CHANGE? Ex-CIA Officials Tied to Rendition Program to Head Obama's Intelligence Team
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John Brennan and Jami Miscik, both former intelligence officials under George Tenet, are leading Barack Obama’s review of intelligence agencies and helping make recommendations to the new administration. Brennan has supported warrantless wiretapping and extraordinary rendition, and Miscik was involved with the politicized intelligence alleging weapons of mass destruction in the lead-up to the war on Iraq. We speak with former CIA analyst Melvin Goodman and Michael Ratner of the Center for Constitutional Rights.
Ex-CIA Officials Tied to Rendition Program and Faulty Iraq Intel Tapped to Head Obama’s Intelligence Transition Team
AMY GOODMAN: OK, good. Now we hear you fine. So just start from the top. Talk about Brennan.
MELVIN GOODMAN: OK. John Brennan was deputy executive secretary to George Tenet during the worst violations during the CIA period in the run-up to the Iraq war, so he sat there at Tenet’s knee when they passed judgment on torture and abuse, on extraordinary renditions, on black sites, on secret prisons. He was part of all of that decision making.
Jami Miscik was the Deputy Director for Intelligence during the run-up to the Iraq war. So she went along with the phony intelligence estimate of October 2002, the phony white paper that was prepared by Paul Pillar in October 2002. She helped with the drafting of the speech that Colin Powell gave to the United Nations—[inaudible] 2003, which made the phony case for war to the international community.
So, when George Tenet said, "slam dunk, we can provide all the intelligence you need,” [inaudible] to the President in December of 2002, it was people like Jami Miscik and John Brennan who were part of the team who provided that phony intelligence. So what I think people at the CIA are worried about—and I’ve talked to many of them over the weekend—is that there will never be any accountability for these violations and some of the unconscionable acts committed at the CIA, which essentially amount to war crimes, when you’re talking about torture and abuse and secret prisons. So, where are we, in terms of change? This sounds like more continuity.
AMY GOODMAN: Michael Ratner, as you listen to John Brennan, again, heading up the transition team on intelligence, your thoughts?
MICHAEL RATNER: Well, it’s extremely, extremely disturbing. When you read Jane Mayer’s book, the worst and most onerous chapter is the chapter on what the CIA did to people in secret sites, from small coffins to waterboarding. John Brennan was there at the time. To hear him say that this stuff works is really—or that it’s very important to do is really remarkable. He’s saying that at the same time when we know about the Center’s client, Maher Arar, being sent to Syria, tortured, so-called diplomatic assurances somehow able to protect him. Another Guantanamo people—other Guantanamo people sent to Egypt with the worst kind of torture. So, the idea that Brennan, who should probably, along with Tenet, be facing some kind of war crimes trial, is actually heading the transition on this is extremely disturbing.
AMY GOODMAN: And Jamie Miscik, Mel Goodman, talk about her significance.
MELVIN GOODMAN: Jami Miscik was the Deputy Director—she was the Deputy Director of Intelligence during the run-up to the war and in the immediate postwar period. That was a period of politicized intelligence. That was a period of the corruption of the process. That was a period when all analytic trade craft, all of the rules of analytic trade craft were ignored. She passed judgment on the October 2002 estimate. She passed on the white paper, which was the phony paper that violated the CIA charter, because it took classified material and then declassified it and sent to the Congress only days before the vote on the authorization to use force in Iraq in October 2002.
She was part of the slam-dunk team that George Tenet was so proud of that prepared a phony—not only that phony estimate, but the speech that Colin Powell gave, that outrageous speech with twenty-eight allegations, all of them false, prepared in February of 2003, which was the case to the international community. Hundreds of millions of people heard that phony speech, and it’s still an embarrassment to Colin Powell to this very day. She was part of the team that allowed George Bush to go before this country in January of 2003 in a State of the Union address and use a fabricated intelligence report to say that Iraq was getting enriched uranium from a West African country. Jami Miscik was a part of all of this.
And a lot of us were very pleased when Porter Goss actually fired Jami Miscik. My guess is he probably fired her for the wrong reasons and not the right reasons, but we were glad to see her go.
And now, for Obama to turn around, put Jami Miscik back in the CIA in transition and Brennan in the transition process, and then you look at people such as the former deputy to Tenet, John McLaughlin, who is also an intelligence adviser, and Rob Richer, who was a key operations adviser, who was the deputy to Jose Rodriguez, who is now being investigated by the Justice Department for the illegal destruction of the torture tapes, you know, you have to wonder, who is Obama relying on for advice on the Washington community? He’s only been in Washington, we know, for two years, and obviously there are things he needs to know about national security, the CIA and the intelligence community. And obviously, he’s listening to the wrong people.
It's getting interesting the people Obama is surrounding himself with during this transition period. It appears with the likes of these people for his Intelligence team seems like more of the same.
Let's hope he'll truly be The Commander in Chief and TELL these people what he wants to be done. America should NOT be in the business of torturing.
Peace
*We CAN bomb the World to pieces, but we CAN'T bomb it into PEACE*...Michael Franti
*MUSIC IS the expression of EMOTION.....and that POLITICS IS merely the DECOY of PERCEPTION*
.....song_Music & Politics....Michael Franti
*The scientists of today think deeply instead of clearly. One must be sane to think clearly, but one can think deeply and be quite INSANE*....Nikola Tesla(a man who shaped our world of electricity with his futuristic inventions)
*MUSIC IS the expression of EMOTION.....and that POLITICS IS merely the DECOY of PERCEPTION*
.....song_Music & Politics....Michael Franti
*The scientists of today think deeply instead of clearly. One must be sane to think clearly, but one can think deeply and be quite INSANE*....Nikola Tesla(a man who shaped our world of electricity with his futuristic inventions)
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Comments
The voters made no demands on him, gave him a free pass all along. That's how it is I guess.
But i'm sure Obama is going to give a great Inaugural Addresses that will make everything better. He will talk about 'change' and everyone will chant 'change' and cupcakes will grow from trees.
I can't wait!
Wait, cupcakes?? Are we talking like.....good tasty ones? Or crappy tasting ones?
Shit with sprinkles comes to mind.
and reveling in it's loyalty. It's made by forming coalitions
over specific principles, goals, and policies.
http://i36.tinypic.com/66j31x.jpg
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Dang that was quick. And how is it I knew it would be crappy cupcakes that got the nod?
The recipe is already starting to look eerily familiar.
and reveling in it's loyalty. It's made by forming coalitions
over specific principles, goals, and policies.
http://i36.tinypic.com/66j31x.jpg
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( o.O)
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interesting. it all makes sense now.
Tasty ones of course,
I don't follow, but what are your thoughts on the article/interview?
lmfao
dude this like so totally sounds like sour grapes (which the definition now means pointing out stuff that is so fucking obviously against the plastic signs they've been waving about)
he had a voice that was strong and loud and
i swallowed his facade cos i'm so
eager to identify with
someone above the crowd
someone who seemed to feel the same
someone prepared to lead the way
sorry but being part of a program that kidnaps and tortures ppl who are sometimes innocent AND part of the faulty coughblatant liescough iraq intel should disqualify you from the position in an administration of.....fuck, what was the word? you know, the one that's been made a cliched buzzword....oh, yeah, change
what's the change? a -D instead of -R? color? well spoken instead of a buffon?
sorry but that's not enough to constitute as what's been spouted for the past 2 years
he had a voice that was strong and loud and
i swallowed his facade cos i'm so
eager to identify with
someone above the crowd
someone who seemed to feel the same
someone prepared to lead the way
like brittany spears?
he had a voice that was strong and loud and
i swallowed his facade cos i'm so
eager to identify with
someone above the crowd
someone who seemed to feel the same
someone prepared to lead the way
leave Brittany alone, if you want to get to her you have to go through me...
and reveling in it's loyalty. It's made by forming coalitions
over specific principles, goals, and policies.
http://i36.tinypic.com/66j31x.jpg
(\__/)
( o.O)
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Who is this drivel directed at?
and reveling in it's loyalty. It's made by forming coalitions
over specific principles, goals, and policies.
http://i36.tinypic.com/66j31x.jpg
(\__/)
( o.O)
(")_(")
The problem with this is, far too many people have been giving far too many of our leads the "benefit of the doubt" over the years. Things should be questioned before they have already happened because anytime you deal with government, it is far harder to remove something once it has been entrenched than it is to stop it from rooting itself in in the first place.
If a politician thinks no one is paying attention to something they are doing, they will definitely try and squeak whatever it is they are doing by.
Britney.
I feel much better now...
The world is in order, Brittany has had her name properly represented.
Go brittany
and reveling in it's loyalty. It's made by forming coalitions
over specific principles, goals, and policies.
http://i36.tinypic.com/66j31x.jpg
(\__/)
( o.O)
(")_(")
you must've looked at your cds?
he had a voice that was strong and loud and
i swallowed his facade cos i'm so
eager to identify with
someone above the crowd
someone who seemed to feel the same
someone prepared to lead the way
The Associated Press reports Barack Obama’s incoming administration is unlikely to bring criminal charges against government officials who authorized or engaged in torture during the Bush presidency. Two Obama advisers said there’s little—if any—chance that the incoming president’s Justice Department will go after anyone involved in authorizing or carrying out interrogations. President Bush may also decide to protect his top aides and interrogators by issuing a preemptive pardon before his term ends.
Peace
*MUSIC IS the expression of EMOTION.....and that POLITICS IS merely the DECOY of PERCEPTION*
.....song_Music & Politics....Michael Franti
*The scientists of today think deeply instead of clearly. One must be sane to think clearly, but one can think deeply and be quite INSANE*....Nikola Tesla(a man who shaped our world of electricity with his futuristic inventions)
pre-emptive pardons?
Isn't that ... well ... admitting guilt?
Has this been done before?
"I don't believe in damn curses. Wake up the damn Bambino and have me face him. Maybe I'll drill him in the ass." --- Pedro Martinez
The human rights folks that voted for Obama are already grumbling about how bad their comedown syndrome is going to be if he does not move to press charges for war crimes.
The citizens of Iraq got raped pretty bad on this fake Iraq war deal. Kicking in doors in the middle of the night day after day year after year harassing people, shooting people, scaring the living hell out of everyone, bombs and gunfire going off all the time, endless civilian deaths, brothers, sisters, sons daughters, mothers, fathers, murdered in the name of lies.
I wonder how well the Iraqi's sleep, and are coping with life (and the rest of their lives) now? Talk about mental trauma and anguish to the n'th degree.
If that were a western reality, the lawsuits and outrage would be a light year long, and never ending.
and reveling in it's loyalty. It's made by forming coalitions
over specific principles, goals, and policies.
http://i36.tinypic.com/66j31x.jpg
(\__/)
( o.O)
(")_(")
Didn't you vote Obama?
What would that have to do with anything?
and reveling in it's loyalty. It's made by forming coalitions
over specific principles, goals, and policies.
http://i36.tinypic.com/66j31x.jpg
(\__/)
( o.O)
(")_(")
What does that have to do with what I've posted? I may like the the man and wish ALL the best with a hell of a job ahead of him but I didn't vote for him since you asked.
Bush II has to go down as THE worst President ever and you know I don't think he gives a shit, him & his croonies have made their money.
Who did you vote for?
Peace
*MUSIC IS the expression of EMOTION.....and that POLITICS IS merely the DECOY of PERCEPTION*
.....song_Music & Politics....Michael Franti
*The scientists of today think deeply instead of clearly. One must be sane to think clearly, but one can think deeply and be quite INSANE*....Nikola Tesla(a man who shaped our world of electricity with his futuristic inventions)
Thanks El_Kabong
Peace everybody Michael Franti & Spearhead are playing in DC TONIGHT!
*MUSIC IS the expression of EMOTION.....and that POLITICS IS merely the DECOY of PERCEPTION*
.....song_Music & Politics....Michael Franti
*The scientists of today think deeply instead of clearly. One must be sane to think clearly, but one can think deeply and be quite INSANE*....Nikola Tesla(a man who shaped our world of electricity with his futuristic inventions)