
denied using torture, which is illegal, referring instead to enhanced
interrogation techniques.
U.S. District Court Judge Leonie M. Brinkema said Kiriakou had damaged
the agency. She called the 2 1/2-year sentence, the result of a plea
arrangement with prosecutors, "way too light."
Kiriakou helped lead the CIA team that captured Abu Zubaydah, believed
to a senior al-Qaida facilitator, in Pakistan in 2002. Five years later, after
he had left the agency, Kiriakou said in media interviews that Abu Zubaydah and
other detainees were waterboarded while in CIA custody, offering among the
first insider accounts of the agency's use of simulated drowning.
Abu Zubaydah, who was waterboarded 83 times, divulged valuable
intelligence on key al-Qaida figures, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed,
mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. But he was also subjected to
conventional questioning, making it difficult to determine if the harsher
techniques were effective.
Kiriakou initially defended the use of waterboarding and said it
persuaded Abu Zubaydah to reveal important details. But his views
"evolved," he said, and eventually he decided the technique
constituted torture.
So Kiriakou is off
to prison, while three federal torturers go free, a federal judge covers for
them, and major media help to glorify it all.
Normal
0
false
false
false
EN-US
X-NONE
X-NONE
_______________________________________________________